The 2026 Firewall & Network Edge Health Check

A 10-Point Self-Assessment

Progress:

0 / 10

1 / 10

Firmware & Lifecycle
Is your firewall hardware under a current support contract with firmware updated in the last 30 days?
End-of-life hardware and unpatched firmware are the #1 exploited vector in SMB breaches.

  • Yes — Under contract & updated
  • No — Expired or unknown

2 / 10

Ruleset Hygiene
Have you conducted a "Rule Audit" in the last 6 months to close ports used by former vendors or old projects?
Stale rules from departed vendors or cancelled projects are silent open doors into your network.

  • Yes — Reviewed in last 6 months
  • No — Not recently reviewed

3 / 10

Geo-IP Filtering
Are you actively blocking incoming traffic from high-risk regions where you have no active business?
Up to 40% of attack traffic originates from regions most businesses have zero commercial ties to.

  • Yes — Geo-IP blocking enabled
  • No — No geo filtering in place

4 / 10

Encrypted (SSL) Inspection
Does your firewall inspect encrypted traffic (HTTPS), or is 80% of your data entering the network unmonitored?
Most modern malware uses encrypted channels. Without SSL inspection, your firewall is largely blind.

  • Yes — SSL inspection active
  • No — Encrypted traffic passes uninspected

5 / 10

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
Is MFA mandatory for every VPN and remote admin login?
Credential theft is the leading cause of breaches. MFA blocks over 99% of automated attacks.

  • Yes — MFA enforced everywhere
  • No — MFA missing or optional

6 / 10

Intrusion Prevention (IPS)
Is your IPS tuned to "Block" mode for known exploits, rather than just "Detect/Alert"?
Detection without blocking is a smoke alarm with no sprinklers. Your team gets an alert while the breach proceeds.

  • Yes — IPS set to Block mode
  • No — Detect/Alert only

7 / 10

Shadow IT Visibility
Can your system identify unauthorized IoT devices or personal routers connected to your corporate LAN?
A single unsecured personal router can create a rogue wireless access point that bypasses your entire security stack.

  • Yes — Full device visibility enabled
  • No — Unknown devices can connect

8 / 10

Compliance Logging
Are logs exported to a tamper-proof off-site location to meet audit and insurance requirements?
Insurers and regulators require immutable, off-site logs. On-device logs can be deleted by an attacker post-breach.

  • Yes — Off-site tamper-proof logging active
  • No — Logs stored locally or not at all

9 / 10

Automated Failover
Does your system switch to 5G/LTE or a secondary ISP within seconds of a primary line failure?
Downtime from a failed internet connection costs regulated industries far more than the cost of a secondary link.

  • Yes — Automatic failover configured
  • No — Single ISP / no failover

10 / 10

Security-to-Speed Ratio
Does your network slow down significantly when high-level security features are enabled?
An under-spec'd firewall forces a choice: security or performance. Enterprise-grade hardware eliminates that trade-off.

  • Yes — Performance degrades with full security
  • No — No noticeable performance impact

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