We Offer Comprehensive Firewall Security Audit Solutions

What if a routine check could reveal hidden gaps that leave your network exposed?

We partner with organizations to deliver a focused, repeatable review that aligns controls with evolving network needs. Our process documents rule ownership, verifies change management, and validates hardware and firmware so teams know who is accountable and when changes occurred.

Our approach pairs proven tools such as Tufin, SolarWinds SEM, and AlgoSec with expert analysis to correlate rules and real traffic. We uncover stale policies, misconfigurations, and gaps from organic growth or mergers, then produce prioritized remediation and measurable management metrics.

We emphasize governance and clarity. Executives receive business-focused risk insights, while operations get runbooks and templates to sustain improvements. The result is less exposure to threats, clearer roles across IT and networking, and a scheduled cadence of audits and testing that proves progress over time.

• We document rule ownership and change history to improve governance.
• We use leading tools to map rules to real network traffic.
• We deliver prioritized remediation with risk and effort estimates.
• We translate findings into business-focused risk insights for leaders.
• We establish a repeatable cadence to demonstrate measurable progress.

A methodical review of policies, logs, and ownership uncovers drift between intended access and actual enforcement on devices.

What it is: A firewall security audit is a focused evaluation that confirms controls still align with current business priorities and the network topology after system additions, removals, or architectural shifts.

We define objectives, gather rule sets and logs, and verify change management ownership. This process shows whether firewall rules reflect intended policy and whether observed traffic supports those rules.

Alignment means mapping rules to business services and removing permissive exceptions that no longer match organization security needs. We also clarify who approves changes so responsibilities are clear.

Risk reduction: Removing misconfigurations and revealing risky traffic reduces exposure to operational and data risks.

Compliance and standards: We map configurations to regulations such as HIPAA, SOX, and PCI DSS and produce evidence trails for internal or external reviews.

Performance: Consolidating redundant rules and tuning logging lowers device overhead and speeds troubleshooting, producing a prioritized roadmap that balances business agility with protection.

We begin every engagement by mapping in-scope networks, appliances, and systems so the review focuses on what matters most to the business.

Defining scope: We list in-scope networks, systems, and the specific firewall devices to examine. We also note out-of-scope areas to keep work efficient and aligned with business priorities.

Objectives are time-bound and clear. Examples include reducing redundant rules by 25%, validating configuration against PCI requirements, and confirming ownership for critical services.

We assign roles and least-privilege credentials, document RBAC, and set dates for data collection, interviews, and validation testing. A communication matrix sets expectations for status updates and final deliverables.

1. Inventory devices, gather rule sets and logs, and confirm personnel availability.
2. Prioritize high-risk areas (inbound, DMZ crossings, lateral movement) and sample internal rules.
3. Map findings to change management process and document required approvals before remediation.

Documentation templates capture findings, evidence, configuration snapshots, and decisions to ensure repeatability and compliance for the organization.

Accurate analysis depends on complete, well-organized inputs.

We start by compiling every rule set, change ticket, and log archive to build a reliable evidence base. This includes prior reports, vendor records, and written policies so we can tie technical items to business intent.

We export full firewall rules and cross-reference change tickets and past findings. That historical context explains why specific rules exist and who approved them.

Centralizing firewall logs (for example using SolarWinds SEM) lets us correlate policy with observed traffic. This reveals unused entries, noisy rules, and anomalous sources quickly.

We inventory systems, vendors, OS versions, firmware, and recent patches. Documentation (policies and standards) and responsibility matrices are stored in a shared folder for rapid SME access.

• Validate exports include all VRFs/contexts and cover a representative time window.
• Normalize and tag rules to applications and owners so findings map to the network and business services.
• Use secure tools and minimal-impact processes to capture consistent snapshots for the audit.

We review operating system builds, patch history, and vendor advisories to ensure devices meet current baseline standards.

What we check: We inspect hardware for end-of-life models and hardcoded defaults. We verify firmware, patches, and software levels against vendor releases. We also consult vendor bulletins and CVE listings to flag urgent threats.

We identify unsupported systems and default accounts. Deviations are logged with a risk rating and remediation path.

We run targeted scans of management interfaces and services. Findings are prioritized by exploitability and business impact.

• Review physical and environmental controls (locked rooms, access lists).
• Verify management plane protections (MFA, RBAC) and admin logging.
• Recommend maintenance windows and back-out plans for critical updates.

For additional guidance on device-level considerations, see our summary of firewall considerations.

Changes to network controls must be deliberate, traceable, and reversible. We require a documented request that links each modification to business objectives and measurable outcomes.

Formal request and approval workflow: Every change follows a standard request, review, approval, implementation, and rollback sequence. Requests must state the business justification, risk analysis, impacted policies and services, and the proposed date and window.

Authorized approvers and alternates are listed in the management process so decisions do not stall. Sign-offs are recorded to support compliance and internal testing.

Implementation procedures include pre-checks, execution steps, validation tests, and back-out plans. Change records capture outcomes, remediation actions, and lessons learned for continuous improvement.

• Align policies to least privilege and segregation of duties to reduce conflicting changes.
• Maintain tickets with full documentation and dates for auditability and future reference.
• Establish CAB cadence and emergency change protocols to balance agility and protection.

Metrics and training: We track change failure rate and mean time to restore to guide controls. Runbooks and hands-on training ensure consistent execution across the organization and sites.

By correlating policy usage to traffic logs, we separate active controls from historical leftovers.

We remove clutter and tighten access to reduce risk and improve performance. Our work removes expired rules and objects, consolidates similar entries, and questions oversized IP groups that invite error.

We match rule hits to logs and mark zero-hit entries for stakeholder review. Expired VPN users and unused routes are removed to simplify the configuration.

We merge like entries and reorder rules so top-hit policies evaluate first. This reduces costly matches and speeds traffic processing across the network.

Allowlists and blocklists are checked against corporate policies. We eliminate DMZ-to-internal shortcuts and risky services, then propose staged changes with impact assessments and validation tests.

• Documented cleanup supports future audits and faster troubleshooting.
• We recommend automation tools to prevent rule sprawl and enforce naming hygiene.

We map technical controls to the rules that matter to your business and regulators.

We map configurations to HIPAA, PCI DSS, and SOX and document evidence for each control area. This shows gaps against industry standards and internal policies so teams can prioritize work and report compliance to leaders.

Our structured risk assessment covers systems, networks, and physical areas. We evaluate configuration, process, and environmental risks and rank them by likelihood and impact.

We confirm least-privilege access, remove stale credentials, and validate administrative rights. We also verify that logging (including firewall logs) meets incident response and compliance needs.

Change testing follows a defined audit process with pre-approved plans and success criteria. We use validation tools (for example, Picus Security and MITRE ATT&CK emulation) to verify controls and produce measurable results.

• Findings are tied to policies so leaders see business impact.
• Residual risks get acceptance or mitigation plans with review dates.
• Dashboards track compliance, control effectiveness, and incident trends for ongoing management.

Centralized tooling and clear playbooks turn routine checks into repeatable, measurable tasks.

Using auditing and policy tools to validate rules and configuration

We recommend platforms such as Tufin and AlgoSec to automate configuration analysis and produce compliance reports for standards like PCI, SOX, and HIPAA.

These tools also capture the approval trail for each change so documentation follows the change through planning and validation.

Security Event Manager solutions (for example, SolarWinds SEM) centralize logs and provide real-time alerts and evidence packages.

Automation reduces human error, accelerates checks for missing patches and configuration drift, and flags deviations from baselines.

• Configuration analytics highlight redundant or risky policies and help sequence remediation with minimal business impact.
• Integrated workflows connect change requests to validation results so approved changes are tested and recorded.
• Dashboards & scheduled reports give management continuous visibility into network control effectiveness and audit readiness.
• OPNsense users can run built-in checks (Connectivity, Health, Security, Upgrade) under System > Firmware > Status to validate repositories, firmware, packages, and exposure.

We pair tooling with playbooks and evidence management so software platforms are operated and updated consistently. This lowers operational risk and keeps data ready for internal or third-party reviews.

Consistent reviews, clear ownership, and automation create durable protection as environments change.

, We close engagements by testing applied changes, scheduling the next review date, and locking in a cadence that keeps rules and practice aligned with business needs. Use tool-assisted governance (Tufin, SolarWinds SEM, AlgoSec) and consider prevention-focused NGFW platforms such as Check Point Quantum Force to reduce manual effort and speed validation.

Clear documentation, authoritative ownership of firewall rules, and centralized firewall logs shorten response time and lower risk. We help leaders weigh cost, benefit, and compliance so teams can perform firewall reviews confidently and keep networks resilient.