Firewall performance threatened by rising encryption traffic
Tech4Biz | 19 Jun 2013 : Increasing Internet traffic protected by Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), a cryptographic protocol, is threatening to have a dramatic impact on the performance of leading next-generation firewall devices (NGFW), a security research …
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GHD optimises website for mobile using data pinpointing which devices fail to …
According to web analyst at GHD, Peter Lancaster, in January last year the company's web traffic was 65 per cent from PC, 13 per cent from iPhone and six per cent from iPad. One year later web traffic from PC had dropped to 48 per cent, increased to 19 …
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How to Use Google Analytics to Tell Where Your Website Traffic Comes From
The Google Analytics Dashboard can be scary and confusing. I am going to break down how to use Google Analytics to tell where your traffic is coming from, and how to isolate one source from another to understand whether traffic from certain sources is …
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Popular Questions
Why is rising encryption traffic threatening firewall performance?
Encrypted connections require firewalls to inspect more complex traffic flows, especially when TLS inspection is enabled. This processing can increase CPU use, memory demand, and connection latency. Organizations should monitor firewall resource utilization during peak encrypted traffic periods to identify performance bottlenecks.
How does encrypted traffic affect firewall throughput?
Firewall throughput can decline when devices must decrypt, inspect, and re-encrypt large volumes of traffic. The impact is greater when security policies perform deep packet inspection or scan files and applications within encrypted sessions. Testing throughput with realistic encrypted workloads gives administrators a more accurate capacity estimate than relying on unencrypted traffic benchmarks.
Can TLS inspection reduce the performance impact of rising encryption traffic?
TLS inspection can improve visibility into encrypted threats, but it also adds processing overhead to the firewall. Administrators can reduce unnecessary load by applying inspection selectively to high-risk applications, destinations, or user groups. They should also confirm that certificates, exclusions, and inspection policies are managed consistently to avoid connection failures.
What can businesses do when firewall performance is threatened by rising encrypted traffic?
Begin by measuring encrypted-session volume, inspection rates, CPU utilization, memory usage, and user-facing latency. Firmware updates, hardware acceleration, optimized inspection rules, and additional firewall capacity may help relieve pressure. If traffic continues to grow, plan upgrades around projected encryption demand rather than current bandwidth alone.