A traditional firewall was built for a slower kind of attack. Attackers are more patient and more creative than they were a few years ago, and some of the same tools that protect your customers, like encryption, now double as a place to hide. Your bank or credit union needs defenses that go further than what a standard firewall provides.

Malware and other cyber threats keep climbing, and financial institutions are 300 times more likely than other companies to be targeted, according to Boston Consulting Group research.

Advanced firewall features close the gaps a traditional firewall leaves open, including the ones hiding in plain sight inside encrypted traffic.

Here’s how they give your institution a real way to improve your odds against cyberthreats:

Antimalware Scanning

Malware exists to do one thing: damage a computer, server, client, or network. Antimalware software keeps it at bay by scanning your network thoroughly and detecting and removing ransomware, spyware, and other malicious software before it can do harm. Taking this step proactively keeps your network from being damaged, disrupted, or compromised, and it protects your institution’s ability to deliver its services safely and reliably.

Dynamic Threat Feeds

Threat intelligence feeds keep you updated on potential sources of attack as they emerge. Industry-specific feeds focus that information on the latest security threats hitting the banking industry specifically. Dynamic threat feeds make it easier for you to let good network traffic in and keep bad traffic out, without disrupting the critical processes that need to keep running.

What these feeds do is take the information tied to establishing a connection and look for patterns in it, acting on whatever looks like a current or potential threat. GEO-IP threat feeds are one useful type: they map an IP address to the physical location of the device connecting to your network, then analyze that location data to flag threats coming from high-risk regions. All of it happens in a few milliseconds or less.

IBM X-Force Exchange is another option worth knowing: a cloud-based threat intelligence platform that lets you consume, share, and act on threat intelligence from a wide range of sources. It gives you a fast way to research the latest security threats, gather actionable intelligence, consult with experts, and collaborate with peers, and it integrates with other tools to make configuring feeds easier, which matters most if you’re running a smaller institution with fewer resources to spare. Dynamic threat feeds, taken together, give you real peace of mind about your firewall and security posture.

TLS/SSL Inspection

Advanced firewalls go beyond what a traditional firewall can do, including the ability to inspect TLS/SSL encrypted traffic. TLS/SSL technology protects online traffic by creating an encrypted link between a web server and browser, keeping transmitted data private. That encryption is exactly why inspection matters: it lets your firewall examine encrypted web traffic and close the gaps that a traditional firewall can’t see into, gaps cybercriminals try to exploit by hiding malware inside encrypted traffic to slip past inspection entirely.

TLS/SSL inspection works by decrypting traffic, checking the decrypted payload for threats, then re-encrypting it before it enters or leaves your network. That level of content inspection protects you from internal and external risks alike, which makes it one of the more effective tools available against malware and other security threats hiding in encrypted traffic.

Sandboxing

Sandboxing rounds out your network security efforts. Traditional firewalls evaluate traffic based on static factors, where it came from, where it’s headed, which port it’s using, and those factors alone aren’t enough for modern threats anymore. Sandboxing physically or virtually segments a system, network, or entire environment, creating a secure space to test and neutralize potential hazards. Having a safe place to “detonate” a payload for analysis means less risk and damage to your production environment, and a stronger security posture overall.

None of these technologies work in isolation. Antimalware scanning, dynamic threat feeds, TLS/SSL inspection, and sandboxing each close a different gap a traditional firewall leaves open, including the one hiding inside the encrypted traffic you already trust. Layered together, they give your bank or credit union a defense built for the kind of attacker you’re facing today, not the one a standard firewall was designed for.