Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

A firewall rule set to allow any source to any destination can stay live for months. It cancels out the rules beneath it and lets traffic pass unchecked. That kind of drift sets off no alarm. It builds up between quarterly reviews, while small teams govern 50 or more firewalls and hundreds of rule changes a week. Reach Network Security Assurance finds these controls, shows how long each has been open, ties the finding to real exposure, and guides the fix.

Firewalls are the single most common source of misconfiguration-related breaches, yet they get changed a hundred times a week and audited once a quarter. This is the network security gap AI attackers exploit first. Endpoint gets the budget. Identity gets the roadmap. The firewall gets changed constantly and reviewed rarely. It is also the control most tied to breaches: 42% of security teams pinned a firewall misconfiguration to a breach or near miss last year, ahead of EDR at 40% and identity at 39%.

Network security controls change constantly. As rules are altered, controls drift from baselines and risk gets buried in the rulebase. Stale firewall rules stay live, shadowed rules obscure exposure, and overly permissive any/any rules sneak in.

Which of your users can reach a sensitive app without ever hitting MFA? Most security teams can't answer that with confidence. Microsoft Entra ID and Conditional Access is powerful. But exclusions stack up, MFA coverage drifts, and risk-based protections go unused. This creates openings for fast-moving AI-powered attackers. Reach continuously validates your controls against your security intent, closes the gaps, and proves the risk reduction.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint ships with serious firepower. But most of it is sitting idle. ASR rules get stuck in audit mode. Devices never get fully onboarded. Exploit protection is switched off. Security baselines drifting across device groups. You're paying for protection that isn't turned on. Reach analyzes your Defender deployment, surfaces every gap, prioritizes the fixes by real risk reduced, and keeps your controls aligned as you scale.

A firewall's entire job is to control what gets in. In Reach's research, it was the most common source of a configuration-related near miss or exposure, ahead of EDR and identity controls. It does not take much. One rule broadened for a project, one exception that outlived its reason, one change that shipped without anyone checking it against intent. A single overly permissive rule, sitting live between quarterly reviews, is enough.

Observability is not the problem anymore. The data that tells you a change will break something usually already exists. Most teams have the events, the logs, the configuration history. What is missing is the step that turns all of it into a clear yes or no on a specific change, while there is still time to pull it. Garrett Hamilton, CEO of Reach Security, on objective data and the changes that get made before anyone checks.

72% of security budgets still go to detection and response, not prevention. That is the thread running through the latest episode of The Security Strategist, where EM360Tech's Shubhangi Dua talks with Garrett Hamilton, CEO of Reach Security, and Jay Wilson, CIO and CISO at Insurity. With the majority of budgets still pointed at detection and response, the conversation makes the case for swinging the pendulum back toward prevention, and why the tech can finally back it up.

"What's the problem, and how do I fix it?" Most security tools can't answer that. Reach can, for every misconfiguration in your Netskope deployment. It analyzes your web, SaaS, and data protection policies, flags what's drifted, and hands your team the exact fix ranked by risk and all powered by AI models. No guesswork, no 40-tab config audit.

The Cybersecurity Connection! Cocktails, tacos, and a pool table, beachfront in Huntington Beach. Reach Security, Cloudflare, and JetStream are hosting a happy hour at The Bungalow on Wednesday, June 24. Security and IT leaders, two hours, no agenda. Come unwind, meet the team, and lose a game of pool to someone you just met. Wednesday, June 24, 5 to 7 PM. The Study at The Bungalow.