IT contractors may be able to provide better network security in future, as researchers from America claim to have developed a more effective way of monitoring the performance of a firewall.

Firewalls have often proved to be error prone, as well as difficult and expensive to maintain, according to an article in the International Journal of Internet Protocol Technology.

It only takes one error in the set of rules that governs a firewall's operation and the network can be exposed to significant threats, claims Muhammad Abedin, who led the research team at the University of Texas at Dallas.

However, by analysing the activity log files of the firewall, the researchers determined what operations the firewall had been placing on incoming data.

"By comparing the extracted rules with the original rules, we can easily find if there is any anomaly in the original rules and if there is any defect in the implementation," said Mr Abedin.

Data security breaches are more prevalent than they were a few years ago, so there has to be a clearer focus from companies concerning data protection, Simon Heron, internet security analyst at Network Box announced earlier this month.