The edge of our systems are both the most vulnerable and the most critical of our systems. It's frequently the case that security appliances themselves can be some of the least effectively secure. That might be because they're under the most attack, but it's also it's the fact that when compromised, these devices tend to disrupt the entire security model of our organisations.
For those interested the NCSC wrote last week on the underlying market incentives challenges that the Whitehouse release attempts to address in part:
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/blog-post/market-incentive-the-pursuit-for-resilient-software-hardware
We also highlighted the risk of perimeter network devices and the software quality within
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/blog-post/products-on-your-perimeter