WHAT IS A FIREWALL?
Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2025 9:15 am
Firewall is a resource created in the 1980s to restrict access between internet networks. At that time, the internet was used only by military and academic institutions. But today it has invaded homes and businesses.
So what is a firewall nowadays? What is its importance and usefulness? Check it out below!
Connecting IT systems or their connection to the Internet is common in companies. Although it brings many positive possibilities, this connection exposes users to dangers. Fraud, identity theft and hacking are common types of cyberattacks. How can you avoid them?
With the firewall, a tool that “builds an invisible wall” to protect users from cyber dangers. The firewall acts as a filter between a device and its connection to the internet or external network.
In practice, it decides which network traffic can pass or will be considered dangerous. It is the tool that makes the value judgment between trustworthy or untrustworthy.
A firewall is a feature that can be hardware, software, or both.
Types of firewalls:
Proxy firewall
A proxy firewall is one of the earliest types of firewalls student data and acts as a gateway from one network to another for a specific application. Proxy servers can provide additional features such as caching and content security by preventing direct connections from outside the network. However, this can also affect the throughput capacity and applications they can support.
Stateful inspection firewall
Currently known as the traditional firewall, a stateful inspection firewall allows or blocks traffic based on state, port, and protocol. It monitors all activity from the moment a connection is opened until it is closed. Filtering decisions are made based on rules defined by the administrator and on context, which means using information from previous connections and packets belonging to the same connection.
Unified Threat Management (UTM) Firewall
Typically, a UTM appliance flexibly combines the functions of a firewall with stateful inspection, intrusion prevention, and antivirus. It can also include additional services and sometimes cloud management. UTM focuses on simplicity and ease of use.
Next Generation Firewall (NGFW)
Firewalls have evolved beyond simple packet filtering and stateful inspection. Most enterprises are deploying next-generation firewalls to block modern threats such as advanced malware and application-layer attacks.
According to the definition of Gartner, Inc., a next-generation firewall should include:
Standard firewall features such as stateful inspection
Integrated intrusion prevention
Application awareness and control to detect and block malicious applications
Updating paths to include future information feeds
Techniques to address evolving security threats
While these features are increasingly becoming the norm for most enterprises, NGFWs can do more.
Threat-focused NGFW
These firewalls include all the features of a traditional NGFW and also offer advanced threat detection and remediation. With a threat-focused NGFW, you can:
Know which resources are at greatest risk with full context awareness
Respond quickly to attacks with intelligent security automation that dynamically defines policies and strengthens your defenses
Better detect evasive and suspicious activity with network and endpoint event correlation
Dramatically reduce the time between detection and cleanup with retrospective security that continuously monitors activity and
suspicious behavior even after initial inspection
Ease administration and reduce complexity with unified policies that provide protection throughout the attack cycle.
In addition to learning what a firewall is, it is very important to identify the type that is most appropriate for your business infrastructure. This is not always the case.
Assessment is easy, which is why expert assistance can be of great help to managers.
So what is a firewall nowadays? What is its importance and usefulness? Check it out below!
Connecting IT systems or their connection to the Internet is common in companies. Although it brings many positive possibilities, this connection exposes users to dangers. Fraud, identity theft and hacking are common types of cyberattacks. How can you avoid them?
With the firewall, a tool that “builds an invisible wall” to protect users from cyber dangers. The firewall acts as a filter between a device and its connection to the internet or external network.
In practice, it decides which network traffic can pass or will be considered dangerous. It is the tool that makes the value judgment between trustworthy or untrustworthy.
A firewall is a feature that can be hardware, software, or both.
Types of firewalls:
Proxy firewall
A proxy firewall is one of the earliest types of firewalls student data and acts as a gateway from one network to another for a specific application. Proxy servers can provide additional features such as caching and content security by preventing direct connections from outside the network. However, this can also affect the throughput capacity and applications they can support.
Stateful inspection firewall
Currently known as the traditional firewall, a stateful inspection firewall allows or blocks traffic based on state, port, and protocol. It monitors all activity from the moment a connection is opened until it is closed. Filtering decisions are made based on rules defined by the administrator and on context, which means using information from previous connections and packets belonging to the same connection.
Unified Threat Management (UTM) Firewall
Typically, a UTM appliance flexibly combines the functions of a firewall with stateful inspection, intrusion prevention, and antivirus. It can also include additional services and sometimes cloud management. UTM focuses on simplicity and ease of use.
Next Generation Firewall (NGFW)
Firewalls have evolved beyond simple packet filtering and stateful inspection. Most enterprises are deploying next-generation firewalls to block modern threats such as advanced malware and application-layer attacks.
According to the definition of Gartner, Inc., a next-generation firewall should include:
Standard firewall features such as stateful inspection
Integrated intrusion prevention
Application awareness and control to detect and block malicious applications
Updating paths to include future information feeds
Techniques to address evolving security threats
While these features are increasingly becoming the norm for most enterprises, NGFWs can do more.
Threat-focused NGFW
These firewalls include all the features of a traditional NGFW and also offer advanced threat detection and remediation. With a threat-focused NGFW, you can:
Know which resources are at greatest risk with full context awareness
Respond quickly to attacks with intelligent security automation that dynamically defines policies and strengthens your defenses
Better detect evasive and suspicious activity with network and endpoint event correlation
Dramatically reduce the time between detection and cleanup with retrospective security that continuously monitors activity and
suspicious behavior even after initial inspection
Ease administration and reduce complexity with unified policies that provide protection throughout the attack cycle.
In addition to learning what a firewall is, it is very important to identify the type that is most appropriate for your business infrastructure. This is not always the case.
Assessment is easy, which is why expert assistance can be of great help to managers.