Firewall Firm is a Managed Cyber Security Company in India
Home » Tag: Firewall

Tag Archives: Firewall

Home » Tag: Firewall

Firewall Company in Pune

Firewall Company in Pune

Cisco Firewall, Watch Guard Firewall, Fortigate Firewall security solutions. We provide support for setup of Virtual Private Network ( VPN ), Branch Office VPN and VPN Management Services. Cisco Firewall, Watch Guard Firewall, Fortigate Firewall, Firewall companies in India, Firewall company India, firewall installation company in Pune, firewall solutions, hardware based firewall provider, network firewall India

Security solutions at IT Monteur is aimed to protect your business from hackers attack and other Internet threats. We aim at running your business smooth without any worry about securing your data. IT Monteur a Firewall Company in Delhi India, provides firewall software and hardware firewall to protect your data from any mallacious attacks and unexpected crises.

Robust Network Protection in Pune

IT Monteur Managed Network Security unifies stand-alone network security services into one robust network security and threat management solution—to protect critical networks and data from increasingly diverse and sophisticated cyber security threats.

Network Security Addressing the Challenging Threat Landscape in Pune

Network security is a top priority for most enterprises. The increasingly complex network security landscape only compounds network security challenges, with expansive networks and emerging communications technology trends like cloud computing, social media and mobile enablement. IT Monteur Managed Network Security solutions seamlessly integrate security technologies—such as anti-virus protection, firewalls, intrusion prevention, application control, web content filtering, VPN, anti-spam and more—layered into comprehensive, custom security solutions. We address your entire threat landscape with end-to-end network security protection, policies, best practices and threat intelligence capabilities to mitigate network security risks. By managing key security functions on a single platform, we deliver network security at significant cost savings.

Firewall Software and Hardware Firewall solutions are both designed to block unauthorized access to computers in your network. A firewall software program is installed on each individual PC it’s meant to protect. To safeguard all your company’s computers, however, each one must have a software firewall installed. This can become expensive and difficult to maintain and support. But, a hardware-based firewall is easier to maintain and administer than individual software firewalls. It protect all the computers on your network.

Our firewall security solutions is Combined network and physical security for a more comprehensive approach that meets your needs and that allows you to add integrated protection from hackers, spam, malicious websites, identity theft.

we provide secure access to enable workers at home, at remote sites, or traveling to connect to your business safely and securely Secure storage that gives you the flexible capacity to protect and back up data, video, and images and also provide Physical protection to guard your business and your employees from theft, vandalism, and unlawful access.

Our firewall security solutions Key features:

  • Standard firewall capabilities: Packet filtering, network address translation (NAT), stateful protocol inspection, Virtual Private Networking
  • Integrated Network Intrusion Prevention (IPS)
  • Application Awareness and Control
  • Additional Intelligence: Directory integration to tie security policies to users and groups; cloud-based reputation services to stop traffic from dangerous sources
  • Real-time and historical visibility into user, network, and security activity

We are also providing UTM ( Unified threat management ) Firewall Solutions for SMB & Enterprices

Cloud or Premises-Based Managed Network Security Solutions Provider in Pune

We design, configure, install, manage, monitor and maintain network security for your enterprise with cloud-based and customer premises equipment (CPE) delivery options. With IT Monteur Managed Network Security, you never have to worrying about outdated equipment, hardware failure and funding CAPEX investments. As a fully managed solution, we unburden IT staff from day-to-day security infrastructure management tasks and free up internal IT resources to focus on strategic initiatives that support the bottom line.

Managed Network Security Services Provider in Pune

Managed Network Security Services Provider in Pune

Managed Network Security Services Provider in Pune

  • Firewall with customizable rules
  • Flexible delivery methods: CPE or Cloud-Based
  • Unified Threat Management
  • Intrusion Prevention with application intelligence to detect and prevent malicious traffic from gaining network access
  • Dedicated Security Operations Center that assists real time with changes
  • VPN IP SEC tunnels and remote user access
  • Immediate updates to security when new threats emerge
  • Application control
  • Anti-virus protection
  • Web content filtering
  • High availability
  • Secure Wi-Fi access
  • DMZ management
  • Customer logs available upon request
  • Weekly security reporting

Affordable Managed Firewall Service with 24×7 Firewall Monitoring Services Provider in Pune

Affordable Managed Firewall Service with 24x7 Firewall Monitoring Services Provider in Pune

Affordable Managed Firewall Service with 24×7 Firewall Monitoring Services Provider in Pune

Take advantage of our group of dedicated Firewall professionals to manage, monitor and respond to network attacks.
System Management – Allows you to focus on other tasks.
Proactive Security Monitoring – We watch and respond to Internet attacks so you don’t have to.
Network Monitoring – We monitor the firewall to ensure your network stays connected to the Internet.
Change Management Reporting – You will always know what is going on and what we did to fix it.
Customized to Your Needs – You control the level of service that is right for you.

» Best practice configuration
» Unlimited phone support
» Constant access to Web-based monitoring & reporting
» No charge equipment repair or replacement
» Remote firmware updates
» Quick configuration changes
» Outage notice by e-mail
» After hours emergency response from our certified team
» No contract or extended customer commitment!
» This service is provided on a month-to-month basis.

Please Contact us for all type of Cisco Firewall, Watch Guard Firewall, Fortigate Firewall , Cyberoam Firewall security solutions. We provide support for setup of Virtual Private Network ( VPN ), Branch Office VPN and VPN Management Services.

Cisco Firewall, Watch Guard Firewall, Fortigate Firewall, Cyberoam Firewall, Firewall companies in India, Firewall company India, firewall installation company in delhi, firewall solutions, hardware based firewall provider, network firewall India

For more details on Firewall security solutions & Support in in Pune

Please Call us on +91 9582907788 or Email us on sales@itmonteur.net

Sales :+91 958 290 7788 
Support : 0120 2631048

Register & Request Quote 
Submit Support Ticket

 

Juniper Networks boosts firewall performance with new processing card

Juniper Networks is upgrading its services processing card to try and keep up with increasingly complicated security demands that come with the rise of IoT, 5G and the enterprise edge.

The networking product company announced last week their latest services processing card for the SRX5400, 5600 and 5800 next-generation firewalls, the SPC3. In an Aug. 7 press release, Juniper said the new card transforms the SRX5000 line into “one of the most powerful firewalls on the market.”

The SPC3 will allow customers to tap into more efficient operations, reduce energy and cooling costs and over time even scale their capabilities without service interruptions, said Amy James, director of security portfolio marketing for Juniper Networks, in a statement.

“With the rise of IoT, 5G and hybrid cloud network environments, many of our customers are faced with rapidly increasing bandwidth demands that necessitate a security platform that can scale while protecting the network against an advanced and high-volume cyberattack landscape,” she said. “Juniper’s SRX5000 line of firewalls with SPC3 Advanced Security Acceleration ensures our customers have powerful security without sacrificing the performance, scale and agility needed to stay aligned with changing business needs.”

 

7 uncomfortable truths of Endpoint Security: A Sophos report

A report released today by Sophos reveals that IT managers are more likely to catch cybercriminals on their organization’s servers and networks than anywhere else.

The study, 7 Uncomfortable Truths of Endpoint Security, surveyed over 3,100 IT managers in 12 different countries across industry verticals and organization sizes, and was conducted by the independent research specialist Vanson Bourne.

The report reveals that IT managers discovered 37% of their most significant cyberattacks on their organization’s servers and 37% on its networks. Only 17% were discovered on endpoints and 10% were found on mobile devices.

You’ve likely heard the adage: “It’s not a matter of if, but when you’ll be breached”, and the survey data certainly backs that up, with the majority of organizations responding to this survey (68% global average) having already been breached.

That’s why there’s growing momentum to not just focus on the tactics and tools that flat-out prevent attacks, but also to bolster threat response programs to more quickly find intruders already in the network, and to more effectively respond to attacks already underway.

In other words, for organizational security, it’s no longer enough to think about threats stopped at the ‘perimeter’. Companies must also focus on dwell time, which is the time it takes to detect an attack in progress.

Of teams that were able to definitively measure their average attacker dwell time, they responded that they could spot an attacker in as little as 13 hours, with Australia, Brazil, and Canada reporting 10 hours of dwell time on one end of the average, and Japan reporting 17 hours on the other.

If you’re not familiar with industry chatter around dwell time, 13 hours might seem like an eternity for an attacker to be rooting around your organizational assets, but compared to other industry benchmarks — such as the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), whose respondents on average clock dwell time in weeks or months — 13 hours seems almost impossibly fast.

As the respondent set and the types of threats being assessed in this survey and the Verizon DBIR studies aren’t quite the same, we can’t and shouldn’t make a one-to-one comparison between the two. Instead, this report drills down into why there’s a disparity in results, and why the gulf in detection times from those with dedicated security teams versus those without can hold such variability.

Lack of visibility into attacker behavior and information about attacker paths is still a major barrier to detecting attacks and reducing dwell time. 20% of IT managers who fell victim to one or more cyberattacks last year can’t pinpoint how the attackers gained entry, and 17% don’t know how long the threat was in the environment before it was detected, according to the survey.

To improve this lack of visibility, IT managers need Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) technology that exposes where threats originate, as well as the digital footprints of attackers moving laterally through a network. 57% of respondents reported that they did not have an EDR solution in place at the moment, but planned to implement one within the next 12 months.

Chester Wisniewski, principal research scientist at Sophos said:

If IT managers don’t know the origin or movement of an attack, then they can’t minimize risk and interrupt the attack chain to prevent further infiltration.

EDR helps IT managers identify risk and put a process in place for organizations at both ends of the security maturity model. If IT is more focused on detection, EDR can more quickly find, block and remediate; if IT is still building up a security foundation, EDR is an integral piece that provides much needed threat intelligence.

On average, organizations that investigate one or more potential security incidents each month spend 48 days a year (four days a month) investigating them, according to the survey. It comes as no surprise that IT managers ranked identification of suspicious events (27%), alert management (18%) and prioritization of suspicious events (13%) as the top three features they need from EDR solutions to reduce the time taken to identify and respond to security alerts.

If IT managers have defense-in-depth with EDR, they can investigate an incident more quickly and use the resulting threat intelligence to help find the same infection across an estate. Once cybercriminals know certain types of attacks work, they typically replicate them within organizations. Uncovering and blocking attack patterns would help reduce the number of days IT managers spend investigating potential incidents.

This report drills down into the specifics of the threats detected (what kind and where), as well as the resources spent on incident investigation. By taking a broader look at industries across geographies and organizational size, this report shines a light on the unexpected challenges facing enterprise security as a whole across the globe.

New Forcepoint X-Labs Delivers World’s First Security Lab Dedicated to Behavioral-Intelligence Innovations

World-leading specialists in security research, data science, psychology and counter-intelligence brought together to focus on understanding human behavior and build risk-adaptive cybersecurity solutions

Global cybersecurity leader Forcepoint today launched the X-Labs division, the world’s first dedicated research division that combines deep security expertise with behavioral science research. The new X-Labs team will use data insights from the entire Forcepoint product portfolio to drive innovation in modern, risk-adaptive security solutions. This will deliver enterprises and government agencies more flexible and effective cybersecurity solutions appropriate for today’s intricate, cloud-first threat landscape.

In the last seven years, more than $1 trillion has been spent on cybersecurity to deliver a 95 percent success rate – for the attackers. Today legacy security products are failing because they are not designed for modern cybersecurity challenges and fail to address the two constants in any organization: people and data.

X-Labs will transform and augment cybersecurity solutions built on traditional threat intelligence with patent-pending behavioral intelligence insights into human and machine behavior. Over time this unique behavioral intelligence corpus will integrate into the new Forcepoint Converged Security Platform to extend automated and risk-adaptive protection across an organization’s entire on-premises and cloud infrastructure.

“Forcepoint X-Labs’ mission is to understand digital identities and their related cyber behaviors, particularly as they interact with high-value data and intellectual property,” said Nicolas Fischbach, chief technology officer, Forcepoint. “Forcepoint’s unique approach to cybersecurity delivers insights built on behavioral intelligence. Delivered within a privacy-by-design process, these behavioral insights have never been integrated into security products before. CISOs need a security partner that can pinpoint normal and abnormal behavior on today’s hybrid IT environments and dynamically deliver automated, risk-adaptive security solutions.”

Risk Adaptive Protection Leverages Adaptive Trust Profile and Artificial Intelligence

Enterprises are constantly challenged by millions of security events and are forced to make discreet decisions: permit or deny. This legacy approach to security introduces friction into a business and creates missed opportunities to prevent an incident from happening. Humans and machines, collectively recognized as “entities” on a network, each pose a dynamically changing level of risk to a company which can shift in a matter of seconds.

As a core building block of Forcepoint’s Converged Security Platform, the X-Labs team will leverage the Adaptive Trust Profile™ (ATP). More than a technology, the ATP is a collection of attributes, models and inferences about entities which derives, through applied artificial intelligence and analytics, a set of risks for each entity. The ATP allows security professionals to focus on those entities which truly pose the highest level of risk to the business or other employees, relieving understaffed security teams from the business frictions plaguing current point security products.

“We are moving away from reactive yes and no security decisions to dynamically scored risk-based decisions,” said Raffael Marty, vice president of research and intelligence, Forcepoint. “By providing both threat and behavioral intelligence insights, and natively integrating these with our products, we offer true risk-adaptive protection which understands people and their behavior. This significantly reduces security friction in an organization and allows business leaders to unleash the power of productivity and innovation for competitive advantage today.”

The ATP is designed to natively integrate with Forcepoint’s behavior-based analytics which collect data from sensors across cloud, endpoint, third-party applications, services (including SaaS) and more. The artificial intelligence models within the ATP then contextualize the events and compute a risk score for each entity. Risk scores are calculated by utilizing an expansive behavior catalog comprised of innumerable scenarios, such as a user stealing data or when an individual’s account credentials are compromised.

Diverse X-Labs Team Innovates Solutions for Today’s Modern Threat Landscape

The broad skillset within the X-Labs team is unique in the world. No other cybersecurity vendor is teaming security researchers with data scientists, psychologists and counter-intelligence specialists to innovate security solutions that truly understand people and their cyber behaviors. X-Labs specialists are distributed globally including teams based in Austin, Texas; Baltimore, Maryland; San Diego, California; Cork and Dublin, Ireland, Reading, United Kingdom; and Helsinki, Finland.

About Forcepoint
Forcepoint is the global human-centric cybersecurity company transforming the digital enterprise by continuously adapting security response to the dynamic risk posed by individual users and machines. The Forcepoint Human Point system delivers Risk-Adaptive Protection to continuously ensure trusted use of data and systems. Based in Austin, Texas, Forcepoint protects the human point for thousands of enterprise and government customers in more than 150 countries. www.forcepoint.comv

Fortinet Introduces FortiInsight for Enhanced Insider Threat Protection

Following the acquisition of ZoneFox Limited at the end of last year, Fortinet is today introducing FortiInsight to help organizations mitigate insider threats. FortiInsight uses machine learning analytics to effectively monitor endpoints, data movements and user activities to detect unusal, malicious behavior and policy violations. When integrated with FortiSIEM—as part of the Fortinet Security Fabric—FortiInsight provides organizations with complete visibility into their data activity, enabling them to reduce the risks of insider threats that can lead to a breach or to compliance issues with the likes of GDPR and HIPAA.

The attack surface is continuing to expand, and while many security teams are focused primarily on preventing malicious outsiders from exploiting new attack venues, the Verizon 2018 Data Breach Report found that close to 30 percent of confirmed breaches today involve insiders. However, today’s increasingly complex networks, compounded by the proliferation of data, devices, applications, and users accessing networked resources, make it difficult for security teams to detect and prevent insider threats, regardless of whether those breaches are malicious or the result of negligence.

To address this challenge, CISOs not only need to ask themselves, “how well are my current security policy and controls working?”, but also, “are employees and contractors violating policy and misusing their privileges?” As advanced threats rapidly evolve, CISOs need to implement security controls that protect their company’s data, intellectual property, and reputation both inside and out. And they need to do this while simultaneously satisfying industry compliance requirements.

With the inclusion of FortiInsight into the Fortinet Security Fabric, these concerns can now be addressesd head on. FortiInsight’s robust solution delivers endpoint behavioral monitoring everywhere—securing endpoint devices even when they are off the corporate network—to provide visibility into user behavior, data movement, and accessed resources. With its ability to monitor, detect, and alert on potential insider threats, including such things as policy violations, privilege misuse or abuse, data exfiltration, account takeover, or even compromised accounts, security teams have more granular visibility and control over insider threats than ever before.

FortiInsight’s powerful rule-based engine can identify policy violations, unauthorized data access, data exfiltration—whether data is being moved to the cloud or onto a local USB device, and compromised accounts. And FortiInsight’s machine learning capabilities automatically baseline user behavior across peer groups, allowing it to quickly detect unusual behavior or changes in behavior. This heightened visibility, enabled by its advanced machine learning analytics and rule-based engine, gives security teams the insight they need to be able to respond efficiently before risk escalates to incident, thereby preventing breaches.

Firewall Company

Firewall Company

Firewall Company,Firewall Company India,Firewall Company in India, Firewall Provider Company in India,Best Firewall Company in India,Hardware Firewall Company

Firewall Company,Firewall Company India,Firewall Company in India, Firewall Provider Company in India,Best Firewall Company in India,Hardware Firewall Company

The smart solution for intelligent businesses by Firewall Company Firewall Firm

Firewall Company Firewall Firm provides best hardware firewalls in India, Regardless of the size of your business, you want to be assured of the security of your computers and networks. IT Monteur Firewall Firm team can ensure your business has around the clock firewall and virus protection, guaranteeing your network is free from intrusion, spyware and hackers 24/7.

Many small business owners feel safe from attack, mistakenly thinking hackers only target large corporations. The fact is that many cyber criminals see smaller businesses as ideal targets due to their minimal security measures, and often use those smaller businesses to gain access to the networks of larger companies.

Security at all levels of I.T. is vital to ensure you aren’t seen as an easy target. It isn’t something you want to address once your systems have been compromised. IT Monteur Firewall Firm can assist, with integrated firewalls, network and desktop security solutions, virus protection, spam filtering, adware, spyware protection and much more.

Security must be integral, not an afterthought.

40% of all cyber-attacks target businesses with fewer than 500 employees!

More than 40% of SMBs don’t have an adequate IT security budget!

SMBs on average lose $188,242 to a cyber attack and almost 66% of victimized companies are forced out of business within six months of being attacked.

Only 26% of small and midsize businesses were confident their firm has enough in-house expertise for a strong security posture

Despite the threat that data loss poses to SMBs, 70% thought their companies would have difficulty detecting a breach

Did you know the average breach goes undetected for 229 days?

Business Security Facts:

    • Yes, you will be attacked, even though you’re small
    • In fact, small businesses are attacked more than enterprises due to their lower security budgets and expertise, both of which equate to greater vulnerability.
    • Cyber criminals gain access to larger corporations through small business networks.
    • Security must be integral, not an afterthought.
    • UTM (Unified Threat Management) is no longer enough.
    • Wired & Wireless need common security policy.

Partnering with IT Monteur Firewall Firm Firewall Company means:

  • Installation and integration of firewall into the network
  • 24/7 Protection, Monitoring and Threat Response of all access points to your network, offering complete security from outside threats
  • Endpoint Security anti-virus protection safeguards your network from viruses, worms, and other malicious code threats
  • Spam protection through message and e-mail filtering
  • Dedicated Security Team
  • Onsite support as needed
  • Integrated Security with Business Focus

List of Firewall appliances Company in India

When any enterprise or small medium business start thinking of a network management & security, the first thing to come up in  the mind of IT Managers is a good and secure firewall. Firewalls are the first layer of defense in a network, as a system without the basic layer of security is intended to reveal the sensitive data for enterprise users.

A firewall is a combo of a firewall software and operating system that is built to run a firewall system on a dedicated hardware or virtual machine which includes :

  • Embedded firewalls: very limited-capability programs running on a low-power CPU system,
  • Software firewall appliances: a system that can be run in independent hardware or in a virtualised environment as a virtual appliance
  • Hardware firewall appliances: Hardware firewall is specifically built to install as a network device, providing enough network interfaces and CPU to serve a wide range of purposes. From protecting a small network to protecting an enterprise-level network.

 Firewall Company

  • Check Point
  • FortiGate
  • Palo Alto Networks
  • WatchGuard
  • Sophos
  • Cisco Asa Firepower
  • Cisco PIX
  • Mcafee Firewall
  • Juniper SSG
  • Juniper SRX
  • Sonicwall
  • Barracuda Firewall
  • Cyberoam
  • D-Link
  • Endian Firewall
  • Opendium Iceni
  • IPCop
  • pfSense
  • IPFire
  • Untangle
  • Zeroshell
  • SmoothWall
  • WinGate
  • Calyptix Security
  • Halon Security
  • Vantronix

Firewall Company Security Solution

Security solutions at IT Monteur is aimed to protect your business from hackers attack and other Internet threats. We aim at running your business smooth without any worry about securing your data. IT Monteur a Firewall Company in Delhi India, provides firewall software and hardware firewall to protect your data from any mallacious attacks and unexpected crises.

Firewall Software and Hardware Firewall solutions are both designed to block unauthorized access to computers in your network. A firewall software program is installed on each individual PC it’s meant to protect. To safeguard all your company’s computers, however, each one must have a software firewall installed. This can become expensive and difficult to maintain and support. But, a hardware-based firewall is easier to maintain and administer than individual software firewalls. It protect all the computers on your network.

Our firewall security solutions is Combined network and physical security for a more comprehensive approach that meets your needs and that allows you to add integrated protection from hackers, spam, malicious websites, identity theft.

we provide secure access to enable workers at home, at remote sites, or traveling to connect to your business safely and securely Secure storage that gives you the flexible capacity to protect and back up data, video, and images and also provide Physical protection to guard your business and your employees from theft, vandalism, and unlawful access.

Our firewall security solutions Key features:

  • Standard firewall capabilities: Packet filtering, network address translation (NAT), stateful protocol inspection, Virtual Private Networking
  • Integrated Network Intrusion Prevention (IPS)
  • Application Awareness and Control
  • Additional Intelligence: Directory integration to tie security policies to users and groups; cloud-based reputation services to stop traffic from dangerous sources
  • Real-time and historical visibility into user, network, and security activity

We are also providing UTM ( Unified threat management ) Firewall Solutions for SMB & Enterprices

Firewalls, both hardware and software, protect computers from hackers and other online threats by blocking dangerous pieces of data from reaching the system. While hardware firewalls offer network-wide protection from external threats, software firewalls installed on individual computers can more closely inspect data, and can block specific programs from even sending data to the Internet. On networks with high security concerns, combining both kinds of firewalls provides a more complete safety net.

We are providing UTM ( Unified threat management ) Best Firewall Solutions for SMB & Enterprises Companies in India

Please Contact us for all type of Cyberoam Firewall Quick Heal TerminatorSonicwallNetGenieJuniper , Gajshield , Checkpoint  ,  WebsenseBluecoatBarracudaCisco Firewall, Watch Guard Firewall, Fortigate Firewall security solutions & Price. We provide support for setup of Virtual Private Network ( VPN ), Branch Office VPN and VPN Management Services.

Cisco Firewall, Watch Guard Firewall, Fortigate Firewall, Firewall companies in India, Firewall company India, firewall installation company in delhi, firewall solutions, hardware based firewall provider, network firewall India

Sales :+91 958 290 7788
Support : 0120 2631048

Register & Request Quote
Submit Support Ticket

Free and Open Source Network UTM Firewalls

Free and Open Source Network UTM  Firewalls

Free and Open Source Network UTM  Linux Firewalls

Free and Open Source Network UTM  Linux Firewalls

 

pfSense

pfSense

pfSense

pfSense is an open source security solution with a custom kernel based on the FreeBSD OS. It is a software distribution that is customised especially to be used as a firewall and router. This open source firewall can be installed on bare metal hardware and be managed entirely through a Web interface. Apart from firewalling and routing platforms, you can expand its functionality by using its many features, without adding bloat and potential security vulnerabilities to the base distribution.

Features

  • Firewall – IP/port filtering, limiting connections, Layer 2 capable, scrubbing
  • State table – By default, all rules are stateful, and there are multiple configurations available for state handling
  • Server load balancing (LB) – Inbuilt LB to distribute load between multiple backend servers
  • NAT (network address translation) – Port forwarding, reflection
  • HA (high-availability) – Failover to secondary if primary fails
  • Multi-WAN (wide area network) – Uses more than one Internet connection
  • VPN (virtual private network) – Supports IPsec and OpenVPN
  • Reporting – Keeps historical resource utilisation information
  • Monitoring – Real-time monitoring
  • Dynamic DNS – Multiple DNS clients are included
  • DHCP and relay ready

Some examples:

  • Security – Stunner, Snort, Tinc, Nmap, arpwatch
  • Monitoring – iftop, ntopng, Softflowd, urlsnarf, darkstat, mailreport
  • Networking – NetIO, nut, Avahi
  • Routing – FRR, OLSRd, routed, OpenBGPD
  • Services – Iperf, widentd, syslog-ng, bind, Acme, Imspector, Git, DNS-server

ClearOS

ClearOS

ClearOS

ClearOS is a CentOS based open source firewall that transforms your standard PC into a committed firewall and Internet server/gateway. ClearOS has three editions: ClearOS Business, ClearOS Home and ClearOS Community. The community edition is free for a lifetime but for the other two, you need to purchase a subscription. It is one of the best open source firewalls for small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs). It is a complete network solution and you can extend the functionality by installing the apps such as the bandwidth manager, DHCP server, DMZ, DNS server and more.

Features

  • Firewall, networking and security
  • Provides several levels of security
  • Bandwidth QoS manager
  • DMZ, 1-to-1 NAT and port forwarding
  • At the protocol level, the peer-to-peer detection system lets you manage file sharing usage
  • Intrusion detection and intrusion prevention systems
  • Virtual private networking
  • Web proxy and content filtering

IPFire

IPFire

IPFire

IPFire is built on top of Netfilter and is an open source distribution. IPFire was designed with both modularity and a high level of flexibility in mind. It can be used as a firewall, proxy server or VPN gateway. The IDS (intrusion detection system) is inbuilt, so attacks are detected and prevented from Day One. And with the help of Guardian (an optional add-on), you can implement automatic prevention.

Features

  • Stateful packet inspection (SPI)
  • Proxy server with content filter and caching functionality
  • Intrusion detection system
  • VPN via IPsec and OpenVPN
  • DHCP server
  • Caching name server
  • Time server
  • Wake-on-LAN (WOL)
  • Dynamic DNS

OPNsense

OPNsense

OPNsense

OPNsense is an open source, easy-to-use and easy-to-build FreeBSD based firewall and routing platform. It includes most of the features available in expensive commercial firewalls, and more. OPNsense offers the rich feature set of commercial offerings with the benefits of open and verifiable sources.

Features

  • Traffic shaper
  • Captive portal
  • Forward caching proxy
  • Virtual private network
  • High availability and hardware failover
  • Intrusion detection and inline prevention
  • Built-in reporting and monitoring tools
  • Support for plugins
  • DNS server and DNS forwarder
  • DHCP server and relay

VyOS

VyOS

VyOS

VyOS is an open source network operating system based on Linux and includes multiple applications such as Quagga, ISC DHCPD, OpenVPN, StrongS/WAN and others, under a single management interface. It can be installed on any physical hardware, on a virtual machine or a cloud platform.

Features

  • VLANs
  • Static and dynamic routing
  • Firewall rulesets for IPv4 and IPv6 traffic
  • Tunnel interfaces
  • PPPoE, GRE, IPIP, SIT, static L2TPv3, VXLAN
  • VPN
  • NAT
  • DHCP and DHCPv6 server and relay
  • NetFlow and sFlow
  • Web proxy and URL filtering
  • QoS policies (drop tail, fair queue, and others), traffic redirection
  • VRRP, connection table synchronisation

 

Smoothwall

Smoothwall

Smoothwall

Smoothwall is a Linux distribution designed to be used as an open source firewall. It is configured via a Web based GUI and requires little or no knowledge of Linux to install and use it. Smoothwall Express supports LAN, DMZ, internal/external network firewalling, Web proxy for acceleration, traffic stats, etc. Shutting down or rebooting is possible directly through the Web interface.

Features

  • Supports LAN, DMZ and wireless networks
  • External connectivity via Static Ethernet, DHCP Ethernet, PPPoE, PPPoA using various USB and PCI DSL modems
  • Port forwards, DMZ pin-holes
  • Outbound filtering
  • Timed access
  • Simple to use Quality-of-Service (QoS)
  • Traffic stats, including per interface and per IP totals for weeks and months
  • IDS via automatically updated Snort rules
  • UPnP support
  • List of bad IP addresses to block

Untangle

Untangle

Untangle

Untangle NG Firewall takes the complexity out of network security—saving users’ time. This firewall is intended to balance performance and protection, policy and productivity. It’s an ideal fit for a range of organisations seeking a powerful, cost-effective network security solution that can handle any IT challenge — from small, remote offices to diverse school campuses and large, distributed organisations. The NG Firewall has different software modules that can be enabled or disabled as per individual requirements. These software modules are also called apps. They are both free and paid apps. So, for full functionality, you have to buy subscriptions for what you want.

Features

  • Virus blocker
  • Firewall
  • Web monitor
  • Spam Blocker Lite
  • Ad blocker
  • OpenVPN
  • Captive portal
  • Intrusion prevention
  • Phish blocker

 

Endian Firewall

Endian Firewall

Endian Firewall

Endian Firewall is a full-featured unified threat management solution, which uses the stateful packet inspection concept based firewall. It can be deployed as a proxy, gateway, and router with Open VPN.

Some of the features provided by the Endian Firewall are displayed in Figure 6.

  • Endian is a bi-directional firewall
  • It protects the network from Internet threats
  • By analysing the traffic flow, it prevents intrusion into the network
  • It has VPN with IPsec, which provides a secure and simple VPN tunnel through which many users can connect from a remote location
 Moonwall provide a firewall based on FreeBSD and a combination of other software utilities.

pfSense is a free open source firewall and router.

Shorewall firewall is a tool designed to configure Netfilter.

Smoothwall Express is an open source firewall based on a hardened GNU/Linux OS.

StillSecure deliver a software based firewall solution known as Cobia. Cobia can be installed on VMware as well. Cobia includes the ability to perform Routing, DHCP, DNS, Wireless, Firewall, VPN, Content Filtering, Reporting and more. Cobia can use modules provided by StillSecure or other third party organisations and developers. Cobia software comes as a public community license and a commercial use license. Via the StillSecure Community License, users can freely download and modify the source code.

Vyatta Core is an open source firewall offering IPv4 and IPv6 routing, intrusion prevention , stateful firewalling, IPSec and SSL OpenVPN and more.

Zeroshell is a Linux based firewall. The firewall has some good functionality such as the ability to load balance internet connections, integrate with LDAP, captive portal for web login authentication and more.

Zorp is an application layer firewall based on the Python scripting language.

Firewall Management Software Solutions Vendor List

AlgoSec deliver Firewall Analyzer which provides firewall policy auditing, policy cleanup, risk analysis, change monitoring and more. Algosec supports all the major firewall vendors. Algosec also offer AlgoSec FireFlow which is a change management solution.

Athena Security have a solution known as FirePAC that can clean up firewall policies, provide auditing and optimisation. Athena Security also offer a free tool called Firewall Browser which can help you find rules based on certain network criteria and supports Cisco, Checkpoint and Netscreen firewalls.

Secure Passage is a specialist in managing firewalls and offer a solution called Firemon. Firemon will give you visibility to unused rules and which rules are used and the frequency they are used. Firemon supports a large range of firewalls such as Cisco Checkpoint and others. Firemon also supports routers and load balancers. The solution will help you keep in control of your firewall policies, provide PCI DSS assistance, policy cleanup and provides other advantages as well.

 Skybox Security is a firewall management device that helps controlling firewall risks and provides visibility of network topology and firewall device configuration.
Tufin SecureTrak delivers firewall management, auditing and change control and automation.

For More details on Free and Open Source Network UTM Linux Firewalls, Please contact us on

Sales :+91 958 290 7788 | Support : 0120 2631048

Register & Request Quote | Submit Support Ticket

Firewall

Firewall

Firewall,What is a Firewall?,Defined,Explained,Explored What is Firewall?,Fire Wall,How Firewall Technology Works?,Firewall - Computer Network Security System

Firewall,What is a Firewall?,Defined,Explained,Explored What is Firewall?,Fire Wall,How Firewall Technology Works?,Firewall – Computer Network Security System

What is Firewall?

A firewall is a network security device located between your internal network and the wider Internet. A firewall monitors incoming and outgoing network traffic – blocking or allowing it based on a set of configurable rules.

Firewalls are a fundamental piece of security and typically form the first line of defence on a network. Acting as a filter against bad connections from the outside world.

A firewall works by comparing the data sent into or out of the network against a list of rules. Based on the results of the rule checking, the firewall will then either block or allow the connection.

How does a firewall work?

Firewalls work by inspecting data packets (small chunks of data) against an internal list of rules. Here are some of the more common ones:

  • IP addresses – filter out traffic from suspicious IPs
  • Domain names – block traffic from known malicious domains
  • Ports – deny traffic trying to enter through a certain port
  • Contents – block data packets containing certain keywords

A firewall scans the contents of the packet and then determines whether to let it through based on the rules in place. On a typical network setup, all connections to the Internet flow through the firewall. Meaning it inspects all inbound or outgoing packets.

How does firewall inspection work?

The process of inspection involves comparing a packet’s contents against the firewall’s set of rules. Depending on if the rule is setup as a blacklist or whitelist, it will react differently to a match.

  • A blacklist rule will block any packets which match the criteria.
  • A whitelist rule will block any packets which don’t match the criteria.

A firewall’s rules are highly configurable. Meaning you can make the packet inspection process unique to your security setup. Here are some examples of how you could use custom firewall rules:

  • Creating a whitelist for your own company IP. Preventing any outsiders from accessing what’s behind the firewall.
  • Making a blacklist for the IP of a known malicious file server. Stopping it from distributing malware onto your network.
  • Creating a whitelist for certain domain extensions (.com, .co.uk .edu e.t.c.) on outgoing traffic. Blocking staff from accessing potentially dangerous sites.

Why are firewalls important?

Firewalls are often compared to a lock on the door to your network. But it might be more accurate to say that a firewall is the door.

Without a firewall in place, any connection can flow freely in or out of your network. Including connections from known malicious sources. This means you could experience unauthorised access to networked files. Leading to a data breach, malware infection or worse.

You need a firewall to filter out the bulk of malicious connections. And there’s a lot of malicious connections. One study found that within 52 seconds of being online, servers were being probed by hackers. With an average rate of 757 connection attempts per hour.

Are firewalls hardware or software?

Firewalls can be either a hardware appliance or a piece of software which runs on a machine. So, the answer is both.

Not helpful, I know.

But the main difference between the two is this:

  • Software firewalls tend to protect the individual machine it’s installed upon, typically a laptop or PC
  • Hardware firewalls usually protect many machines or an entire network.

What types of firewall are there?

Circuit-level

Circuit level firewalls are a type of firewall that monitors transmission control protocol (TCP) handshaking. It ensures that the communication between packets is legitimate and not malicious.

Stateful inspection

A firewall with stateful inspection considers the state of current connections when filtering packets. This means that the firewall can block the packet in one case but allowed in another. Depending on the current state of the connection.

Unified threat management (UTM)

Whilst technically not a type of firewall, UTM is instead an advanced security appliance which combines the security functions of many different security appliances. One of these being a firewall. We have an article explaining everything you need to know about UTM if you wish to learn more.

What is a next-generation firewall?

A next-generation firewall (NGFW) contains all the normal defences that a traditional firewall has and more. The most common additions are intrusion prevention software and application control. But certain vendors have other bonus security features. NGFWs are also capable of deep packet inspection which enables more robust filters.

Intrusion prevention software monitors network activity to detect and stop vulnerability exploits from occurring. This is usually done by monitoring for breaches against the network policies in place.

Application control software sets up a hard filter for programs that can send or receive data over the Internet. This can either be done by blacklist (blocks any programs in the filter) or by whitelist (blocks any programs not in the filter).

What is deep packet inspection?

Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) is a type of packet inspection which analyses the full contents of a data packet. Instead of only information in a packet’s header (where it is coming from and going to).

This enables DPI to filter out malicious packets, such as viruses and trojans, with better accuracy. As rather than only looking at the sender and destination, the packet’s contents can be used in filters as well.

This allows DPI to uncover a broader range of security threats because it will discover packets with a malicious payload but an innocuous header.

Where did the name firewall come from?

A final piece of trivia: the name firewall originated from the real-world application of fire partitions used in buildings. These would be walls that were implemented into a building to act as a barrier to stop fire spreading from one room to another.

The similarity between a fire spreading through a building and a computer virus spreading through a network prompted the same name to be adopted for the network device.

FAQ

Top Best Firewall Companies in India : Check Point. FortiGate. Palo Alto Networks. WatchGuard. Seqrite Firewall. Cisco Asa Firepower. Cisco PIX. Mcafee Firewall.
Firewalls provide protection against outside cyber attackers by shielding your computer or network from malicious or unnecessary network traffic. Firewalls can also prevent malicious software from accessing a computer or network via the internet.
There are three basic types of firewalls that are used by companies to protect their data & devices to keep destructive elements out of network, viz. Packet Filters, Stateful Inspection and Proxy Server Firewalls. Let us give you a brief introduction about each of these.
A firewall is a security device — computer hardware or software — that can help protect your network by filtering traffic and blocking outsiders from gaining unauthorized access to the private data on your computer.
Firewalls provide protection against outside cyber attackers by shielding your computer or network from malicious or unnecessary network traffic. Firewalls can also prevent malicious software from accessing a computer or network via the internet.
A firewall is a protective measure that safeguards an individual's or company's computer network. It provides two basic security functions, including packet filtering, which inspects traffic at the packet level, and acting as an application proxy, providing security measures at the application level.

Firewall

Sales Number : +91 9582 90 7788
Support Number : +91-9654016484
Sales Email : sales@itmonteur.net
Support Email : support@itmonteur.net

Register & Request Quote
Submit Support Ticket

What is a firewall?

What is a Firewall? and How Does It Work?

Introduction

A firewall is a system that provides network security by filtering incoming and outgoing network traffic based on a set of user-defined rules. In general, the purpose of a firewall is to reduce or eliminate the occurrence of unwanted network communications while allowing all legitimate communication to flow freely. In most server infrastructures, firewalls provide an essential layer of security that, combined with other measures, prevent attackers from accessing your servers in malicious ways.

This guide will discuss how firewalls work, with a focus on stateful software firewalls, such as iptables and FirewallD, as they relate to cloud servers. We’ll start with a brief explanation of TCP packets and the different types of firewalls. Then we’ll discuss a variety of topics that a relevant to stateful firewalls. Lastly, we will provide links to other tutorials that will help you set up a firewall on your own server.

TCP Network Packets

Before discussing the different types of firewalls, let’s take a quick look at what Transport Control Protocol (TCP) network traffic looks like.

TCP network traffic moves around a network in packets, which are containers that consist of a packet header—this contains control information such as source and destination addresses, and packet sequence information—and the data (also known as a payload). While the control information in each packet helps to ensure that its associated data gets delivered properly, the elements it contains also provides firewalls a variety of ways to match packets against firewall rules.

It is important to note that successfully receiving incoming TCP packets requires the receiver to send outgoing acknowledgment packets back to the sender. The combination of the control information in the incoming and outgoing packets can be used to determine the connection state (e.g. new, established, related) of between the sender and receiver.

Types of Firewalls

Let’s quickly discuss the three basic types of network firewalls: packet filtering (stateless), stateful, and application layer.

Packet filtering, or stateless, firewalls work by inspecting individual packets in isolation. As such, they are unaware of connection state and can only allow or deny packets based on individual packet headers.

Stateful firewalls are able to determine the connection state of packets, which makes them much more flexible than stateless firewalls. They work by collecting related packets until the connection state can be determined before any firewall rules are applied to the traffic.

Application firewalls go one step further by analyzing the data being transmitted, which allows network traffic to be matched against firewall rules that are specific to individual services or applications. These are also known as proxy-based firewalls.

In addition to firewall software, which is available on all modern operating systems, firewall functionality can also be provided by hardware devices, such as routers or firewall appliances. Again, our discussion will be focused on stateful software firewalls that run on the servers that they are intended to protect.

Firewall Rules

As mentioned above, network traffic that traverses a firewall is matched against rules to determine if it should be allowed through or not. An easy way to explain what firewall rules looks like is to show a few examples, so we’ll do that now.

Suppose you have a server with this list of firewall rules that apply to incoming traffic:

  1. Accept new and established incoming traffic to the public network interface on port 80 and 443 (HTTP and HTTPS web traffic)
  2. Drop incoming traffic from IP addresses of the non-technical employees in your office to port 22 (SSH)
  3. Accept new and established incoming traffic from your office IP range to the private network interface on port 22 (SSH)

Note that the first word in each of these examples is either “accept”, “reject”, or “drop”. This specifies the action that the firewall should do in the event that a piece of network traffic matches a rule. Accept means to allow the traffic through, reject means to block the traffic but reply with an “unreachable” error, and drop means to block the traffic and send no reply. The rest of each rule consists of the condition that each packet is matched against.

As it turns out, network traffic is matched against a list of firewall rules in a sequence, or chain, from first to last. More specifically, once a rule is matched, the associated action is applied to the network traffic in question. In our example, if an accounting employee attempted to establish an SSH connection to the server they would be rejected based on rule 2, before rule 3 is even checked. A system administrator, however, would be accepted because they would match only rule 3.

Default Policy

It is typical for a chain of firewall rules to not explicitly cover every possible condition. For this reason, firewall chains must always have a default policy specified, which consists only of an action (accept, reject, or drop).

Suppose the default policy for the example chain above was set to drop. If any computer outside of your office attempted to establish an SSH connection to the server, the traffic would be dropped because it does not match the conditions of any rules.

If the default policy were set to accept, anyone, except your own non-technical employees, would be able to establish a connection to any open service on your server. This would be an example of a very poorly configured firewall because it only keeps a subset of your employees out.

Incoming and Outgoing Traffic

As network traffic, from the perspective of a server, can be either incoming or outgoing, a firewall maintains a distinct set of rules for either case. Traffic that originates elsewhere, incoming traffic, is treated differently than outgoing traffic that the server sends. It is typical for a server to allow most outgoing traffic because the server is usually, to itself, trustworthy. Still, the outgoing rule set can be used to prevent unwanted communication in the case that a server is compromised by an attacker or a malicious executable.

In order to maximize the security benefits of a firewall, you should identify all of the ways you want other systems to interact with your server, create rules that explicitly allow them, then drop all other traffic. Keep in mind that the appropriate outgoing rules must be in place so that a server will allow itself to send outgoing acknowledgements to any appropriate incoming connections. Also, as a server typically needs to initiate its own outgoing traffic for various reasons—for example, downloading updates or connecting to a database—it is important to include those cases in your outgoing rule set as well.

Writing Outgoing Rules

Suppose our example firewall is set to drop outgoing traffic by default. This means our incoming accept rules would be useless without complementary outgoing rules.

To complement the example incoming firewall rules (1 and 3), from the Firewall Rules section, and allow proper communication on those addresses and ports to occur, we could use these outgoing firewall rules:

  1. Accept established outgoing traffic to the public network interface on port 80 and 443 (HTTP and HTTPS)
  2. Accept established outgoing traffic to the private network interface on port 22 (SSH)

Note that we don’t need to explicitly write a rule for incoming traffic that is dropped (incoming rule 2) because the server doesn’t need to establish or acknowledge that connection.

Firewall Software and Tools

Now that we’ve gone over how firewalls work, let’s take a look at common software packages that can help us set up an effective firewall. While there are many other firewall-related packages, these are effective and are the ones you will encounter the most.

Iptables

Iptables is a standard firewall included in most Linux distributions by default (a modern variant called nftables will begin to replace it). It is actually a front end to the kernel-level netfilter hooks that can manipulate the Linux network stack. It works by matching each packet that crosses the networking interface against a set of rules to decide what to do.

To learn how to implement a firewall with iptables, check out these links:

  • How To Set Up a Firewall Using IPTables on Ubuntu 14.04
  • How To Implement a Basic Firewall Template with Iptables on Ubuntu 14.04
  • How To Set Up an Iptables Firewall to Protect Traffic Between your Servers

UFW

UFW, which stands for Uncomplicated Firewall, is an interface to iptables that is geared towards simplifying the process of configuring a firewall.

To learn more about using UFW, check out this tutorial: How To Setup a Firewall with UFW on an Ubuntu and Debian Cloud Server.

FirewallD

FirewallD is a complete firewall solution available by default on CentOS 7 servers. Incidentally, FirewallD uses iptables to configure netfilter.

To learn more about using FirewallD, check out this tutorial: How To Configure FirewallD to Protect Your CentOS 7 Server.

If you’re running CentOS 7 but prefer to use iptables, follow this tutorial: How To Migrate from FirewallD to Iptables on CentOS 7.

Fail2ban

Fail2ban is an intrusion prevention software that can automatically configure your firewall to block brute force login attempts and DDOS attacks.

To learn more about Fail2ban, check out these links:

  • How Fail2ban Works to Protect Services on a Linux Server
  • How To Protect SSH with Fail2Ban on Ubuntu 14.04
  • How To Protect an Nginx Server with Fail2Ban on Ubuntu 14.04
  • How To Protect an Apache Server with Fail2Ban on Ubuntu 14.04

Conclusion

Now that you understand how firewalls work, you should look into implementing a firewall that will improve your security of your server setup by using the tutorials above.

A firewall is a software program or piece of hardware that helps screen out hackers, viruses, and worms that try to reach your computer over the Internet. If you can’t start Windows Firewall or you are getting an error, use Microsoft free tool to diagnose and fix problems.

  • If you use a computer at home, the most effective and important first step you can take to help protect your computer is to turn on a firewall.
  • Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP SP2 or higher have a firewall built-in and turned on by default. (Note: Support for Windows XP ended in April 2014.)
  • If you have more than one computer connected in the home, or if you have a small-office network, it is important to protect every computer. You should have a hardware firewall (such as a router) to protect your network, but you should also use a software firewall on each computer to help prevent the spread of a virus in your network if one of the computers becomes infected.
  • If your computer is part of a business, school, or other organizational network, you should follow the policy established by the network administrator.

Automatically diagnose and fix problems with Windows Firewall

Follow these steps to automatically repair Windows Firewall problems:
 
    • Select the Download button on this page.
    • In the File Download dialog box, click Run or Open, and then follow the steps in the Windows Firewall Troubleshooter.
Notes
  • This troubleshooter might be in English only. However, the automatic fix also works for versions of Windows in other languages.
  • If you’re not on the computer that has the problem, save the troubleshooter to a flash drive or a CD, and then run it on the computer that has the problem.
Download
What it fixes
    • Windows Firewall isn’t the default firewall
    • Windows Firewall doesn’t start
    • Windows couldn’t start Windows Firewall (Service-specific error 5 (0x5))
    • Remote Assistance isn’t working because it’s blocked by Windows Firewall
    • You’re unable to access shared files and printers because sharing is blocked by Windows Firewall
    • BFE service is missing
    • Firewall won’t start (Error Code 80070424)
Runs on
    • Windows 7
    • Windows 8
    • Windows 8.1
    • Windows 10

What is a firewall?

A firewall is a network security device located between your internal network and the wider Internet. A firewall monitors incoming and outgoing network traffic – blocking or allowing it based on a set of configurable rules.

Firewalls are a fundamental piece of security and typically form the first line of defence on a network. Acting as a filter against bad connections from the outside world.

A firewall works by comparing the data sent into or out of the network against a list of rules. Based on the results of the rule checking, the firewall will then either block or allow the connection.

How does a firewall work?

Firewalls work by inspecting data packets (small chunks of data) against an internal list of rules. Here are some of the more common ones:

  • IP addresses – filter out traffic from suspicious IPs
  • Domain names – block traffic from known malicious domains
  • Ports – deny traffic trying to enter through a certain port
  • Contents – block data packets containing certain keywords

A firewall scans the contents of the packet and then determines whether to let it through based on the rules in place. On a typical network setup, all connections to the Internet flow through the firewall. Meaning it inspects all inbound or outgoing packets.

How does firewall inspection work?

The process of inspection involves comparing a packet’s contents against the firewall’s set of rules. Depending on if the rule is setup as a blacklist or whitelist, it will react differently to a match.

  • A blacklist rule will block any packets which match the criteria.
  • A whitelist rule will block any packets which don’t match the criteria.

A firewall’s rules are highly configurable. Meaning you can make the packet inspection process unique to your security setup. Here are some examples of how you could use custom firewall rules:

  • Creating a whitelist for your own company IP. Preventing any outsiders from accessing what’s behind the firewall.
  • Making a blacklist for the IP of a known malicious file server. Stopping it from distributing malware onto your network.
  • Creating a whitelist for certain domain extensions (.com, .co.uk .edu e.t.c.) on outgoing traffic. Blocking staff from accessing potentially dangerous sites.

Why are firewalls important?

Firewalls are often compared to a lock on the door to your network. But it might be more accurate to say that a firewall is the door.

Without a firewall in place, any connection can flow freely in or out of your network. Including connections from known malicious sources. This means you could experience unauthorised access to networked files. Leading to a data breach, malware infection or worse.

You need a firewall to filter out the bulk of malicious connections. And there’s a lot of malicious connections. One study found that within 52 seconds of being online, servers were being probed by hackers. With an average rate of 757 connection attempts per hour.

Are firewalls hardware or software?

Firewalls can be either a hardware appliance or a piece of software which runs on a machine. So, the answer is both.

Not helpful, I know.

But the main difference between the two is this:

  • Software firewalls tend to protect the individual machine it’s installed upon, typically a laptop or PC
  • Hardware firewalls usually protect many machines or an entire network.

What types of firewall are there?

Circuit-level

Circuit level firewalls are a type of firewall that monitors transmission control protocol (TCP) handshaking. It ensures that the communication between packets is legitimate and not malicious.

Stateful inspection

A firewall with stateful inspection considers the state of current connections when filtering packets. This means that the firewall can block the packet in one case but allowed in another. Depending on the current state of the connection.

Unified threat management (UTM)

Whilst technically not a type of firewall, UTM is instead an advanced security appliance which combines the security functions of many different security appliances. One of these being a firewall. We have an article explaining everything you need to know about UTM if you wish to learn more.

What is a next-generation firewall?

A next-generation firewall (NGFW) contains all the normal defences that a traditional firewall has and more. The most common additions are intrusion prevention software and application control. But certain vendors have other bonus security features. NGFWs are also capable of deep packet inspection which enables more robust filters.

Intrusion prevention software monitors network activity to detect and stop vulnerability exploits from occurring. This is usually done by monitoring for breaches against the network policies in place.

Application control software sets up a hard filter for programs that can send or receive data over the Internet. This can either be done by blacklist (blocks any programs in the filter) or by whitelist (blocks any programs not in the filter).

What is deep packet inspection?

Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) is a type of packet inspection which analyses the full contents of a data packet. Instead of only information in a packet’s header (where it is coming from and going to).

This enables DPI to filter out malicious packets, such as viruses and trojans, with better accuracy. As rather than only looking at the sender and destination, the packet’s contents can be used in filters as well.

This allows DPI to uncover a broader range of security threats because it will discover packets with a malicious payload but an innocuous header.

Where did the name firewall come from?

A final piece of trivia: the name firewall originated from the real-world application of fire partitions used in buildings. These would be walls that were implemented into a building to act as a barrier to stop fire spreading from one room to another.

The similarity between a fire spreading through a building and a computer virus spreading through a network prompted the same name to be adopted for the network device.

Read More »