With the rise of remote work over the last few years, firewalls have become an invaluable tool that guards companies against dangerous and costly cyber threats. Firewall technology has been developing since the 1980s and nowadays is available in different forms to protect various systems companies have. Therefore, “firewall” has become an umbrella term for the various, differing types of firewall security.
How Does Firewall Security Function?
In a nutshell, a firewall is set between private networks and the Internet. This technology is a wall that filters the traffic that is coming from the public Internet.
The firewall for every business is going to have different settings based on the likely threats they might experience.
This tool can prevent unauthorized access to their networks, data breaches, and phishing scams that start with an email.
Some of the threats that a firewall can scan for and remove include Trojans, malware, DDoS, and more. Once it detects them, it blocks the attack.
Types of Firewall Security
Businesses have different infrastructures and require different firewalls to protect incoming traffic to their systems. The four kinds are:
- Proxy firewall
- Packet filtering
- Stateful inspection
- Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW)
The proxy firewall controls the information that is coming into and going out of systems. It protects the network by filtering messages that could become a gateway for hackers or enable them to conduct malicious cyberattacks.
Packet filtering analyzes the data that’s coming into the private network of organizations. This type is the one that comes to the minds of most people when they talk about firewalls because it’s the oldest and the most basic one.
Stateful inspection orients toward the network connections. Its main duty is to inspect them and determine which ones it’s going to let through the firewall.
NGFW accommodates increasingly complex infrastructures that need guarding. It specializes in guarding elaborate cloud environments, networks, and data centers. Essentially, it inspects the system to protect it from application-level threats.
Main Concerns with Firewalls
Before companies include firewalls in their business cybersecurity, they should be aware of these shortcomings:
- It can’t prevent all threats from entering and affecting your system
- Some types might need additional tools you can use to improve the security posture
A firewall has its limits and can’t account for any threats imaginable. That’s why companies utilize layered cybersecurity that includes multiple versatile tools to fend off threats from their system.
A firewall is set to detect specific threats such as Trojans and some suspicious activities could go under its radar. Zero-day threats (new hacking techniques and methods) could lead to successful hacking attempts because a firewall doesn’t anticipate them.
Top Benefits of Firewall Security
Key advantages of a firewall for businesses include that it:
- Protects the data that is coming into the system
- Ensures the privacy of the network
- Detects malicious traffic that could affect the workflow and proper working of the networks and systems organizations use
When threat actors breach systems, they’re mostly looking for sensitive information they can use for monetary gain. A firewall filters malicious bots from entering and altering your system.
A firewall keeps the networks private by detecting the attacks such as malware that could allow the hackers to get into the system and spy on employees and the work the company is doing.
One type of harmful traffic that could disrupt businesses is the Distributed Denial of Service (also known as DDoS). This type of attack can bring in false traffic and overwhelm the system to the point it can’t be accessed or aren’t usable and reliable.
As a result, employees might get behind with their work. If the attack is directed toward the website, it can get too slow and prompt customers and users to give up on your service and seek similar products elsewhere.
A firewall can detect malicious both that imitate the traffic to overwhelm the websites and systems before they financially damage companies.
Firewall vs. Antivirus
When setting up basic cybersecurity, many businesses wonder whether they need both antimalware and firewall. The truth is, it’s advisable to have both because they have different purposes and abilities.
Firewall specializes in detecting and mitigating threats that are coming from outside traffic.
Antivirus software, on the other hand, can remove threats that find their way to work devices via external sources such as USB.
Before you install the antivirus on your devices, check if you already own antivirus protection because often Microsoft Windows packages include it.
Some firewalls come already equipped with an antivirus as well. You can expect that in types such as Next-Generation Firewall.
Do Businesses Need Firewall Security?
Even if most of their work is done in the office, and they don’t have remote infrastructures or websites and applications on which they sell their services, companies can definitely benefit from firewalls.
It’s important to choose the type of firewall dedicated to protecting their type of assets.
Therefore, companies have to decide whether they need to improve the way they guard their websites or cloud environments that remote workers use to sign in to their systems.
Even though firewalls can’t protect your system from all conceivable threats (such as new sophisticated hacking techniques), the tool is crucial for businesses nowadays.
Regardless of the type of organization, employees will almost always connect to the Internet using a Wi-Fi connection to complete tasks.
A firewall exists as the first line of defense that stands between cybercriminals and critical assets of a business needing guarded.
Having a firewall will remove likely threats that are coming from the public networks and make a business more difficult to breach by hackers.
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