What is a Firewall and the types of Firewall?
In this blog, we will be share with you full details of What is Firewall and types of Firewall. A firewall is a network security system and the role of a Firewall is to monitor and control the incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined protection rules. A firewall generally establishes a barrier between a trusted, safe internal network & an untrusted external network, just like the Internet.
Firewalls are hardware-based, software-based, or a combination of both. Hardware-based firewalls are commonly installed as an appliance that sits between the internal network & the Internet connection. Software-based firewalls are established on individual servers & work in conjunction with the server’s operating system to protect the network.
Also read: Phishing Protection solution: SPF, DKIM, DMARC
Types of Firewalls
Packet filtering
A small amount of data is examined and distributed according to the filter’s standards.
Proxy service
A network protection system that protects while filtering messages at the application layer.
Stateful inspection
Dynamic packet filtering monitors active connections to determine which network packets to allow via the Firewall.
Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW)
Deep packet inspection Firewall with application-level inspection.
Here are all types of firewall.
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What Firewalls Do?
A Firewall is a necessary part of any protection architecture and takes the guesswork out of host-level protections and assigns them to your network security device. Firewalls, and mainly Next Generation Firewalls, focus on blocking malware and application-layer attacks, along with an integrated intrusion prevention system (IPS), these Next Generation Firewalls react rapidly and seamlessly to detect and react to outside attacks across the whole network. They can set policies to better defend your network & carry out quick assessments to detect invasive or doubtful activity, like malware, & shut it down.
Why Do We Need Firewalls?
By leveraging a firewall for your protection infrastructure, you’re setting up your network with specific policies to allow or block incoming & outgoing traffic.
Network Layer vs. Application Layer Inspection
Network layer or packet filters inspect packets at a relatively low level of the TCP/IP (Internet Protocol) protocol stack, not allowing packets to pass via the firewall unless they match the installed rule set where the source & destination of the rule set are based upon Internet Protocol (IP) addresses & ports. Firewalls that do network layer inspection perform better than similar devices that do application layer inspection. The downside is that unwanted applications or malware can pass over allowed ports, e.g. outbound Internet traffic over web protocols HTTP & HTTPS, ports 80 & 443 respectively.
Also read: Safetica NXT, next-gen SaaS DLP solution
The Importance of NAT and VPN
Firewalls can also perform basic network-level functions such as Network Address Translation (NAT) & Virtual Private Networks (VPN). Network Address Translation (NAT) hides or translates internal client or server IP addresses that may be in a “private address range”, as described in RFC 1918 to a public IP address. Hiding the addresses of protected devices preserves the limited number of IPv4 addresses & is a defense against network reconnaissance since the IP (Internet Protocol) address is hidden from the Internet.
Similarly, a virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network within a tunnel that is often encrypted where the contents of the packets are saved while traversing the Internet. This enables users to securely send and receive data across shared or public networks.
Next-Generation Firewalls and Beyond
Next-Generation Firewalls inspect packets at the application level of the TCP/IP (Internet Protocol) stack and can identify applications like Skype, or Facebook and enforce a protection policy based on the type of application.
Today, UTM (Unified Threat Management) devices and Next Generation Firewalls also include threat prevention technologies like intrusion prevention systems (IPS) or Antivirus to detect and prevent malware attacks & threats. These devices may also include sandboxing technologies to detect threats and attacks in files.
As the cyber security landscape continues to evolve & attacks become more sophisticated, Next Generation Firewalls will continue to be an important component of any company’s security solution, whether you are in the data center, network, or cloud. In the above article, we share with you full details about all types of firewall. We hope you clearly understand. To know more about the essential capabilities of your Next Generation Firewall contact Green Edge computers. We are a trusted partner of Firewall in Dubai.
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