Firewall security helps to minimize your business’s exposure to cyber-attacks by blocking access to potentially harmful websites. However, a firewall alone cannot protect your business against constant threats. You need other layers of security, like a content filtering firewall and intrusion prevention, to keep your computers safe.
Defending Against Spyware
Firewalls prevent viruses from infiltrating a network. They can also help prevent malware, spyware, phishing, Trojan horses, and ransomware from spreading throughout your business.
Firewall security protects against hackers searching for computers, like telemarketers hunting down random phone numbers. They send out pings to thousands of computers simultaneously, and firewalls stop them from responding.
Some types of firewalls, such as stateful inspection and application-level gateways or proxies, examine the payload in each packet. This gives them the ability to distinguish malicious code from legitimate data requests. These firewalls can also shape traffic policy and limit bandwidth for certain applications or media streaming. Which can benefit organizations that want to limit employees’ access to inappropriate websites. They can also ensure that the company’s most sensitive files are stored in one place.
Blocking Unwanted Access
Firewalls block unwanted access to your computer based on pre-programmed security rules. They’re essentially like security guards at the door of your office, screening people before they enter.
Packet filtering firewalls examine data packets and decide whether to let them through based on criteria like source/destination IP addresses, ports, and protocols. They also monitor activity for signs of suspicious behavior, such as a sudden spike in traffic or large amounts of data leaving the network.
Stateful inspection firewalls examine traffic on the application layer, checking information such as the payload of data packets for malware and other threats. They can also detect if a connection has already been established and evaluate new connections accordingly.
Detecting Malware
A firewall can detect malware by analyzing traffic patterns, behavior, and other characteristics that are unique to these threats. It will then determine whether a network is infected with ransomware, Trojans, viruses, worms, spyware, adware, or other types of malware.
Firewalls can use a packet filter or application gateway to inspect specific aspects of data packets and messages.
A firewall can prevent malware from spreading by limiting access to websites that are known to harbor these destructive programs. It can also thwart employees’ attempts to click on links in official-looking emails that direct them to malicious sites. It can even track the trajectory of malware files to identify how they spread across hosts.
Identifying Intruders
Detection systems can be classified as knowledge-based or behavior-based. Most commercially available systems are knowledge-based and use signatures of known attacks. While this can be reliable and generate a few false positives. It can leave a company vulnerable to attack vectors that have not been previously cataloged.
Firewalls can also be configured to apply filtering techniques. This involves cross-checking public lists of harmful websites, identifying specific keywords, and looking for other indicators pointing to malware or unwanted elements.
Firewalls can also prevent devices from being remotely controlled by hackers. This can be done by requiring users to log in using multi-factor authentication or blocking remote access from specific IP addresses. This can prevent hackers from taking control of a device and spreading threats such as worms, viruses, Trojan horses, and ransomware.
Defending Against Viruses
Firewalls are often used as a first line of defense against viruses. Viruses are software programs that can cause great damage and disruption to your systems, including losing essential data.
To prevent these malicious programs from contaminating your systems, firewalls monitor and analyze the data in and out of your network. They can inspect the contents of information packets and compare them against a list of known threats, and if they match, the data packets are discarded, protecting your devices and networks from malware.
Firewalls can also protect against phishing attacks that lure employees into clicking on links that lead to websites harboring malware and viruses. This will prevent your employees from unknowingly installing these destructive programs on their computers and infecting the entire system.
Defending Against Hackers
When the World Wide Web gained momentum in the 1990s, it created many opportunities, including allowing businesses to share data and conduct business online. But the growth of connectivity also brought new threats like spam and computer viruses.
Firewalls protect the information on your systems by creating a barrier between your information and cyberattacks. Firewalls analyze the data packets that enter and leave your system and alert you to suspicious activity.
Properly managing your firewalls can prevent hackers, malware, and viruses from accessing your network. It can also prevent employees from visiting websites known to install these destructive programs into employee computers. This can save you money on ransom costs, credit monitoring services, and hiring customer service personnel to handle a rash of calls.
