A firewall is a network security device that monitors and filters incoming and outgoing network traffic by the security policies that have been previously defined by an organisation. Firewalls are fundamentally the barrier that separates an internal private network from the public Internet at their most basic level of operation. The primary function of a firewall is to enable non-threatening traffic to pass through while keeping harmful traffic out.
Firewall History
Firewalls have been around since the late 1980s and were originally known as packet filters, which were networks that were set up to inspect packets, or bytes, that were being passed between computers at the time. Even though packet filtering firewalls are still in use today, firewalls have come a long way as technology has progressed over several decades.
Anti-virus products were driven by viral attacks on stand-alone computers in the late 1980s, which affected all businesses and prompted the development of anti-virus programmes.
Generation 2 Networks In the mid-1990s, threats from the internet had a significant impact on all businesses, prompting the development of the firewall.
The early 2000s: Generation 3 applications exploited weaknesses in applications that affected most organisations and pushed the development of intrusion prevention systems (IPS).
Payload Generation 4 (about 2010) saw the increase of targeted, unknown, evasive, and polymorphic attacks, which affected nearly all organisations and prompted the development of anti-bot and sandboxing software.
The Gen 5 Mega Generation 5 Mega Generation 5, about 2017, huge scale, multi-vector, mega attacks employing advanced attack tools, and is pushing the development of advanced threat protection systems.
Back in 1993, Check Point CEO Gil Shwed launched FireWall-1, which was the world’s first stateful inspection firewall. Fast forward twenty-seven years, and a firewall is still the first line of security against cyber threats for most organisations. With built-in features, today’s firewalls, including Next-Generation Firewalls and Network Firewalls, can perform a wide range of functions and capabilities, including the following:
Application for Network Threat Prevention (NTPA) and Identity-Based Control (IBC)
The Hybrid Cloud Provides Scalable Performance Different Types of Firewalls
Types of Firewalls
A tiny amount of data is examined and delivered following the standards of the filter.
Proxies are used as a means of communication between two parties.
A network security system that protects while filtering communications at the application layer is known as a network security system.
Inspection carried out in good faith
Dynamic packet filtering is a feature of the Firewall that monitors active connections to determine which network packets should be allowed through.
Deep packet inspection (DPI) is a feature of Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs). Application-level inspection is provided by a firewall.
What do Firewalls Do?
A firewall is an essential component of any security design because it removes the guesswork from host-level defences and places them in the hands of your network security device instead. When used in conjunction with an integrated intrusion prevention system (IPS), firewalls, particularly Next-Generation Firewalls, are capable of reacting quickly and seamlessly to detect and respond to outside attacks across the entire network. Next-Generation Firewalls are particularly effective at blocking malware and application-layer attacks. These professionals can design policies to better safeguard your network and conduct fast assessments to discover invasive or suspicious behaviour, such as malware, and shut it down as soon as possible.
Why Do We Need Firewalls?
Firewalls, particularly Next-Generation Firewalls, are designed to prevent malware and application-layer assaults from being executed. These Next-Generation Firewalls, when used in conjunction with an integrated intrusion prevention system (IPS), are capable of responding swiftly and seamlessly to identify and combat assaults throughout the whole network. Firewalls can take action based on previously defined policies to better safeguard your network, and they can perform fast assessments to detect invasive or suspicious behaviour, such as malware, and shut it down immediately. You’re configuring your network with precise policies to allow or restrict incoming and outgoing traffic when you use a firewall as part of your security infrastructure.
Network Layer vs. Application Layer Inspection
In the TCP/IP protocol stack, network layer or packet filters inspect packets at a relatively low level, preventing packets from passing through the firewall unless they match the established rule set, where the source and destination of the ruleset are based on Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and ports. Compared to similar devices that do application layer inspection, network layer inspection-capable firewalls outperform their counterparts. Unfortunately, undesired applications or viruses can pass through permitted ports, such as outbound Internet traffic over the web protocols HTTP and HTTPS, which use ports 80 and 443 respectively, or inbound Internet traffic over the HTTP protocol.
The Importance of NAT and VPN
As well as basic network activities such as Network Address Translation (NAT) and Virtual Private Networking (VPN), firewalls handle other tasks (VPN). In RFC 1918, the term “private address range” refers to a set of internal client or server IP addresses that are not visible to the public. Network Address Translation (NAT) is used to hide or translate internal client or server IP addresses that are not visible to the public. Hide the IP addresses of protected devices to preserve the limited number of IPv4 addresses available. It also serves as a barrier against network spying because the IP address is concealed from the Internet while using this technique.
As an analogy, a virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network behind a tunnel that is frequently encrypted, ensuring that the contents of packets are safeguarded while they are being transmitted across the Internet. Using this method, users can send and securely receive data across shared or public networks.
Next-Generation Firewalls and Beyond
Following the application layer of the TCP/IP stack, Next-Generation Firewalls are capable of identifying apps such as Skype or Facebook and enforcing security policies based on the type of application being used.
To identify and prevent malware and other threats, UTM (Unified Threat Management) devices and Next-Generation Firewalls are now equipped with threat-prevention technologies like intrusion prevention systems (IPS) and antivirus software. These devices may also have sandboxing technologies, which can be used to identify malicious code in documents.
