Firewall Security: What is guarding your door?
What is the point of a firewall?
Back when speakeasies were around there was always a secret door that was guarded and you were not getting though unless you knew the password. Why did they do this? What was the point? That’s simple, to keep the bad people out, the people that wanted to bust them or ruin their good time. Let’s translate this over to the modern age, which of course centers on technology. We are constantly hearing about data breaches and sensitive information getting leaked and often wonder if what we are doing to protect our data is enough. Are we taking the right precautions?
Let’s start simple. Do you have a Firewall and is it configured to the specifications that you need it to be? Firewalls can either be software or hardware that monitors and evaluates the data moving on and off your computer or network from the internet. A Firewall is the guy guarding the door, asking for the password. If you are a company allowing your employees access to the internet or programs running on your computers with access to the internet then you need a firewall to protect your important information that is kept on your computer and/or network.
Home computers or small businesses mostly use software firewalls that help protect them from malicious internet attacks. While it is not the only solution out there, software firewalls work great for at home and smaller business use. Software firewalls are installed on each individual computer and generally work with your router program to inspect the data and determine if it can continue on or not, and can be configured with different controls. Some popular software firewalls include Symantec, ZoneAlarm and Comodo Firewall Pro. Depending on the size of your company or even the type of data you are trying to protect, a hardware firewall might be a better direction to go. Hardware firewalls are more complex and often installed between a network and the internet and configured using sets of rules. These types of firewalls should be installed and maintained by an IT professional. Some popular hardware firewalls include Dell SonicWall, Astaro Security Gateway, and Cisco PIX.
There are different types of filtering a firewall can do from Packet Filtering in which the firewall examines small pieces of data and analyzes them for access or denial; to Stateful Inspection where key parts of the data packets are examined. There are also add on features and products that include logging, reporting and automatic alarms. All of these variables can be installed or changed based on your specific needs.
Firewalls are an essential component to your business’ network, to determine the type of firewall you need along with the configuration and sets of rules that should be in place you should contact your IT professional. Not only can they make recommendations, their knowledge of how the software/hardware works could be necessary in implementing the firewall.
SDE Tech offers firewall installation and configuration and would be happy to work you with to ensure your data is safe and secure. Give us a call at 866-371-2265 or email info@sde-tech.com