One of the main challenges facing companies in cybersecurity. Currently, many companies are trying various ways to make preventive efforts in dealing with cybersecurity. One of the tools that are generally used by companies is to use a firewall.
What is a Firewall?
A firewall is a type of cybersecurity tool or tool used to filter traffic on the network. This firewall is used to limit or control access to anyone who has access to a private network from outside parties. Today, the term firewall is a common term that refers to a system that manages communication between two different types of networks. Given that currently, many companies have access to the Internet and also of course a network with legal entities in it, it is necessary to protect the company’s digital devices from attacks by hackers, spies, or other data thieves.
Firewalls can be software, hardware, or cloud-based, with each type of firewall having its unique pros and cons. The firewall itself is divided into two types, namely personal firewalls and network firewalls.
A personal Firewall is a firewall designed to protect a computer connected to a network from unwanted access. This type of firewall has recently evolved into a collection of programs that aim to completely secure the computer, with the addition of several additional security features such as virus protection, anti-spyware, anti-spam, and others. Even some other Firewall products are equipped with network security intrusion detection functions (Intrusion Detection System). Examples of this type of firewall are the Microsoft Windows Firewall (which is integrated into the Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 operating systems), Symantec Norton Personal Firewall, Kerio Personal Firewall, and others. In general, Personal Firewalls only have two main features, namely Packet Filter Firewall and Stateful Firewall.
A network Firewall is a firewall designed to protect the network as a whole from various attacks. Generally found in two forms, namely a dedicated device or as a software installed on a server. Examples of this firewall are Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server (ISA Server), Cisco PIX, Cisco ASA, IPTables in the GNU / Linux operating system, pf in the BSD Unix family of operating systems, and SunScreen from Sun Microsystems, Inc. which is bundled in the Solaris operating system.
So that the Network Firewall has several main features, namely what personal Firewalls have (packet filter firewalls and stateful firewalls), Circuit Level Gateway, Application Level Gateway, and also NAT Firewall. Network Firewalls are generally transparent (invisible) from users and use routing technology to determine which packets are allowed, and which packets to reject.
So in general it can be said that a firewall works by tracking and controlling the flow of data and deciding actions to pass, drop, reject, encrypt, or log data. Firewalls ensure that data conforms to the rules contained in the security policy, which is a set of rules that have been defined in internal network security.
The following are some of the firewall functions including:
Control and monitor data packets flowing on the network
Firewalls must be able to organize, filter, and control the data traffic that is allowed to access protected private networks. A firewall must also be able to check data packets that will pass through private networks or computers that are protected by a firewall.
Several criteria are applied by the firewall whether or not to allow data packets to pass, including:
- IP address of source computer
- Source TCP / UDP port from source
- IP address of destination computer
- Data destination port TCP / UDP on the destination computer
- Information from the header is stored in the data packet
Perform authentication against access.
Application Proxy Firewall can check more than just packet header data, this capability requires firewall to be able to detect it.
Log every transaction event that occurs at the firewall. It is a special application protocol which is a specification. Allows to assist as early detection of network outages.
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