Companies and organizations invest significant amounts in cyber security depending on the importance of their business; i.e. implementing basic SSL certificates, if this is only a personal blog site, and for e-commerce sites it is recommended to choose strong site security. Firewalls are also one of the security measures that protect the system from hackers and cyber criminals who are active by hacking via the Internet and manipulating system functions. Why are firewalls important?
Types of firewalls
Hardware firewalls
The simple concept of a hardware firewall is that it is between the computer and the network in a box, not on the computer, and needs a specialized IT department to configure and monitor it. They generally perform packet filtering, analyzing packets and allowing them to be received, and discarding suspicious ones.
Software firewalls
These firewalls are installed on individual systems and can filter both inbound and outbound network traffic. One common disadvantage is that they need to be updated, administered and installed on every computer, and updated from time to time.
How the firewall can help protect your site’s vulnerabilities
The firewall monitors all network traffic and can identify and block unwanted traffic. Since most computers are currently connected to the Internet, attackers have many opportunities to find victims’ computers. These attackers check other computers on the Internet to determine if they are vulnerable to various types of attacks. When they find the right computer, they can compromise it and put themselves on that computer. At this point, the attacker can make the victim’s computer perform almost any task it wishes. Attackers often try to steal personal data for financial fraud. All this activity is done in the background and the user does not know what is happening.
Settings
Firewall protection must be part of the overall computer security plan. This may also include a clear set of written policies regarding the use of external networks, moving disks or flash drives from other computers, and storing sensitive data. IT staff may also recommend the use of virus scanners and malware, WPA security for a wireless network, or some kind of encryption for hard drives and other data storage devices. If you do not have the specialist knowledge to configure and configure firewalls, consider employing an external consultant who will perform the configuration and periodic updates. A badly configured firewall can significantly reduce performance without increasing security.