A firewall provides a leveraged choke point for network security. It allows the corporation to focus on a critically vulnerable point: where the corporation’s information system connects to the Internet. The firewall can control and prevent attacks from insecure network services. A firewall can effectively monitor all traffic passing through the system. In this manner, the firewall serves as an auditor for the system and can alert the corporation to anomalies in the system. The firewall can also log access and compile statistics that can be used to create a profile of the system.
Some firewalls, on the other hand, permit only email traffic through them, thereby protecting the network against any attacks other than attacks against the email service. Other firewalls provide less strict protections and block services that are known to be problems.
Generally, firewalls are configured to protect against unauthenticated interactive logins from the outside world. This, more than anything, helps prevent vandals from logging into machines on your network. More elaborate firewalls block traffic from the outside to the inside but permit users on the inside to communicate freely with the outside..
Firewalls are also important since they can provide a single choke point where security and audit can be imposed. Unlike in a situation where a computer system is being attacked by someone dialing in with a modem, the firewall can act as an effective phone tap and tracing tool. Firewalls provide an important logging and auditing function. Often, they provide summaries to the administrator about what kinds and amount of traffic passed through it, how many attempts there were to break into it, etc.
The following are the primary benefits of using a firewall:
• Protection from vulnerable services
• Controlled access to site systems
• Concentrated security
• Enhanced privacy
• Logging and statistics on network use and misuse
• Policy enforcement
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