Firewalls prevents your walls from catching fire when you’re so busy trying to protect your data from malicious attacks… Just kidding. Read further for everything you need to know about Firewalls.

Author: Clarissa Vosloo

Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes

Firewalls

A firewall is a network security device that monitors incoming and outgoing network traffic and permits, or blocks data packets based on a set of security rules. Its purpose is to establish a barrier between your internal network and incoming traffic from external sources (such as the internet) to block malicious traffic like viruses and hackers (Forcepoint).

How does a firewall work?

Firewalls carefully analyze incoming traffic based on pre-established rules and filter traffic coming from unsecured or suspicious sources to prevent attacks. It guards traffic at a computer’s entry point, called ports, which is where information is exchanged with external devices (Forcepoint).

Firewalls consist of a few parts like an estate, you have booms to let authorized people in and out, you have walls and fences keeping the foot traffic at bay, and an electric fence to alarm and deter determined criminals. Like a security guard, they patrol and keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. “

  Shaun Herbert

Different types of Firewalls each with a different purpose

Different firewalls for different purposes. Just as anything else, each type of firewall has its own advantages and disadvantages (which we will discuss in a future blog post).

  1. Packet-Filtering Network Firewalls
  2. Web Application Firewalls
  3. Unified Threat Management Appliances
  4. Network Segmentation Firewalls
  5. Cloud-Based Firewalls
  6. Database Firewalls
  7. Circuit-Level Gateways
  8. Stateful Multilayer Inspection Firewall

At iTRINITY Consulting we make use of two main products named the Sophos Intercept X Advanced with EDR and the Sophos Intercept X Advanced for Server with EDR. The Sophos XG Firewall (which is the main hardware of the two products mentioned above) brings a fresh new approach to the way you manage your firewall, responds to threats, and monitor what’s happening on your network (Sophos). The Sophos has been built to expose hidden risks, block both known and unknown threats, and automatically respond to incidents.

See it. Stop it. Secure it.

Image: provided by Sophos

With Sophos you can choose from several modules to customize the protection offered by your firewall to your individual needs and deployment scenario for example: network protection, web protection, email protection, web server protection and sandstorm protection.

Network protection: stop sophisticated attacks and advanced threats while providing secure network access to those you trust.

Web Protection: Unmatched visibility and control over all your user’s web and application activity.

Email protection: consolidate your email protection with anti-spam, DLP, and encryption.

Web Server Protection: Harden your web servers and business applications against hacking attempts while providing secure access.

Sandstorm Protection: AI-driven static and dynamic file analysis techniques combine to bring unprecedented threat intelligence to your firewall and so effectively identify and block ransomware, known and unknown threats.

What Can We At iTRINITY Consulting Do for You?

We bridge company branches together with site-to-site VPNs managed by firewalls.

We protect all traffic in and out of client networks.

We block and restrict websites and services where needed.

We prevent seamless network failovers between multiple internet connections.

We do cloud reporting and management of devices.

So… Maybe you would ask me… then what’s the next step? The answer is simple. Start building a relationship with your favorite “Fire-Fighter” at iTRINITY Consulting – Shaun Herbert. He will bridge and extinguish all the flames, which will eventually, along the way fire up if you don’t make sure your firewalls are being activated.

Make sure to visit our website HOME – iTrinity IT Support South Africa  and watch this space for more blogpost on the things that matter the most these days – the online world!