Firewalls are one of the most important components of a good security system.
A firewall is any computer you set up to evaluate the traffic coming and going through your Internet connection.
Many self-proclaimed security experts fail to address the issue of outgoing packets when implementing a firewall. Not only is it important to manage the traffic coming in to your network but you must also filter the outgoing traffic as well.
General Firewall Filtering
Generally speaking, most Internet routers can be configured as a firewall. The firewall looks at each packet as it comes and goes though it and determines what rules apply and directs the packets according to those rules.
This means if you wan no traffic coming or going to certain hacker domains or YouTube or any other such domains, then tell that to the firewall and they’ll stop all packets to or from that address.
Inbound Filtering
Inbound firewall filtering monitors the packet types and the source and destinations and decides if the packets should allowed, blocked, or changed in some way.
This is how you would set up a DMZ so the machines aren’t visible to the outside world. The rule could say if it’s a packet coming from outside the local network and outside the DMZ then it should be blocked. At this point the originating address could also be blocked for all types of traffic just in case they’re trying to break in.
Outbound Filtering
Just as important as inbound firewall rules are the outbound rules. If a machine on your local network gets compromised these outbound rules will prevent it from reaching the machine that is trying to control it.
It’s possible that the compromised machine on your network is trying to connect to a controlling computer or is trying to download your company’s personal information, these outbound filters will prevent it from reaching its destination.
Firewall rules can be quite complex and are such a fundamental piece of a security program that you don’t want to risk getting it wrong. Contact us and we can design and implement a firewall that works for you company considering both incoming traffic and outbound traffic.
Contact us a Access Technologies, a Nevada based Computer Security company.