What Are Firewall Types and How Do They Operate?
Firewalls help you protect your network, computers, and connected devices from cyber attacks. They inspect incoming and outgoing data packets and determine whether to allow or deny them based on a set of pre-programmed security rules. They also keep track of traffic and logs, providing a clear picture of what is coming into your network from the outside, as well as who is going out to the internet.
Firewall types differ in how they operate, but each one monitors incoming and outgoing data to prevent unwanted activity on your computer system. They analyze each packet of information, consider the source and destination address and the type code of a data packet to determine if it is legitimate or not.
A firewall that uses packet filtering, for example, will match the data packet against its rule set and take action when a specific condition is met. For example, it may block access to certain websites or restrict a specific employee from a department, such as HR or tech support.
A firewall that uses circuit level inspection, on the other hand, will examine the actual data packets during a ‘handshake’ between cyber entities to ensure they are legitimate. This can detect malware and other threats that traditional packet filtering, network layer firewalls, and state inspection firewalls cannot detect. A firewall that combines different types of firewalls to provide a more comprehensive security solution is called an NGFW or next generation firewall.