Types of Firewalls
Firewalls are essential for preventing attacks from gaining a foothold on your network. They provide a critical layer of defense, protecting networks from common threats that steal data and undermine trust.
Firewall security rules determine what traffic is allowed or blocked on a packet-by-packet basis. They look at control information contained in a packet header such as source and destination IP addresses, port numbers, and protocols to make decisions. More advanced firewalls examine more than just the packet header. They track the state of active connections to evaluate traffic in context and detect sophisticated threats.
A hardware firewall is typically installed between your internal network and the external one (usually the internet). These are designed to be a logical barrier that prevents access to sensitive information and servers by limiting what can reach them.
You may also have a software firewall on your laptop or mobile device. These are designed to work in tandem with the operating system and application layer on a PC or mobile device to prevent malware from being downloaded or transmitted.
Other types of firewalls include proxy firewalls, which act as an intermediary between a client and server. These are able to inspect web applications and other types of traffic, but they can introduce latency that impacts performance. Finally, there are next-generation firewalls (NGFW) that combine traditional functionality with additional capabilities like intrusion prevention and traffic decryption. These are designed to meet the requirements of modern environments.