Security and Privacy: The Next Generation of Firewalls

November 24, 2017

Security and Privacy. Are you protected? The Next Generation of Firewalls and Firewall Protection

Updated November 27, 2018

A network firewall is the first line of defense. Years ago, a firewall was only necessary for large companies. That’s changed as we’ve moved into the digital age. Small business owners are vulnerable to cyber security attacks. The first line of defense in protecting any business data is a network firewall.

Is your Network Firewall protection out of date?

Security breaches in large companies occur all too frequently. Even with hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent on the best network security, corporations have their customer’s email addresses, credit card numbers and personal data stolen. If large companies are getting hacked, how safe is the average small business owner? A good first step to take is to look at your firewall protection. Consider giving your firewall a thorough “checkup”. Learn more by reading our blog, Is Your Firewall Setup Correct?

Considering a network firewall upgrade?

If your firewall is several years old, consider updating it. There many network firewalls on the market. Here’s a look at several types.

1. Traditional Firewalls and Next Generation Firewalls

A traditional firewall was the first type of firewall developed. It blocks or allows traffic through ports, protocols, and IP addresses. This type of firewall has limited defense capabilities.

Next Generation Firewalls are just that – the next generation of traditional firewalls. A Next Generation Firewall is a “smarter” firewall with added security features. It has evolved from Traditional Firewalls. Next Generation Firewalls detect application- specific attacks. Using advance filtering technology, these firewalls decipher content and identify the sender. Filters automatically exclude specific IP addresses, or certain types of content. Malware detection triggers a warning.

A good example of a Next Generation Firewall is Cisco Firepower. Cisco Firepower provides application control, intrusion prevention, URL filtering, and advanced malware protection. It alerts, investigates and remediates malware outbreaks. It continuously updates itself as emerging threats evolve.

2. Container Firewalls

Like Next Generation Firewalls, Container Firewalls can detect and defend against internal level Denial of Service (DDoS) and Domain Name System (DNS) attacks. And, like Next Generation firewalls, they allow blacklisting of IP addresses. In very simple terms, Container Firewalls provide protection to “containers” (virtualized applications). Container firewalls monitor internal traffic in these containers. Suspicious connections are automatically dropped. Abnormal activity is quarantined.

Organizations using many containers have difficulty in keeping on top of vulnerabilities that crop up with each software package being used. Container firewalls provide an extra level or security by keeping watch over a company’s cloud microservice activities. If you are small business owner, it’s unlikely that you will need this type of firewall.

3. Web Application Firewalls

Web Application Firewalls protect a specific web application or set of web applications. They do their work by monitoring, filtering and blocking data packets to and from a web application. They defend your network against cross-site scripting attacks (XSS) and SQL injection, session hijacking and buffer overflows. This type of firewall is useful for companies that provide products or services over the internet.

What’s the Best Small Business Firewall?

Which firewall device is best for your business? Nettology’s engineers will be happy to discuss options that fit your specific business needs and budget. We are “vendor agnostic” and will recommend and implement a firewall that fits your company’s unique criteria and will best safeguard your data.