Layers of security inside a network ensure the best possible protection against bad actors or any intrusion. You can’t depend on your local internet service provider to protect or even really care about security. The first layer of protection after your ISP’s modem needs to be a next-gen firewall system.
A firewall accomplishes several goals in protecting your network. It logs every piece of traffic that flows in or out of the internet, then it filters that traffic according to security policies setup by a security professional. These filters are great at blocking traffic from certain countries or blocking sites that shouldn’t be accessed while at work.
Cisco, a leader in network technology, describes the next-gen firewall system, “While a traditional firewall typically provides stateful inspection of incoming and outgoing network traffic, a next-generation firewall includes additional features like application awareness and control, integrated intrusion prevention, and cloud-delivered threat intelligence.”
Application awareness allows a business to specify what applications are allowed to operate on their network. Integrated intrusion prevention has several elements to the process, but the main point is the service scans for and isolates threats, while alerting the security agents to the issue to fully resolve. Cloud-delivered threat intelligence simply means the device always has the latest information which allows the services to act faster to real-time threats.
The absolute best feature of having a firewall, in my opinion, is being able to control the traffic. Having absolute control of anything going in or out of the network just makes sense for a business and creates layers that are essential to the protection of the network.
On the next episode I’m going to talk about how amazing it is to have an MSP or IT staff.