What is a Network Firewall and How it helps to Stop Attacks?

Do you believe this famous saying?

“A coin has two sides” or “There’s no rose without a thorn.”

It makes sense to me.

Let’s take the example of technology.

While technology has the power to transform the way we live, it also has the potential to take it all back.

That’s right!

Cyberattacks have become so frequent that you could see a new headline flashing every second day about a high-profile organization becoming the victims.

Not only are organizations suffering, but many public figures as well. Money and fame, everything could be at risk due to cybercriminals spoofing around. And the irony is that its solution also lies in mighty Technology itself. The technology to counteract such malicious activities could be firewalls.

A firewall is a protective barrier that can protect your network by preventing unauthorized access. With the number of attacks rising high, the global market for network performance management reached $11 billion in 2019, says this report.

It has many types, including network firewalls, software, cloud, and hardware-based firewall, application firewall, and more.

So, sometimes it becomes confusing to differentiate between network and application firewalls.

But not anymore; because in this article, I’m going to discuss that and put some more light on network firewalls and recommendations for it.

Stay tuned!

What is a Network Firewall?

A network firewall is a system that is capable of controlling access to your organization network and thereby protects your network. It acts as a filter to block non-legitimate incoming traffic before it could enter your organization’s network to cause damage.

Its major purpose is to provide protection to an inside network by separating it from the outside network. It also controls the communications between both the networks.

The different types of network firewalls are:

• Packet filters: They are traditional firewall systems that rely on packet attributes such as IP address of source and destination, protocols, and ports associated with individual packets. These attributes determine whether the packet or inkling traffic must be given access through the firewall or not.
• Stateful inspection firewalls: these firewalls have added capability of inspecting packets belonging to a complete session. If a session is perfectly established between two end-points, it permits communication.
• Application layer firewalls: they can examine application-layer information like an HTTP request, FTP, etc. If it finds some non-legitimate applications, it can block them right there.
• Next-generation firewalls: They are advanced firewalls with deep inspection capabilities beyond protocol or port blocking and inspection. It includes application-level inspection, intelligence, intrusion prevention, web application firewalls, etc.

How is it different than the Application Firewall?

Not every firewall is capable of protecting your system from all sorts of threats. For this, businesses consider using mainly two types of firewalls – network firewall and web application firewall (WAF). It’s important to understand the difference between these two firewalls to ensure better security for your network.

For this, let’s understand a bit about WAF in the first place.

A Web Application Firewall (WAF) can protect web applications from vulnerabilities unique to web applications and HTTP/S security loopholes.

In IT, digital security is divided into seven layers. WAFs provide the 7th layer of security, which is also termed as application-layer security.

Web applications are targeted with different attacks, including:

• Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS)
• Cross-site Scripting (XSS)
• SQL injection
• Brute force
• Spam
• Session hijacking

Difference

• Security Layer: Network firewalls perform at layer 3-4, which includes vulnerabilities associated with the incoming and outgoing network traffic as well as data transfer. WAFs operate at layer 7, which includes application-specific vulnerabilities, as mentioned above.
• Focus: Network firewalls are focused on protecting inbound and outbound traffic, whereas WAFs protect applications.
• Operation Mode: Network firewalls utilize two methods of operation – transparent and routed modes.  WAFs operate on – active inspection and passive mode.
• Placement: Network firewalls are placed on the network perimeter, whereas WAFs are placed close to the Internet-facing applications.
• Attack protection: Network firewalls protect from vulnerabilities like less secure zones and unauthorized access. WAFs protect from SQL injections, DDoS, and XSS attacks.
• Algorithms: Network firewalls use algorithms like packet filtering, proxy, and stateful inspection. WAFs use anomaly detection, heuristics, and signature-based algorithms.

How does it help to Stop Attacks at the edge?

A network firewall controls the flow of data and traffic to or from your network. These data are known as “packets,” which may or may not contain malicious codes to damage your system.

During busy days or peak holiday seasons, hackers bombard your network with malware, spam, virus, and other malicious intent.

At this time, your firewall applies a certain set of rules on the incoming and outgoing network traffic to examine whether they align with those rules or not.

• If it matches – the firewall allows the traffic to pass-through.
• If no – it rejects or blocks the traffic.

In this way, your network remains perfectly safe from any sorts of threats, be it internal or external.

Did I say internal?

Yes, the firewall is not just for the Internet-facing network but internal too. Remember, most of the attacks initiate internally, so ensure to implement firewall strategy wherever possible.

How to make the most of your firewall?

Are you new to using a network firewall?

If yes, then follow some firewall hacks to use your firewall effectively.

• Inspect the coverage of the firewall: If you have changed something on your network lately, do not forget to check all the systems that the firewall covers. Examine whether they are still protected or not to fix things immediately before the damage is done.
• Keep an eye on connected devices: If you or your employees connect a smartphone or any other device to the network, then it is necessary to protect them. For this, try installing a personal firewall on these devices to protect your data.
• Isolate your payment system: Safeguard your payment streams by keeping them away from vulnerabilities. For this, set your firewall, so it stops all kinds of untrusted data transfer to/from your payment systems.

Permit things that are of utmost necessity for card processing and sales while prohibiting direct communication between these systems and the Internet.

What are some of the popular cloud-based network firewalls available?

Let’s explore!

Google Cloud