Posted: January 20th, 2023

Firewalls

Firewalls
Introduction
Since the late 1980s, the word firewall has seen restricted use to portray a device that obstructs unwanted network traffic while enabling other traffic to pass. The 1st published definition of “contemporary” firewall encompassing the use of that term was in an article named ‘Practical Unix Security’ whose publication was in the year 1991. So, what is firewall as it relates to IT? A firewall refers to a system or group of systems that work to put into effect an access control policy between 2 networks. Notably, there are 2 types of firewalls; dynamic and static. That said, this paper seeks to provide a synopsis of an article that talks about firewalls and my personal assessment of the article along with conclusions.
Article summary
In their article, Green and Butler (2019) explain what a firewall is, and state the various types of firewalls, as well as provide a description of these firewalls. The authors go on further to describe how the firewalls function and how they fit into enterprise security. The article also talks about the characteristics of the new generation firewalls (NGFWs) and features the most famous vendors of firewalls. The authors’ key points are listed as follows:
• What is firewall?
• Proxy-based firewalls
• Stateful firewalls
• Web application firewalls
• Next generation firewalls
• Features of NGFWs
 Intrusion prevention systems
 Deep packet inspection
 SSL/TLS termination
 Sandboxing
• Most popular firewall vendors
 Cisco,
 Checkpoint
 Palo Alto Networks
 Fortinet
Personal Assessment
I found the article to be very informative. The authors begin by providing a brief background about firewalls. For instance, they cite that firewalls have been in existence for more than 30 years, but with time, have evolved to encompass more features. As I read the article, I also learned that the new features used to be sold as separate devices. Therefore, I found the article to be very helpful for my research in IT security. The article is also arranged in an orderly manner. After the background information, the authors describe what a firewall is thus enabling the reader to have a clear picture of what it is prior to reading other sub-topics. The article then goes to list the different types of firewalls while describing each of them and explaining what they are used for. It must be noted that all they types of firewalls mentioned are well articulated and hence easily understandable.
In my opinion, the most important information addressed by the article is about the new generation firewalls. I have come to learn that NGFWs have revolutionized the IT world. Apparently, these types of firewalls incorporate features that were in the past handled by different appliances, thus making them multi-functional (Greene & Butler, 2019). All of NGFWs’ features work together to enhance the security of networks by reducing the avenues of attack and by restricting the applications that run on it. In addition, the extra features serve to increase network speed and decrease infrastructural complexities.
I also found the article to be straight to the point. This means that the authors put focus on providing the necessary information regarding an issue. As such, they do not deviate from the topic. I applaud the authors of the article for mentioning the most famous vendors of firewalls. By doing so, they serve to acknowledge the significant work that these companies are doing in providing IT security. I also believe that by naming these vendors they are indirectly marketing their (vendors) services to the readers. For this reason, any individual interested in firewall services can contact these service providers. Notably, the article mentions the ranking of some of these vendors. This way, the reader gets to gage which among the vendors provide the best of services.
Part of the article’s topic states”…how firewalls fit into enterprise security.” Therefore, any person reading the article would expect that one of the sub-topics addresses this issue. Unfortunately, there is no such sub-topic. Instead, information regarding the way firewalls fit into enterprise security is vaguely mentioned within other sub-topics. If one is not attentive enough one would miss it. I thus conclude that this is one of the major weaknesses of the article. Another weakness of this article is that its heading is too wordy. The heading is phrased in a way that would make someone think that it is the summary of the article. In my opinion, it is not appealing.
Conclusion
Obviously, I found the article to be insightful. It was comprehensible and straight to the point as well. The authors also put their main points across in an orderly manner by using sub-headings. Mentioning the vendors of firewalls and providing their ranks was a good move. This is because they served to help those in need of firewall services to contact the best service providers. However, the article had some weaknesses such as failing to address the issue of how firewalls fit into enterprise security in detail. The heading of the topic was too wordy as well. Overall, this is a good written article that I would recommend to anyone who has an interest in learning more about IT security.

Reference
Greene, T. & Butler, B. (2019). What is a firewall? How they work and how they fit into
enterprise security. Retrieved from https://www.networkworld.com/article/3230457/lan-wan/what-is-a-firewall-perimeter-stateful-inspection-next-generation.html
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Study Notes:
Discuss firewalls:• What is firewall?
• Proxy-based firewalls
• Stateful firewalls
• Web application firewalls
• Next generation firewalls
• Features of NGFWs
 Intrusion prevention systems
 Deep packet inspection
 SSL/TLS termination
 Sandboxing
• Most popular firewall vendors
 Cisco,
 Checkpoint
 Palo Alto Networks
 Fortinet

A firewall is a network security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules and policies.

Proxy-based firewalls act as an intermediary between a protected network and the outside world, forwarding traffic between them while also providing security features such as filtering and caching.

Stateful firewalls, also known as dynamic packet filtering firewalls, keep track of the state of network connections and make decisions about whether to allow or block traffic based on that state.

Web application firewalls (WAFs) are specialized firewalls that protect web applications from various types of attacks, such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting.

Next generation firewalls (NGFWs) are a newer type of firewall that provide more advanced security features than traditional firewalls. These features include intrusion prevention systems (IPS), deep packet inspection (DPI), SSL/TLS termination, and sandboxing.

Popular firewall vendors include Cisco, Checkpoint, Palo Alto Networks, and Fortinet. These vendors offer a range of firewall products, including traditional firewalls, NGFWs, and other specialized firewall solutions.