Understanding Firewalls: Your First Line of Defence Against Cyber Threats

August 2, 2022   

A firewall is hardware or software that protects your network by filtering traffic and blocking unauthorised access to your computer. 

What is a firewall used for, and how does it work? 

A firewall acts like a gatekeeper, tracking attempts of unwelcomed “guests” to your site and those accessing your operating system; the firewall stops the unwanted or unidentified activity. 

A firewall or network gatekeeper stops network traffic from coming in that hasn’t been asked for and checks access by looking for viruses and hackers in the flow. 

For instance, a firewall will only let connections in that it knows how to handle. It does this by deciding whether to accept a set of data packets, which are the units of communication you send over digital networks, based on security criteria that have already been set. 

Did you know that most computers and security programs come with a pre-installed firewall? 

TIPS: 

• Check that standard firewall functionalities are enabled 
• Make sure your security settings are set up to execute updates automatically. 
• There also are cloud-based firewalls, known as firewall as a Service (FaaS). 
• One benefit of cloud-based firewalls is that they can grow with your business and, like hardware firewalls, do well with perimeter security. 

Complete IT Business Solutions provide these firewall options: 

Next-Generation Firewall from Sophos – https://www.sophos.com/en-us/products 

Ishield – https://www.cloudgroup.co.za/managed-firewalls/