Understanding Firewall Types

Get a handle on the concept of perimeter defence and navigate the myriad of firewall types

With the phenomenal level of interconnectedness prevalent in the modern world, opportunities arise not just in legitimate commercial enterprises, but also in the more clandestine establishments — individuals or organisations that seek to take advantage of unprotected systems and networks, with an overarching motive to threaten their targets for the purpose of extortion, cause immediate and lasting harm, or directly profit from illegal activities. Of course, the topic of conversation is cybercrime. But the choice of wording is intentional: it is more instructive to view cybercrime as a business, albeit an illegitimate one.

While just about any target is theoretically ‘hackable’, some are just not worth it. Like any business, a criminal organisation will seek to profit with minimal outlay, which means going after the easy targets, with trivial or non-existent defences. Your objective, therefore, is to make sure that you don’t fall into this group. And it starts with perimeter defence — the humble firewall.

What is a firewall

As a general statement, the role of a firewall is to segregate network traffic between two network segments, such that only legitimate…