Firewall - Computer Network Security Firewall Research white papers, case studies, product literature and webcasts

Application firewalls and Border firewalls offers computer and network security on the internet. Net security is becoming ever more important, as there is an alarming increase in computer network security attacks, as hackers find new ways of breaking into to computer network systems.

Firewalls are made up from a group of related programs that are located at a network gateway server. Once the firewall is installed in the server, it protects the resources of the private network from users from other networks. A firewall, working in conjunction with a router program, filters all incoming network traffic to determine whether it is an internet security risk, before forwarding them toward their destination on the network. If your firewall is correctly installed, at application level or at the network border, nefarious traffic and network security attacks can be monitored by the firewall and stopped before causing major problems to your computer network

Firewall Screening Methods

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A firewall is often installed separately from the rest of the computer network, to increase network security, ensuring that no incoming request can get directly at private network resources. There are a number of firewall screening methods. The basic and most popular firewall screening method is to screen requests to ensure that they come from domain names and / or IP addresses that have been previously identified.

However, there are several routes of access through your firewall (World Wide Web, e-Mail, DNS, FTP, etc), giving hackers more opportunities and more holes in your firewall that they can easily use to attack your network security system. Application firewalls can enhance the security provided by border firewalls, as this type of firewall provides application specific, rather than just protocol specific, protection for your network system.

Border Firewall or Application Firewall

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Border firewalls only allow Web traffic (HTTP port 80) to specific, pre-determined hosts on your network, as defined in the set of security conventions that you put in place when setting up your border firewall. This gives you protocol specific protection.

An application firewall also monitors the content of the web traffic, thus protecting the applications that are exposed to the internet, from security issues that are associated with your web server.

Consideration should be given to setting up both a border firewall and an application firewall, if you feel the secure content and applications on your computer network would make you a likely candidate for network security attacks.

Your LAN's own security is a secondary, but important part of your computer network security planning, so it is essential to ensure that both your LAN security protocols and your firewall security are as secure as your budget will allow.

Network Security Attacks and Internet Security Related Issues

Script Kiddies, Hackers and Crackers

Network Security Attack research white papers, case studies, product literature and webcasts

The majority of security related issues, on the internet, come from adolescents, known by the derogatory term script kiddies who procure hacking software on the internet and experiment with it to try and break into individual computers and computer networks. Script kiddies use well-known, or easy to find programs or scripts, to exploit weaknesses in internet security on other users' computers or networks. A typical script kiddy will use random means to locate a target, usually with no regard for the likely damaging consequences of his actions. They tend to go for quantity, as a way of gaining notoriety amongst their peers, making no attempt to hide the fact that they have mounted a network security attack. Script kiddies are viewed with contempt by the hackers, or to use their correct title, hackers as they take pride in their attack, leaving no trace of their intrusion into your computer of network system. A cracker will can break into an individual computer or computer network, bypass passwords, licenses, etc and generally breach the security of the network. The cracker enters a system for various purposes ?to be malicious, for profit, to forward a cause, to point out security issues, or simply as a challenge, to prove to him that it can be done.

A firewall can help prevent network security attacks, but it is important that is the correct firewall for your system. In the Insights directory, you will find several companies that can give you professional advice on how to prevent network security attacks on your computer or computer network.

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