Firewalls

What is a firewall?

A firewall is a device (or software feature) designed to

control the flow of traffic into and out-of a network.
In general, firewalls are installed to prevent attacks.

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 Firewall?
A choke point of control and monitoring
Interconnects networks with differing trust
Imposes restrictions on network services
only authorized traffic is allowed
Auditing and controlling access
can implement alarms for abnormal behavior
Itself immune to penetration
Provides perimeter defence
 Firewall

Private Network

security wall between

Firewall
private (protected)
network and outside word
External Network
 Firewall Objectives
Keep intruders, malicious
code and unwanted
traffic or information
out
Keep proprietary and
sensitive information in
Private Network

Proprietary data

External attacks
External Network
 What is an attack? (In Computer)

Attack covers many things:

1. Someone probing a network for computers.
2. Someone attempting to crash services on a computer.
3. Someone attempting to crash a computer
(Win nuke).
4. Someone attempting to gain access to a computer to use
resources or information.

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 What do Firewalls Protect?
Data
Proprietary corporate information
Financial information
Sensitive employee or customer data
Resources
Computing resources
Time resources
Reputation
Loss of confidence in an organization
Intruder uses an organizations network to attack other
sites
 Common Internet Threats
Denial of service attacks
Specific attacks that can cause a server crash
Flooding the server with traffic to disrupt or deny
service
Intrusion threats
Attacks on services/exploits
The backend server may not be hardened enough for
adequate protection, but the firewall can block
external attacks
Information threats
Viral threats
Defacement