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Today we are going to understand different types of firewalls and decide which firewall will be best.
As the usage of the internet is growing day by day the illegal activities have also been grown tremendously, FBI has also admitted that they have recorded a 300% increase in the number of cybercrimes, from about 1,000 cases to between 3,000 and 4,000 cases each day.
To Get filter all the malware activities and threads we can use different types of firewalls before that let’s understand which one is the best for your requirement and understand how each of them works.
Very firth we need to admit that Active Firewall protects our data /website from internet hackers. An online hacker can steal our data which may include crucial data like a bank, stock exchange, national security updates.
Different Types of Firewalls:
- Packet Filtering Firewall
- Application/proxy firewall
- Hybrid Firewall
Before starting with firewall types (Network Security) you should know what are data packets?
Data Packets are an important aspect of transmitting the data, When you download or transfer any file from one location to another this file gets convert into the data packets which are in small sizes normally from the actual data size, and then it flows from one location to another location. Each data package is interconnected with each other and each data packet has a small chunk of the actual data.
Now we can start with types of firewalls.
1. Packet Filtering Firewalls:-
As I have mentioned above that the Data Packets does contents a small amount of chunk of actual data and each data packets are interconnected which means when the actual data get divided into the data packets its store the information about its own specification and also the next and last data packet of it. So that in case of any manipulation in data packets, packet filtering firewall easily identifies the data packet which has got modified or infected by the malware while transmitting as the specification of each data packet mention inside does not match source and destination hash key.
The firewall has its own rule set defined which is called as Access Control List(ACL), where it checks all the required filtering rules. This firewall is in-built on most devices and quick to activate, the only drawback of it is that this firewall does not check the database portion of the data packet which called Payload. Where hacker may manipulate this section and steal the data, which makes this type of firewall less secure.
2. Application/Proxy firewall:-
Application/Proxy Firewall works identically for the one who does not want to disclose its own identity and keep the public information protected. Will try to explain it in a very easy way. Let’s say If you want to sell a particular product but you do not want to disclose your personal details so you went to the post office appointed the PostBox number as your virtual address and started advertising your PostBox number as your contact address and asked your customer to contact you on the same in case they want to place the order. So each customer places the written order on the given Virtual PostBox number which is pass-on to you by the post office and not by the actual customer. Here Customers do not know to whom they actually placing the order.
This is the same happen with the Application/Proxy Firewall. Here PostBox Number Act as a Proxy Firewall and Customer who are placing orders are internet users who wish to see your website but they do not come across you directly which means your Personal details are hidden to end customers but you still serve them your services/products. And the product which you sale is Website which customer do access by placing order/visiting Virtual PostBox (Proxy) stations
Now let’s co-relate above example with website user which wish to access website http://Hostripples.com they go to the proxy server which actually does not store any content or data of it but still serve them website pages to end customer as its acting as a proxy of Hostripples.com website server. In backend its passion page request to actual server and server process it and send it back via a proxy firewall. How this also has some loophole such as slow response and sometimes hardware infrastructure need technical knowledge for setting up the firewall.
3. Hybrid Firewalls:-
To overcome the issues with the above two firewall Hybrid Firewall is the best solution as even though you tried to implement the Application firewall and Packet Filtering Firewall in the same environment it’s not going to perform well as when you use packet filtering the application firewall cannot run on the same time. And here is a hybrid Firewall that takes place and uses the Application firewall and Packet filter firewall in series to enhance security. Implementing the Hybrid Firewalls does reduce your risk and needs low cost to implement on a production setup
This kind of setup is useful for educational institute, Banking, Hospitals, Mid-High level companies and others who has important data and runs a business where a high risk of data is involved.
Now you can choose your firewall as per your need. If you find this article helpful then please leave a comment.
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