Let’s talk about Firewalls

Firewalls are essentially intelligent mechanisms, it could either be an actual device or a software, whose sole purpose is to protect the computer device and the network from unauthorized access, malicious attacks and other forms of network and system attacks. The firewall can also proactively scan for suspicious programs, softwares and applications and block them from being traversed through the computer network. It suspects malicious activities and blocks traffic from sources that seem to attack the integrity of the computer system.

Now that we know what a firewall is, a brief history of the firewall will give more insight to the inspiration behind this very crucial concept.

History of the Firewall

At the American technology companies Cisco Systems and Digital Equipment Corporation, the first Firewall was developed in the 1980s when they were first of all just referred to as packet filters i.e. they examined packets transmitted between computers and determines which packet is permissible and which packet should be blocked on the network. The name ‘Firewall’ originally was initiated by a wall used to confine a fire from getting from one building to the next, hence the name ‘Fire-Wall’, that should be an interesting fact.

Types of Firewalls

1. Stateful firewall
2. Next generation firewall
3. Hardware firewalls: Implementation of a firewall can be achieved using a dedicated physical structure that provides security to an internal network
4. Software Firewalls: These perform the function of a hardware firewall but run as code on the computer system, and the code can run on a virtual machine rather than an actual physical device
5. Cloud firewall: Firewalls can also be launched on the cloud, where the security mechanism of an organization need not be in the same location as the organization but be made to run in a remote server elsewhere still performing the same function.

Stateful and next generation firewalls are beyond the scope of this article, for the purpose of streamlining this article of firewall to everyday use, we will dwell on the more common type of Firewall, software firewall.

Software Firewall

Firewall software is available on different Operating Systems (OSs) e.g. Windows, macOS e.t.c. For the purpose of this article, we will talk about the inbuilt Microsoft Defender and Firewall and how to enable or disable this firewall on the computer system. We must also bear in mind that this type of firewall is only relevant on a single device and is not applicable to a network as a whole.

To Enable Windows Defender firewall, follow the steps below:

1. GO to the START menu by pressing the windows key
2. Click on ‘Settings’
3. Click on ‘Update and Security’
4. Click on ‘Windows Security’
5. Click on ‘Firewall & network protection’
6. Various network profiles can be selected e.g. Domain network, private network or public network.
7. Navigate to any of the profiles by clicking it.
8. You may choose to enable firewall for all the different profiles by clicking the ON setting under the ‘Microsoft Defender Firewall’

This gives a hint on how we can enable firewalls on our laptop computers at home, in our offices e.t.c.

References

1. https://www.britannica.com/topic/DNS
2. https://www.checkpoint.com/cyber-hub/network-security/what-is-firewall/what-is-firewall-software/
3. https://www.checkpoint.com/cyber-hub/network-security/what-is-firewall/#:~:text=A%20Firewall%20is%20a%20network,network%20and%20the%20public%20Internet.
4. https://www.checkpoint.com/cyber-hub/network-security/what-is-firewall/the-different-types-of-firewalls/
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewall_(computing)#:~:text=The%20term%20firewall%20originally%20referred,aircraft%20from%20the%20passenger%20compartment.
6. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/turn-microsoft-defender-firewall-on-or-off-ec0844f7-aebd-0583-67fe-601ecf5d774f

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