Protecting your private network
You might be a home user with a handful of devices connected via wifi or you might be a multi-office organisation running an in-house hosted commerce website, either way you need to protect your network at the point it connects to the internet to prevent unauthorised access, block access to untrustworthy sites, and watch for suspicious activity.
What it does
The firewall is often the outer-most line of defence around your precious data. At the perimeter it needs to be flexible enough to let you work uninterrupted, but robust enough to protect against the barrage of probes and attacks it’s likely to face. It should be configurable and dynamic to be able to adjust to your needs and to be able to identify the latest threats.
Hardware or Software
Both have their advantages and in a corporate situation, both can be used to offer multiple lines of defence against attack.
A hardware firewall will usually by faster at processing data and so reduce any potential bottleneck. They can be configured to use real-time virus checking on incoming data, monitor outgoing data for suspicious activity and provide advanced tools like reputation management, unified threat protection and bandwidth shaping.
Software firewalls have the advantage of being cheaper and easier to mange. They are installed on the device you are protecting so are portable with that device . They can offer more refined controls per device or per app, and can be configured to alert you to unexpected behaviour.
But I don’t need one at home
With more and more home devices becoming ‘smart’ the number of internet connected devices you have might be more than you think. You should be managing your internet connection because ultimately, you’re responsible for the content downloaded.
In a number of recent ‘botnet’ attacks on major sites, home internet connected devices that had been compromised were used in the attacks.
A number of home security devices, specifically those with cameras or microphones in them, have been compromised and their content streamed live to the internet.
#WeCanHelp
We can help you with with selecting, supplying, installing and managing a firewall that’s suitable for your needs. You might just need to protect your home WiFi connected devices, or you might need a corporate firewall that allows remote users to access the company network from anywhere in the world, but you do need a firewall.