Firewalls are a key part of keeping networked computers safe and secure. All computers deserve the protection of a Firewall, whether it is the thousands of servers and desktops that compose the network of a Fortune 500 company, a travelling salesperson’s laptop connecting to the wireless network of a coffee shop, or your new PC with a dial-up connection to the Internet.
Windows Firewall is the Firewall service included with desktop and server releases of Microsoft Windows from Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 onwards. Firewalls serve two useful purposes: they filter what traffic comes into your network from the outside world and they control what computers on your network may send there.
In the current scenario, the modern applications and threats easily dodge the traditional network Firewall, so much so that enterprises have deployed an entire crop of “Firewall helpers” to help try to manage applications and threats. But that has not worked, frustrating enterprise IT groups who have taken on additional complexity and costs without fixing the problem.
Risks with current generation Firewalls
Palo Alto Networks was founded to fix the Firewall. In a recent a study of 900,000 users, the software firm found that 100 per cent of the organisations surveyed had Firewalls and 87 percent also had one or more Firewall helpers (for example, a proxy, an IPS, URL filtering), yet they were unable to exercise control over the application traffic traversing the network.
Over the past several years there have been a number of significant changes to both the application and threat landscapes.
1. The user-centric applications like social networking sites, which includes instant messaging, peer-to-peer file sharing and web mail.
2. These days enterprises worldwide are routinely employing next-generation applications for legitimate business purposes to enhance collaboration, communications and employee productivity in general, which takes advantage of the same types of evasion techniques.
3. Webification of enterprise applications: here, to improve accessibility and reduce administrative effort and costs, standard client-server applications are steadily being re-designed to take advantage of Web technologies.
4. Last but not the least, currently; hackers are also paying considerable attention to the growing population of user-centric applications.
To rectify this situation, enterprises need security technology with sufficient visibility and intelligence to differentiate network traffic corresponds to applications that serve a legitimate business purpose or for unsanctioned activities, which should be blocked because it includes malware or other types of threats.
Why a truly effective, modern Firewall is required?
Because it requires ability to
• identify applications like SSL encryption;
• provide visibility and policy control over applications;
• accurately identify users for policy control; and,
• provide real-time protection against a wide array of threats.
Next-generation Firewall
Recognizing that identification is only part of the problem, Palo Alto Networks complements App-ID with an application browser. This powerful research tool provides administrators with a wealth of intelligence on over 800 applications so that they can make informed decisions on how to control them.
Firewall can be improved through addition of:
User -ID: Enable Visibility and Control by User or Group, Not Just IP Address. With user-ID, IT departments get powerful mechanism to help control the use of applications in an intelligent manner.
Threat Prevention: it provides several innovative features to prevent spyware, viruses and application vulnerabilities from penetrating the network. It may include application decoder, stream-based virus and spyware scanning, uniform threat signature format or vulnerability attack protection.
URL Filtering: administrators can monitor and control the web surfing activities of employees as well as guest users, URL database. File and Data Filtering: reduces the risk associated with unauthorized file and data transfer.
Conclusion
To take advantage of the networked world, organizations must prevent unauthorized users from accessing their networks and at the same time, ensure that authorized users have access only to authorized assets.
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