For any user to be protected as they connect with the internet, a firewall is indispensable. The firewall can analyze the traffic that is entering and exiting your network. It analyzes the packets and determines if they contain elements of problematic code, or URL’s or known variants of hacks. As a result, the firewall is your first form of protection of your network.
External vs. Internal
One decision to make is whether you should use a firewall that is running on your Operating System, or if you should use one at the perimeter of your network. Our answer is this. When it comes to protecting your body from an infection, is it better to have healthy skin or have multiple cuts and then take an antibiotic? Obviously, the healthy skin prevents the infection from entering your body. The same logic applies to an external firewall. Let’s block that infection from our devices and not allow it to infect them.
Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) on everything?
Today’s premier firewalls inspect each packet of data as it enters and exits. This requires a high-end processor to process each packet. Before 2020, only non-encrypted packets were inspected, using the theory that the encrypted packets are good ones and don’t need to be inspected. However, the bad actors caught onto this process and started encrypting their packets. As a result, up to 70% of all traffic on the internet is now encrypted. Anyone responsible for the protection of their network must ask themselves, am I ok with 70% of the traffic coming through without inspection? Of course, the answer is no! So, our position is that all traffic should go through DPI-SSL, the inspection of ALL traffic traversing into and out of your network!
We all know that any building that we want to stand relies on a good foundation. In the same way, your cyber security plan must include a state-of-the-art firewall as its foundation!