Perfect Firewall assignment help

Introduction

Firewall is a security technique used to control the incoming and outgoing traffic on a computer network. They are software or hardware devices that can block or monitor network activity like file transfers, internet communications, and other transmission events. The device is made up of two parts: the filter which monitors all inbound and outbound traffic; and the ruleset which creates rules for what allowed/denied access.. Most student find challenges with handling Firewall assignments, in case you find it difficult to work on your software assignment coursework visit assignmentsguru for help. We have experienced expertise in Firewall field to do it for you.

A firewall is a set of rules that regulate traffic in or out of a computer network, or a piece of networking hardware. It was created to allow an organization’s computers to share data with other computers on the network while preventing unauthorized access from the outside world.

Firewall is used in every kind of industries for different purposes. Like in healthcare, they are used to protect medical devices from hacking and protecting patients’ information. In retail, they are used to make sure that your personal information is safe when you shop online. And in gaming, they are designed to make sure players are not cheating by changing their username/password/accounts after each game is over.

Application layer and proxy firewalls

A proxy server acts as a middleman between a client and a server. They can examine the packets of requests to determine whether “malicious code” is hidden in the request. As attacks against web servers became more common, it became apparent that there was a need for firewalls to protect networks from attacks at the application layer. Packet-filtering and stateful inspection firewalls cannot do this at the application layer.

Since this type examines the payload’s content, it gives security engineers more granular control over network traffic. For example, it can allow or deny a specific incoming Telnet command from a particular user, whereas other types can only control general incoming requests from a particular host.

The use of a proxy firewall in the information technology system can protect an organization’s data when it is shared on a remote server. Both the client and the server are forced to conduct the session through an intermediary — the proxy server that hosts an application layer firewall. Each time an external client requests a connection to an internal server or vice versa, the client will open a connection with the proxy instead. If the connection request meets the criteria in the firewall rule base, the proxy firewall will open a connection to the requested server.

Application-level filtering offers the ability to block specific content. This is made possible by recognizing when certain applications or protocols are used (e.g., HTTP).FTP and DNS are two of the most prevalent networking technologies and can be misused. Firewall rules can also be applied to block the execution of files or the handling of data by specific applications

Next generation firewalls

This type is a combination of the other types with additional security software and devices bundled in. Each type has its own strengths and weaknesses, some protect networks at different layers of the OSI model. The benefit of a NGFW is that it combines the strengths of each type cover each type’s weakness. An NGFW is often a bundle of technologies under one name as opposed to a single component.

Modern network perimeters have so many entry points and different types of users that stronger access control and security at the host are required. This need for a multilayer approach has led to the emergence of NGFWs.

A NGFW integrates three key assets: traditional firewall capabilities, application awareness, and an IPS. Like the introduction of stateful inspection to first-generation firewalls, NGFWs bring additional context to the firewall’s decision-making process

The capability traditional firewalls have these days is that they can also provide a level of quality that you can expect from a human. Allowing for Network Address Translations, URL Blocking and Virtual Private Networks, along with providing plenty of Quality of Service. functionality and features not traditionally found in first-generation products. NGFW support intent-based networking by including SSL and SSH inspection, and reputation-based malware detection. NGFWs also use deep packet inspection (DPI) to check the contents of packets and prevent malware.

When a NGFW, or any firewall is used in conjunction with other devices, it is termed unified threat management (UTM).

Firewall Vulnerabilities

Less advanced firewalls – packet-filtering for example – are vulnerable to higher-level attacks because they do not use DPI to fully examine packets. NGFWs were introduced to address that vulnerability. However, NGFWs still face challenges and are vulnerable to evolving threats. For this reason, organizations should pair them with other security components, like intrusion detection systems and intrusion prevention systems. Some examples of modern threats that a firewall may be vulnerable to are:

• Insider attacks: Organizations can use internal firewalls on top of a perimeter firewall to segment the network and provide internal protection. If an attack is suspected, organizations can audit sensitive using NGFW features. All the audits should measure up to baseline documentation within the organization that outlines best practices for using the organization’s network. Some examples of behavior that might indicate an insider threat include the following:

  • transmission of sensitive data in plain text.

  • resource access outside of business hours.

  • sensitive resource access failure by the user.

  • third-party users network resource access.

• Distributed denial of service (DDos) attacks: A DDoS attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt normal traffic of a targeted network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of traffic. It utilizes multiple compromised computer systems as sources of attack traffic. Exploited machines can include computers and other networked resources, such as internet of things (IoT) devices. A DDoS attack is like a traffic jam preventing regular traffic from arriving at its desired destination. The key concern in mitigating a DDoS attack is differentiating between attack and normal traffic. Many times, the traffic in this attack type can come from seemingly legitimate sources, and requires cross-checking and auditing from several security components.

• Malware: Malware threats are varied, complex, and constantly evolving alongside security technology and the networks it protects. As networks become more complex and dynamic with the rise of IoT, it becomes more difficult for firewalls to defend them.

• Patching/Configuration: A poorly configured firewall or a missed update from the vendor can be detrimental to network security. IT admins should be proactive in maintaining their security components.

Firewall vendors

Enterprises looking to purchase a firewall should be aware of their needs and understand their network architecture. There are many different types, features, and vendors that specialize in those different types. Here are a few reputable NGFW vendors:

• Palo Alto: extensive coverage but not cheap.

• SonicWALL: good value and has a range of size enterprises it can work for. SonicWall has solutions for small, medium or large-scale networks. Its only downfall is it is somewhat lacking in cloud features.

• Cisco: largest breadth of features for an NGFW but not cheap either.

• Sophos: good for midsize enterprises and easy to use.

• Barracuda: decent value, great management, support and cloud features.

• Fortinet: extensive coverage, great value and some cloud features.

Future of network security

In the early days of the internet, when AT&T’s Steven M. Bellovin first used the firewall metaphor, network traffic primarily flowed north-south. This simply means that most of the traffic in a data center flowed from client to server and server to client. In the past few years, however, virtualization and trends such as converged infrastructure have created more east-west traffic, which means that, sometimes, the largest volume of traffic in a data center is moving from server to server. To deal with this change, some enterprise organizations have migrated from the traditional three-layer data center architectures to various forms of leaf-spine architectures. This change in architecture has caused some security experts to warn that, while firewalls still have an important role to play in keeping a network secure, they risk becoming less effective. Some experts even predict a departure from the client server model altogether.

One potential solution is the use of software-defined perimeters (SDP). An SDP is more aptly suited to virtual and cloud-based architectures because it has less latency than a firewall. It also works better within increasingly identity-centric security models. This is because it focuses on securing user access rather than IP address-based access. An SDP is based on a zero-trust framework.

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