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Firewalls
If your company is connected to the Internet, then perimeter defences are of primary importance. Without suitable filtering and control of both inbound and outbound communications, your business information and IT resources can be exposed to considerable risks. Most significantly, the likelihood of these risks materialising is high, and the impact real.
Fundamentally, firewalls provide inbound and outbound filtering of data communications, protocol inspection, and policy enforcement.
The illustration to the right shows depicts how firewalls help to segregate your company's internal network from the (un-trusted) Internet.
This is an oversimplification, and quite the traditional view. In fact the lines of demarcation between trusted and un-trusted are considerably blurred.
When we consider the reality of today's environments, it is much harder to ring-fence trusted and untrusted zones. For example, companies could have guests connecting to their network, wireless access points, employees who work from home and connect remotely.
All of these possibilities heighten the risk that viruses, spyware or malicious code can penetrate your internal network and affect your business.
Endpoint security including the use of so-called Personal Firewalls seeks to address these additional risks by protecting each individual employee device. This is in addition to the protection offered by the perimeter defences.
A personal firewall protects laptops and PCs when connected directly to the Internet (such as when at home on broadband connections). It also protects them when they are connected to the company network, ensuring that they are not negatively impacted should one of their colleagues (or a guest) introduce a worm or virus into the environment.
Endpoint security solutions also include options for dealing with Spyware, Adware and malicious applications.
We have years of experience in designing, deploying and supporting Firewall infrastructures for organisations of all sizes. From small-office solutions to resilient enterprise systems we can help. Contact us today to discuss your requirements.