Today’s business employees need to have the speed required to obtain information to perform their work from any location using any device. All this fast data, usually from multiple locations at your company, gives cybercriminals the opportunity for infiltration of your network and therefore compromised security. As a result, your IT team is under enormous pressure to provide complete visibility across a moving and distributed network environment to secure and track every user and device accessing data, applications, and workloads. Fortinet Firewalls, offered through iCepts Technology Group, can greatly help your businesses protect sensitive data, maintain compliance with security regulations, prevent costly cyberattacks, and ensure business continuity by securing your network infrastructure.
Unfortunately, most traditional security tools, like legacy firewalls, were not designed for this challenge of fast, complex and every changing network security threats. They were designed to be static network checkpoints with highly predictable workflows and data. What’s needed now is unified network security designed for today’s hybrid infrastructure with integrated Next Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) across the network and form factors, centralized management, and coordinated response to threats.
This unification of security needs to protect assets and users located anywhere, converge and consolidate distributed solutions to reduce overhead, simplify management, enable automation, and dynamically scale services and bandwidth to meet your constantly evolving business requirements. Keep reading to learn more about Firewalls how they can protect your business plus additional resources for Fortinet Firewalls and contact iCepts Technology Group with any of your questions.
Network Firewalls Explained.
A firewall is a network security device designed to monitor, filter, and control incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules. The primary purpose of a firewall is to establish a barrier between a trusted internal network and untrusted external networks.
Firewalls come in both hardware and software forms, and they work by inspecting data packets and determining whether to allow or block them based on a set of rules. Organizations can configure these rules to permit or deny traffic based on various criteria, such as source and destination IP addresses, port numbers, and protocol type.
Firewalls are the bedrock of network security, shielding the network from unauthorized access. They prevent bad actors — hackers, bots, and other threats — from overloading or infiltrating a private network to steal sensitive data.
Traditionally, firewalls regulate traffic by forming a secure perimeter around a network or computer. This prevents anyone from accessing network resources if they aren’t authorized to do so. Without this protection, virtually anybody could enter and do as they please.
Today’s cybersecurity landscape demands a layered approach. While firewalls remain a cornerstone of network defense, advanced threats require additional security measures. The rise of cloud computing and hybrid work environments further highlights the need for comprehensive security solutions.
Fortunately, cutting-edge firewall technologies with AI-powered services are bringing network security up to speed. Combining the strengths of traditional tools with the innovative capabilities of new solutions, modern firewall vendors help organizations defend against even the most complex attack strategies.
How can Fortinet Firewalls Protect your Business?
Firewalls protect against malicious traffic. They’re strategically positioned at the network edge or in a data center, allowing them to closely monitor anything attempting to cross this boundary.
This visibility also allows a network firewall to granularly inspect and authenticate data packets in real time. This involves checking the data packet against predefined criteria to determine whether it poses a threat. If it fails to meet the criteria, the firewall blocks it from entering or leaving the network.
Firewalls regulate both inbound and outbound traffic, protecting the network from:
- External threats such as viruses, backdoors, phishing emails, and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Firewalls filter incoming traffic flows, preventing unauthorized access to sensitive data and thwarting potential malware infections.
- Insider threats like known bad actors or risky applications. A firewall can enforce rules and policies to restrict certain types of outgoing traffic, which helps identify suspicious activity and mitigate data exfiltration.
Antivirus and Firewall Differences.
What’s the difference between Antivirus Software and Firewalls? Firewalls focus on controlling network traffic and preventing unauthorized access. By contrast, antivirus programs target and eliminate threats at the device level. More specifically, their key differences include:
- Scope: Antivirus software is primarily an endpoint solution, meaning it’s installed on an individual device. Firewalls mainly deploy at the network level, but some organizations install hosted firewalls directly on an endpoint for extra protection.
- Functionality: Firewalls monitor traffic, blocking malicious data before it enters the network (or endpoint). Antivirus tools scan the local environment for signs of malware, ransomware, and other infectious attacks.
Business of all sizes normally deploy both firewalls and antivirus programs. As complementary solutions, they each provide essential protective layers for safeguarding business assets. At iCepts Technology Group, we have been recommending Fortnite Firewalls to our customers including their Next Generation Firewalls for their robust network security performance.
Why do Companies Need Fortinet Firewalls?
There are many reasons why you need a firewall but in general, without firewalls, computers and devices in your network are easy targets for cyber attacks.
Fortinet Firewalls protect your network from unauthorized access by hackers who use a variety of tools to gain entry such as viruses, backdoors, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, macros, remote logins, phishing emails, social engineering, and spam. You not only need a firewall to block unauthorized access to your network, but also to block your users from visiting inappropriate websites and downloading malware.
You also need a firewall to identify the signatures of dangerous users, known bad actors, and risky applications especially when securing a vulnerable, private network. A firewall can block outflowing data when it notices a social engineering attack to mitigate the damage. When you need to block specific content in application-layer attacks, such as malware, use your firewall. You need a firewall to help you detect and deter rogue activity throughout your network.
Firewalls can also manage network resources so you can control how much network bandwidth is available for specific data types. In addition, you might need a firewall to provide virtual private network (VPN) services that use data encryption to secure communications across the public internet.
By securing the border between your network and the internet, or between segments of your network and the rest of your environment, firewalls provide essential protection from internal and external threats.
Next Steps to learn about Fortinet Firewalls:
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Posted by iCepts Technology Group, Inc. A Fortinet FortiGate Firewall Reseller in Pennsylvania
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