Your organization’s information technology (IT) environment must be shielded from malicious threats 24/7/365. The smallest vulnerability has the potential to grow into a large problem, and business owners have a duty to their customers and employees to protect them with comprehensive cybersecurity solutions.
Firewalls are a great option for enabling secure network systems. With a firewall in place, you can have peace of mind knowing that your IT infrastructure is protected with another layer of security, minimizing the chances of your business experiencing unlawful breaches.
What is a firewall?
A firewall is a network security solution that serves as a barrier between your organization’s systems and other external networks. It observes incoming and outgoing network traffic in order to block data packets that juxtapose with your company’s security regulations.
Moreover, when combined with other security technological solutions, firewalls can reinforce your business’s data access policies, ensuring that information is only accessible by trusted entities.
There are five types of firewalls you may have come across in the business security landscape. They are:
- Packet filtering firewalls.
- Stateful inspection firewalls.
- Circuit-level gateway.
- Proxy firewalls.
- Next-generation firewall (NGFW).
NGFWs tend to be widely used today. They are designed to handle the latest threats and provide robust capabilities for managing network traffic.
What are the advantages of using firewalls?
Cybercriminals are as persistent as they are detrimental to organizational wellbeing. Within the United States, data breaches can cost an average of $9.44 million. No matter what size your business is, that can result in a significant blow against staff morale, your company’s finances, and, ultimately, your organization’s reputation.
However, with the inclusion of firewalls working to protect your internal network solutions from malicious network traffic-based activity, you will be able to take advantage of the following benefits:
- Improved security: Firewalls help to protect systems from malevolent traffic and entities, such as hackers and malware.
- Control of network traffic: Firewalls help control what traffic moves into and out of your network, giving you more visibility and authority over the traffic that interacts with your systems.
- Reduced risk of data breaches: By controlling access to the network, businesses can reduce the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive data.
- Increased productivity: By placing a barrier between your network and others, you can improve user productivity and operational safety by reducing the risk of downtime caused by malicious activity.
Your business’s technological solutions contain all sorts of sensitive information, from customer data to employee credentials. By deploying digital barriers to secure your network systems, you can safeguard this information from unauthorized access with a security system that leverages the latest in cybersecurity technology.
How do firewalls work with other tools to secure your IT environment?
To achieve secure network systems, businesses ought to take a multi-layered approach to their cybersecurity, effectively covering all their bases. Firewalls should most definitely be utilized as one of the layers that enable a secure IT environment. By blocking certain types of traffic, security barriers can help protect your computer systems from viruses, hackers, and other types of attacks.
In this way, they should serve as one of your organization’s cybersecurity measures, acting as one of many obstacles threat actors are forced to contend with when they are attempting to breach your network and damage your technological solutions.
A multi-layered security approach ought to include the following:
- Network security measures, such as monitoring tools.
- Endpoint security solutions, including antivirus software, detection and response tools, web filtering, etc.
- Physical security to limit who can access your technological solutions within the real world.
- Administrative powers to manage and maintain internal data security practices and policies.
As with all cybersecurity solutions, the efficacy of a firewall’s protective capabilities can only go so far. While NGFWs today are intelligent enough to work at an application level and offer more foolproof protection, you and your employees would do well to build an internal cybersecurity culture (inclusive of firewalls) that encourages users to be vigilant and exercise cyber safety.
Firewall best practices
When utilized correctly, firewalls can be a valuable asset to any organization’s IT environment. There are various practices that you ought to be aware of to make the most of this network security solution.
They are:
- Plan for implementations and configurations: Secure network systems call for carefully made plans to ensure that oversights do not occur. By planning the deployment and configurations of your firewalls before you implement them, you and your team will have a stronger idea of the set of security rules that protect your technological solutions.
- Conduct consistent updates: A security best practice for any solution, updating your firewalls regularly will keep them innovative for the times.
- Perform assessments: Assessments can inform you of the status of your firewalls, ensuring that you are aware of any changes that have occurred and why.
- Hire a cybersecurity service provider: Cybersecurity providers can support their clients with various security solutions and services, from configuring firewalls to consulting and backing up data to external data centers. An IT security provider can help keep your technological solutions safe from unlawful breaches.
Cost-effective cybersecurity consulting services for companies like yours
Cyber threats are rampant, which is why your organization’s IT environment deserves the best firewall protection. The cybersecurity consultants at IT Gurus can grant your business secure network systems that enhance your company’s efficiency. Contact them today to secure your IT environment and cement compliance.
