Thursday, December 9, 2010

Computer Firewalls

By Libby Sims


Computer firewalls are designed to stop unauthorised access from outside sources while permitting authorised access to the computer network or system. Firewalls are configured to permit and deny connection from outside devices through a set of rules set by the administrator of the network.

They may be implemented in either hardware or software or even a combination of both. Firewalls can be frequently used in order to prevent unauthorized internet users from accessing any private networks connected to the internet. All messages that enter or leave the intranet pass through a firewall which will inspect each message block any that do not meet the specified security criteria.

Having a firewall on your computer is definitely a good idea. They prevent computer hackers accessing your computer via the internet and stealing any sensitive information or infecting your system with a virus. Hackers are also able to gain access to your system by "back doors" or any open ports that connect to your computer to the internet. A firewall will block these ports from inbound traffic by effectively closing the door in the hackers face!

Damage may be caused from outbound traffic too, e.g. A hacker would be able to slip by you with a Trojan, virus, spyware or phishing scheme that went undetected. The next time you get booted off your computer whilst still connected to the internet information on your computer could be sent out to the hacker. Firewalls will block outbound traffic and will help prevent this from happening at all.

Firewalls generally check through information in two different ways, namely the destination or source of the connection and also the content of the information. Firewalls check the source and destination of the connection to ensure that information is only being sent and received by trusted sources and can check the information in each transmission and compare this against the rules. Firewalls will also make sure that only applications that are trusted are able to communicate via the internet.




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