Businesses Have No Excuse to Skip Out On Using a Firewall

Firewalls are easily one of the most basic parts of any network security infrastructure, and they’re an important component that shouldn’t be taken lightly. The firewall is the first line of defense against any threats coming into your network, and it’s one of several essential components to prevent data breaches on your network. An enterprise-level firewall is an important investment for any serious business.

In a more broad sense, cybersecurity and threat management is a critical part of running a business. In light of the many high-profile hacking attacks that hit in 2015, it feels like nobody is safe from the evil grasps of hackers. Entities like health care providers and government officials even have trouble keeping hackers at bay, so it should be a safe bet that your business is threatened by their presence, too. Regardless what kind of business you run, one fact will always remain true: hackers will attempt to infiltrate your network, if you let them, and a company without any security measure in place might as well roll out the red carpet for hackers.

It’s for this reason that many security solutions have been developed to reclaim the Internet from hackers, and firewalls are the first step toward protecting yourself while conducting business on the web. Here’s how a firewall can help your business succeed.

The Benefits of Having a Firewall
Firewalls are one of the most important parts of protecting a business’s network. They can detect the presence of unwanted data flowing into or out of a network, and notify the system administrator of strange activity. This effectively allows the firewall to scan for potential threats, and reject traffic which contains them. The firewall can even disallow threats to leave the network, so you can quickly eliminate them before they cause too much damage or try to infect other systems. In essence, a firewall should be able to identify threats, and work alongside a quality antivirus solution to eradicate them.

There is no excuse not to be using a firewall. It’s one of the most basic cyber security tools you can use, and there are plenty out there to choose from. That said, you will want a powerful enterprise-level firewall that suits the specific needs of your business - stay clear from firewall solutions designed to protect single or home users.

What They Don’t Protect You From
Despite their best efforts to prevent all threats from making it to your network, firewalls aren’t perfect. For example, an employee could click on an infected email attachment and a virus could make its vile little nest within your network. Now you have a problem that managed to bypass your firewall, due to user error. Other social engineering hacks, like spear phishing scams and spam campaigns, are designed to bypass firewalls and infect systems in other ways. This is why firewalls are often seen functioning alongside an antivirus solution that can detect and get rid of threats that have made it past the firewall’s defenses.

You also need to consider the quality of the firewall before assuming that it will just protect you from anything. A consumer-grade firewall that comes alongside your network router likely isn’t equipped to protect you from the myriad of threats that exist on the Internet; at least, not as well as you’d like to be protected. Instead of hoping that your default firewall will be enough, you should invest in an enterprise-level firewall that’s designed specifically with your business in mind.

An enterprise-level firewall works best when it’s partnered alongside other security solutions that augment its power, like antivirus, spam blocking, and content filtering solutions. These four features combined make a Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution, which is a comprehensive way to keep any network safe.

For more information about how security components like firewalls, antiviruses, or UTMs can protect your business, give us a call at (703) 821-8200.