Network Security First-Step: Firewalls

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This chapter dissects a firewall’s duties to understand what makes a firewall operate and how it does its job.

By the end of this chapter, you should know and be able to explain the following:

• Who needs a firewall, and why firewalls are used to protect network resources
• How a firewall is a technological expression of your organization’s written security policy
• When a DMZ is appropriate and the security benefits you gain by deploying a firewall with a DMZ

The Internet is an exciting and wonderful place to browse and explore. It has been likened to the Wild West, The Great Frontier, and other grandiose achievements of mankind. In reality, the World Wide Web is merely a collection of routers and servers that make up the largest WAN in recorded history. This collection of networking gear provides mail servers, websites, and other information storage and retrieval systems and is all connected to the Internet and accessible to every person who is also connected. It has even been said that the Internet will contain the collective institutional knowledge of mankind, eventually. Entire books have been written on the Internet’s potential and its impact on our lives—rest assured that this is not one of those books. But it does make you ponder just how much of your life is out there already that you might or might not be aware of.


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