OCU C)ISSO C Discussion Lesson 10

Firewalls are critical components of a secure network infrastructure. A firewall is a security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules. According to the text and video materials, there are two main types: network-based firewalls and host-based firewalls. Network-based firewalls protect entire networks, while host-based firewalls protect individual devices.

Characteristics of firewalls include packet filtering, stateful inspection, proxy functionality, and application-layer filtering. For example, stateful inspection tracks the state of active connections and makes decisions based on the context of the traffic, unlike simple packet filtering that only inspects individual packets.

An additional source, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), emphasizes that firewalls enforce security policies by preventing unauthorized access to sensitive data. This is crucial for security officers to understand, as firewalls are a frontline defense against threats like malware, unauthorized access, and data exfiltration. By implementing properly configured firewalls, security officers help ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of network resources.

Firewalls are a very important network security device. A firewall is used to control and monitor any type of outgoing and ingoing network traffic. There are different types of firewalls but the main two would be the network based and the host-based firewalls. A network-based firewall is a physical object, and this object acts like a gatekeeper of the information and monitors as well as controls the incoming and outgoing traffic. The host-based firewall is different software programs that are installed on different computers and systems.

The characteristic of a firewall includes the intrusion protection, stateful inspection, and access control. The access control determines what different devices can be used to access the network and tis also helps the organization to prevent any type of unauthorized information getting in. The stateful inspection lets the firewall track a session at a time a whole session instead of each individual packet.

Firewalls are a very important tool for a security officer to know of because they are one of the main things in the networking security system. This can help protect their systems as well as many other things, this also allows the security officer to have some control over who can and who cannot access any specific data in the network.