While a network security firewall is a critical piece of security technology, hardware or software firewalls on their own aren’t enough to fully protect your organization or improve data security.
The network security firewall provides defenses against potential cyberattacks by inspecting packets of information as they enter the network or transfer between computers.
When the content of a packet matches certain filter rules, the network security firewall can block the packet and send an error response. Network security firewall technology has evolved in significant ways in recent years.
While the original network security firewall examined traffic only at the network layer, more recent firewalls examine the transport layer as well.
The latest network security firewall technology operates at the application layer to block unauthorized processes that could lead to the spread of malware software like malicious worms and viruses.
For this reason, the network security firewall remains an important line of defense, but it’s not enough to stop all threats. Firewall technology tends to examine packets for known patterns, and emerging threats may be able to slip by unnoticed. For this reason, network and data security practices should include application security testing in order to defend the organization against an evolving universe of threats.