Answer:
The most important thing to consider is what you are protecting. Different firewalls are designed for different purposes. Firewalls can be as simple as a filtering device that allows traffic based on where the traffic is coming from or a firewall can be as complex as a device that scans each connection, looking for malicious activity. It is important to choose the proper firewall for your environment. In addition, because firewalls are often used as a perimeter defense, they often are not much good when it comes to preventing internal attacks. But most important, a sole firewall may not be enough to keep hackers - or malicious insiders -- at bay. While two firewalls are better than one, a firewall should still be thought of as a company’s first line of defense. Although no security program is a 100-percent guarantee, it is most effective when it incorporates not just the implementation of a firewall, but also additional layers of defense, such as intrusion detection services, 24x7 monitoring, and ongoing audits and assessments.
Chris Geffel, CISSP, GIAC, is a security architect for RedSiren. He is responsible for the design, configuration and implementation of RedSiren’s managed service solutions. Prior to RedSiren, he was with Bayer Corporation, where he supported security-focused projects including e-commerce, firewall implementation and management, anti-virus and secure remote access. At RedSiren, he has lead a number of initiatives, including the role as lead architect of RedSiren’s Managed Intrusion Detection System (MIDS) system.
First published on BankersOnline.com 4/01/02
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