Security Portal: Firewalls – It’s Time to Evolve or Die

“Much may be said for the utility of network protection with
firewalls, but too often we forget about the vulnerable, pink,
hairless underbelly of the firewall. In this series of articles I
will expose the weaknesses that are often ignored. A disclaimer,
however: Even though there are many problems with firewalls and
they are far from perfect, you are better off leaving them in.
Firewalls are better than nothing most of the time. They provide
the only major line of defense for many networks (more on this
particular issue later), so please do not remove your firewall
unless you have given this some serious thought.”

“I hope I am being clear enough. If you still think I am
advocating the removal of firewalls, stop reading now and please do
not email me.”

“There was a time (believe it or not) when firewalls were a
pretty new concept, and many people thought that only the
government, military and other paranoid organizations would ever
use them. Then the Internet expanded at a furious rate and all
sorts of people become connected, many of whom have hostile
intentions. Add to this the sheer number of network services on
most networks now (file and print sharing, user authentication,
interactive services, email, Web), and there are plenty of services
to be exploited and abused. Two primary types of firewall are
currently in use: network and application. Firewalls are good at
many things, and also very poor at others.”

Complete
Story