Firewall technologies

 From the basic definition we identify network as connection between two or more computers with a purpose of sharing information, resources etc. On a broader perspective, network can be classified into wired and wireless. Cyber-attacks being very often these days use both wired and wireless networks as primary medium of transmission. The main reason being, the necessity of internet in many organizations and confidential information is being transmitted.

            Wired network is a traditional way of connecting computers through wires and physical network access points. Ethernet cables for Local area networks and Wide area networks comes under this. Frequency of cyber security attacks in wired networks are comparatively lower than that of wireless networks because of its fixed network structure. Here are some ways of securing wired network through firewall technologies (Stallings & Brown, 2018).

·      Packet filtering firewall consists of a proxy which blocks unauthorized network traffic. This proxy server has the capability of filtering both incoming and outgoing traffic.

·      Stateful packet inspection firewall controls the network traffic by creating stricter outbound rules for TCP traffic.

·      Application level gateway is a type of firewall which requires valid user credentials to connect to remote host.

·      Circuit level gateway is slightly different from application level gateway where it does not allow every user request to connect to remote host but instead creates two TCP connections and only allows users to connect from one to another. An easier example would be organization employees being trusted and given access by system admin.

            Wireless networks on other hand have gained prominence during the past couple of decades due to its convenience of being able to connect without a wire, within closer distances. Because of its comfort, wireless networks are becoming more sophisticated with higher generations like 4G, 5G and increasing bandwidths. Not only wireless networks are gaining more fame and user base, but also cyber attackers/abusers. Hence many security and privacy concerns are faced by organizations and strong firewall system is really needed. Firewall can be understood as a wall between enterprise network and overall network. Every operating system comes with and inbuilt system firewall. Wireless networks can be secured in following ways.

·      Use a strong firewall to control and protect all incoming and outgoing network traffic.

·      Enabling only authorized domain URLs, applications through firewall. Allowing certain IP addresses is better. Encrypt entire network traffic and dismiss all incoming unauthorized traffic. Standardize and make a note of application running on each port.

 

Potential exposures

·      Rogue access points: Setting up a rogue access point is very prominent way of exposing wireless networks. This could either be done intentionally by a hacker or unknowingly by an employee when he connects his drive/device to corporate network, and this becomes a way for hackers to intrude.

·      Denial of service: Which means limiting the capability of host by sending loads of unwanted traffic to that service. Another simpler way could be by interfering with devices on the wireless network. For example, a wireless network having a bandwidth of 2.4 GHz has limitation of three channels and interference can even be caused by a device like oven on the same channel.

·      Passive capturing: Attacker can be in the network range of a wireless networking and stealing the information passively. However, this exposure occurs mainly in the unsecured wireless networks like malls, airports, etc.

References

1.     Wilkins, S. (2019, April 05). Common Wireless Network Security Threats. Retrieved July 19, 2020, from https://www.pluralsight.com/blog/it-ops/wireless-lan-security-threats

2.     Stallings, W., & Brown, L. (2018). Computer security: Principles and practice. New York: Pearson

3.     U. Murthy, O. Bukhres, W. Winn and E. Vanderdez, "Firewalls for security in wireless networks," Proceedings of the Thirty-First Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Kohala Coast, HI, USA, 1998, pp. 672-680 vol.7, doi: 10.1109/HICSS.1998.649269

4.     Securing Your Wireless Network. (2018, March 13). Retrieved July 20, 2020, from https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0013-securing-your-wireless-network