3 Tips For Securing Your Firewall

By Author: Adam Caulfield
Total Articles: 14
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Three Tips to Secure Your Firewall

I recently visited an old pal of mine who is in the IT/Internet business. While I was at his premises his website was broken into and his computer systems went down. So if an IT guy can get complacent what chance for the rest of us?

Every chance is the answer, providing you have a properly configured firewall in place.

Getting a firewall is the first step towards securing your network, but it's just as important to make sure that it's configured according to the industries best practices. How a firewall is set up will make a big difference to how it performs, so it pays to get an expert involved. It won't be an expensive job and you will have piece of mind to show for your investment.

Here are the 3 tips;

Keep Things Simple
A firewall is used to enforce your IT security policies, so get a clear set of organisational guidelines in place before starting

Organise Your Rules
Firewalls process rules in the order that are set for them, so make sure that the most easily processed rules are at the top of your list. If ...
... a request matches one of the first rules, it won't have to bother with the other rules in place.

Deny Permission as the Normal Status
Because you want only approved traffic to flow on your network, you should deny all traffic by default and then enable the necessary services.

On top of the above there are many more technical considerations to take into account. Buying a Firewall from PC World and plugging it in is OK but honestly, if you want to do this right, get a properly qualified computer support company to do this for you. It shouldn't cost a fortune and you can rest assured that your network is safe.
Adam Caulfield is the Managing Director of Your IT Genie. The IT Genie business supplies remote IT support to businesses with no IT department or an overstretched IT department.
The key to computer support is prevention rather than cure. Regular updates and patches to operating systems and anti virus software will keep most businesses running admirably.