Networking - External security - Firewall service

To secure your network from invasion you need to setup a defense. This defense can be hardware, software, or both. The main player in this defense is called a firewall service. You can get a fire wall either in your hardware, such as programmed into a router, or with software, such as a fire wall program.

Either or both will monitor traffic from outside your network that is inbound but not traffic that is inside your network that is outbound. Your highest security lies in using both the hardware and the software. I recommend both; the hardware firewall is in non volatile memory and can not be hacked. The software is on your side of the hardware and is less venerable to a hacker.

The part of the firewall that does the monitoring is called a rule. You or your system administrator will create the rules that allow only certain types of traffic through your firewall.

Example:

Let's say you have a business and you have five employees, one day you get a call from you ISP (Internet Service Provider) that someone from your local network has been doing something that the ISP prohibits. You could fire everyone, or you could ask the ISP what port the offending service is using to access the Internet. With the port number you can write or create a rule that will turn the port off and not allow any traffic inbound or outbound.

The 5 Steps to high quality and cheap DIY Computer Repairs Get It Today...

Hardware Security -

For hardware security you can start with your workstations and or servers. Items that increase your security included but are not limited to:

•  Secure Card Logon
•  Encrypting the hard drives in the computer system
•  Requiring user id and password to access the system BIOS and hardware.

For your network you can start with your hubs or switches.

• Require user id and password to modify parameters.

Use of a router that has the firewall as part of the non volatile memory that incorporates NAT (Network Access Translation) rules to increase the security of your connection to the Internet.

• Require user id and password to modify parameters.

Physical security -

Securing all devices behind locked doors at all times, controlling access to the devices is a must. Allow only authorized personnel to access the devices. This will preclude an intruder from accessing the device or someone with out the required knowledge or security clearance from changing the configuration of your prime defense against intrusion or theft of your data.