SMB Week : Firewalls – Yes, I need one, please…NOW!

There is no denying that in today’s political climate cybersecurity has never been more critical. Attacks stem from our country’s largest known adversaries to kids using sophisticated hacking tools developed by foreign governments and sold on the darknet.

The first line of defense for any network is a robust firewall. What is a firewall? A firewall is a piece of technology that helps to protect your network and the devices attached to your network. Without getting too nerdy, a firewall privately inspects the internet traffic entering and exiting your network.

Robust firewalls use a global threat intelligence database to update their own list of attack patterns and known malicious IP addresses. Any internet traffic coming to your network that matches the firewall’s list gets stopped by the firewall. When firewalls meet unknown threats and successfully block them from accessing your network, the firewall will update the global threat intelligence database. You are not only protecting your own business, but you are helping to reduce cybercrime. If it helps, think of a firewall as your own threat intelligence agency working to protect your privacy and protect your revenue. Which of your competitors have their own affordable threat intelligence agency at their command?

Every business should have layers of protection to mitigate cyber-attacks. The first layer should be a firewall. A business without a firewall is like a house with no front door or back door in the wild wild west. Is it time for you to protect your business? Consider collaborating with Virginia’s Premier Managed Service Provider, Bastionpoint Technology.