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Firewalls – Importance and Various Types

The Importance of Firewall

The amount of data that can be transferred through a computer is enormous. With this in mind, it is important to have a firewall to protect our computers, devices and networks from threats. And thus, the role of firewall comes in. Firewall monitors and blocks traffic from external sources, such as hackers and other malicious parties, while still allowing traffic from trusted sources such as your ISP or other programs on your machine. While taking on company level – Enterprise Firewall protects an entire company or network from cyber attack by filtering incoming and outgoing traffic at the point where it enters or leaves an organization’s network.

Firewalls – in A Simple Term

Firewalls are used to protect computers and networks from attack. They work by blocking any incoming traffic that is not explicitly allowed.

Firewalls exist at the router level, the operating system level, and at individual application levels. If a machine has a firewall running on it, it will have an active input filter that blocks all inbound traffic unless the packet is specifically allowed.

There are many different types of firewalls are available but few of them we would like to mention are: the packet filtering firewall, Stateful inspection firewall (also called proxy firewall), Deep packet inspection firewall and Web application Firewall, A fifth type of firewall, commonly called a Next-Generation Firewall.

Packet Filtering Firewall

This sort of firewall has a certain number of firewall security rules which can hinder traffic dependent on IP convention, IP address or potentially port number. This firewall is programmed in such a way that, all web traffic will be permitted but block the traffic intendent for electronic assaults.

But we also need intrusion prevention, in addition to firewall security, in order to differentiate between organic web traffic which is nothing but real users web requests from genuine sources browsing your website and individuals assaulting your site. But a packet filtering firewall has limitations here, it can’t differentiate between the packets coming from legitimate traffic source or any other source

Stateful Firewall

This is also working on the same principles as the packet filtering firewall, but smarter about tracking active connections, so you can define firewall management rules such as “only allow packages into the network which is part of a predefined outbound connection. This kind of firewall is doing more than simply analyzing packets when they pass and rejecting as a function of simple parameters, it manages the dynamic information and continue to monitor packets when they pass via the network.

A simple packet filter firewall just blocks only the static information such as the IP address or port. Whereas the Stateful firewalls are better in indicating and blocking illegitimate traffic because they recognize models and anu other advance threats.

Deep packet inspection firewall

The Firewall takes a new approach to detecting and blocking attacks by inspecting the content of network packets. It compares the known good traffic generated by the internal protocols with never-before-seen network traffic. If it discovers something it doesn’t recognize, the device isolates it from your network and alerts you with detailed information about what was seen. It is a hardware centric and depending on the processing power to manage the deep packet inspection for the network.

Web Application Firewalls

Companies are still using stateful technology but it is no longer sufficient to maintain a safe network. Nowadays many applications are web based and safeguard them from threats become the priority. Thus, Web Application Firewalls were the next big step.

Traditional firewalls are struggling to detect traffic coming or going from a web application or services. Thus. Web application firewalls are designed to tackle these kinds of threats. It is capable to track the intrusion attempts that take advantage of web app or services or software vulnerabilities.

Next-Generation Firewall

NGFW is the latest generation of firewalls and have a board security application to provide overall security. This enterprise grade firewalls are designed as the combination of many firewalls mentioned above in this article. It comes with many network security features to mitigate threats coming from every possible source. If any company looking for any advanced firewall security technology then NGFW is the best choice to get highest level of security.

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Why GBB is leading the WFH (Work from Home) Space

The sudden spread of global pandemic, COVID-19, has changed the entire lifestyle of every individual and especially the work front. The ongoing lockdown to curb the spread of the virus has compelled people to adopt Work from Home (WFH). Not only are people trying to cope up with this new normal, but the situation has also thrown a challenge to the technology partner community to gear up to meet the challenges and demands of the present situation. In a chat with VARINDIA, Subbaram Gowra, /Managing Director, Gowra Bits & Bytes, discusses about the rising demand of remote work, challenges of WFH, Remote Work Solutions, etc.

There is an unprecedented spike in remote work today. How are your customers geared up for this new age of remote workforce?

There are some interesting discussions happening around this aspect, more than the customers alone, we as an ecosystem or an industry must be geared up for this challenge now and for the unforeseen/uncertain future.

As a leading solutions provider, how is Gowra Bits & Bytes geared to address the growing adoption of Work from Home (WFH) challenges?

As an end-to-end System Integrator, we have dedicated SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) with in-depth hands-on experience cutting across areas like Network Transformation, Backup Automation, Information Security, etc. Till now, we have orchestrated and even successfully delivered more than 200+ turnkey IT Infrastructure projects, the nature of them being mostly complex. This experience helped us better understand the challenges and quickly come up with cost effective WFH (Work from Home) solutions.

In your view, what are some of the key challenges faced by employees while working remotely, especially in India? How are you working with Dell Technologies to help your customers sail through these challenges?

What I feel is that it is more to do with a sudden culture change (like work distractions, motivation levels, time management, etc.). Of course, the internet speed and the quality of the service delivered by the local ISPs does matter a lot too for effective work delivery. The advantage of working with Dell Technologies is that they have a huge portfolio of solutions with workstations, laptops, thin clients or deploying “VMware Workspace One” solutions.

Employee experience and productivity is becoming extremely important while enabling Remote Work solutions. Therefore, RWS is not just about devices but the entire ecosystem like displays and right peripherals too. What is your take on it?

It really matters what the budget or maturity of the customer is. The huge portfolio of products and solutions from Dell Technologies made our life much easier and as a System Integrator, all we needed was an absolute clarity on the scope of work and challenges.

Working Remotely is also leading to crucial data being exposed to cybercriminals. How are you supporting your customer’s business-critical technology needs with Dell Technologies solutions?

Traditional, RDP or VPN Solutions which are normally used as a WFH solution are not full proof and secure. Luckily, we have various options like Multi-factor Authentication, Encryption and Application Access Gateway Solutions, which could be used as stand alone or in combination, depending on the customer’s challenge or the scenario in a way which enables users working from any network be IT trusted LAN or untrusted WAN or internet or mobile network to securely access corporate resources without requiring any network changes.

Subbaram Gowra, Managing Director, Gowra Bits & Bytes

The above article is published in Varindia Magazine

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Secure Document Sharing for Businesses

By: Subbaram Gowra | Aug 06, 2020

While there are many consumer grade cloud based file sharing services/sites which provide a convenient way to share, edit, and access documents and information, and though most of them come with features like Password protection & SSL Encryption, these tools are necessarily not the right fit for business as they lack features like Two Factor Authentication(2FA), Single Sign-On(SSO), AD Integration, Virtual Data Room, appropriate visibility, security controls, including access control, expiring file access, compliance and e-discovery etc. One must keep in mind the consequences of losing valuable data just in case if the files/data fall into the wrong hands, if employees aren't careful and proper policies are not in place. Once an unauthorized party gains access to your file-sharing service, it's difficult to mitigate what they accessed and just how far your private information has spread, hence it would be wise to consider paying for a service that offers a comprehensive & robust enterprise grade solution.

Enterprises especially those involved in sharing confidential documents pertaining to the M&A due diligence process, Sensitive information related to R&D, processes pertaining to the Quality control (QC) Labs or designs pertaining to pre-production etc. with their employees, clients & contractors have to do a thorough due diligence of their processes, security, regulatory compliance needs, understand the nature of the files, storage capacity etc. before freezing the right enterprise grade secure share file service.

Some common use cases that require businesses to share files securely include financial transactions like mergers and acquisitions, fundraising, IPOs, and other events where companies must send private information to outside parties.

Prospective investors & Board members often insist on being heavily involved with a company’s leadership team and other aspects of the operations sometimes on a daily basis depending on the nature of the engagement. But making such frequent visits by the investors to the investee’s office or by the board members to the office headquarters at least physically is almost impossible while the key personnel are scattered across globe or multiple offices, hence it’s crucial to have a purpose-built “Virtual data room” (VDR) in place that goes above and beyond to provide enhanced and innovative security features which would ensure that the sensitive corporate documents are stored & shared quickly and safely, then granting access to set of legitimate users only as required.

Still, trying to figure out the way?

Here is the check-list of the features that might help you freeze the most optimal “Secure file Sharing” Software:

Should support a wide range of file types including Adobe Acrobat Reader, word documents, slideshows, email, databases, music files (though you'll need a third-party player to stream them) & videos, etc.
Should be able to support features like Link expiration & watermarking that can't be stripped from the document, even support print and screen capture restrictions which should deter users from sharing unauthorized screenshots or photos of documents
Should support versioning meaning each time a change is made to document, the tool should automatically create a new version of a document and you should be able to determine the number of versions you want to keep before older versions are moved to the trash folder, etc.
A central portal (with custom branding feature that lets you incorporate your company's logo & create your own URL) where you /your legitimate employees can easily share files and collaborate with each other’s & with external parties like contractors, consultants, etc. according to the detailed folder permissions & restrictions such as editing, copy/paste, and change classifications, etc.
Should support 256-bit AES encryption (in transit and at rest) over SSL, Two-factor authentication, and single sign-on. The platform should enable the administrator to remotely wipe devices of sensitive data in the event that a device is lost or stolen.
Should have a hybrid cloud and local storage solution option which could enable continuous synchronization between local files and online copies so that the changes are also tracked & synched with the redundancy of data so that if one source fails, you still have another source to access your files.
Integration with 3rd party applications like Email platforms, eSignature solutions & DMS would further enhance the feasibility. Also make sure the platform supports compliances such as HIPAA, FINRA, SEC, GLBA compliance, and more.
The platform should give users a single, secure point of access to all data, regardless of environment or endpoints such as iOS, Android, Mac and Windows-based systems & devices such as Smartphones, Desktops & tablet, etc.

Should be able to review individual login sessions for even greater insight into how your data is being accessed & transferred. Advanced analytics features should give a deep insight on the most active users, most viewed documents, longest viewed documents and recent searches.

Give us a shout, if you are interested in adapting a similar solution for your business?

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