A managed firewall includes two important “bricks:”
Hardware firewalls are physical devices that filter traffic coming to your network. They attempt to decide on whether EXISTING connections are good or malicious, and make decisions to stop or allow the traffic.
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- DNS filtering is a complimentary software that protects your network internally by inspecting a user’s request to access new websites and deciding BEFORE the connection is made to drop any malicious sites.
- A managed firewall includes both a hardware firewall and a software firewall to protect your network from the outside as well as from the inside. Without both, you will have security gaps that can cause you big problems.
Why Do I Need a Hardware Firewall?
Hardware firewalls protect your network from external threats with a physical device that is installed between your internet connection and your network. This device monitors data as it is transmitted, either blocking it or allowing it to be transferred according to a set of predefined rules.
Hardware firewalls act as the first line of defense between your network and the outside world. Without these devices, malicious traffic would be allowed directly into your network. Hardware firewalls are an important step in a managed firewall, but they are far more effective when paired with DNS filtering.
DNS (Domain Name System) allows users to find pages and sites by common domain names, such as iconicit.com, rather than having to type in the target’s IP address to find web resources. lf a page or IP address is known to be malicious, a DNS filter will not allow the user to connect to it.
DNS web filtering is another layer of protection like your anti-virus. DNS filtering will:
- Block malicious IP Addresses
- Block phishing websites even AFTER an employee is tricked into clicking on the link
- Keep users from accessing questionable material while using a protected device
- Provide ongoing assessment of new and changing sites
- Help make it easier for users to make the right choices when accessing websites
Without DNS filtering, your employees could be tricked into visiting malicious sites or even accessing questionable content on company devices.
Iconic IT gives extra layers of protection to your managed firewall by combining a hardware firewall with DNS filtering, blocking threats from both the outside and internally. You can learn more about our firewall protections with a free, no-obligation, ten-minute chat today.
