The Evolution of Firewall Technology: From Packet Filtering to Next-Generation Firewalls
Since the late 1980s, firewalls have been around. First known as packet filters, they were networks set up to inspect packets, or bytes, sent between computers. Despite the fact that packet filtering firewalls are still in use today, firewalls have advanced significantly over the years as technology has advanced.
History of Firewall
Generation 1
All businesses were impacted by viral attacks on standalone PCs in the late 1980s, which led to the development of anti-virus software.
Generation 2
Attacks from the internet during the mid-1990s, which had a negative impact on all businesses, led to the development of the firewall in Gen 2 networks.
Generation 3
Applications from Generation 3 were vulnerable to being exploited in the early 2000s, which affected most organizations and led to the development of intrusion prevention systems (IPS).
Generation 4
Gen 4 Payload In 2010, targeted, evasive, evasive, polymorphic attacks increased, affecting most enterprises and driving the development of anti-bot and sand boxing tools.
Generation 5
Large-scale, multi-vector, mega assaults using advanced attack tools and pushing the development of advanced threat prevention solutions are known as Gen 5 Mega Generation 5, or approximately 2017.
Types of Firewalls
Packet filtering
A little amount of data is examined and dispersed in accordance with the standards of the filter.
Proxy service
Message-filtering network security technology that guards while at the application layer.
Stateful inspection
Dynamic packet filtering is used to determine which network packets to allow through the Firewall by monitoring active connections.
Next Generation Firewall (NGFW)
Deep packet inspection Firewall with application-level inspection.
Next Generation Firewalls and Beyond
Next-generation firewalls inspect packets at the application level of the TCP/IP stack and can identify and enforce security policies based on the type of application, such as Skype or Facebook.
To detect and prevent malware and threats, UTM (Unified Threat Management) devices and Next Generation Firewalls now include threat prevention technologies such as intrusion prevention systems (IPS) or antivirus. Sand boxing technologies may also be included in these devices to detect threats in files.
Next Generation Firewalls will remain an essential component of any organization’s security solution, whether in the data center, network, or cloud, as the cyber security landscape evolves and attacks become more sophisticated.
The firewall system acts as a strong barrier against cyber attacks. Thank You !!!
