Cybersecurity Glossary
Firewall
A control that decides which network traffic is allowed in and out.
What Firewall means
A firewall filters traffic by source, destination, port and increasingly by application and user. Every office router includes one, every operating system includes one, and cloud platforms provide their own. Outbound filtering, which is often left wide open, is as important as inbound.
Why Firewall matters for small businesses and nonprofits
A default firewall configuration usually blocks incoming traffic and permits everything outbound, which suits an attacker perfectly, because that is the direction stolen data leaves in.
What to do about Firewall
- Review inbound rules and remove anything opened temporarily and never closed
- Restrict outbound traffic to what your business actually needs
- Keep firewall firmware updated, since these devices are themselves targets
Not sure where you stand on this?
We review your current setup against the basics, tell you plainly what is covered and what is not, and give you a ranked list with effort and cost. No jargon and no scare tactics.