Firewall Security
Ashley Hill
George Mason University
IT 103 Sec 002
February 25, 2014
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Introduction
Internet firewalls are a type of security
designed to protect computers from other users’ attempts at hacking and
accessing information (Seachrist, 1997). According to Seachrist (1997),
firewalls simultaneously allow people from the organization employing the
firewall to utilize the Internet as well as e-mail. There are five firewall
packages that the NSTL evaluates that all run under Windows NT or Unix:
“AltaVista Internet Software’s AltaVista Firewall 97 Beta, Check Point Software
Technologies Ltd.’s Firewall-1 Version 2.1, CyberGuard Corp.’s CyberGuard
Firewall Release 3.0, Raptor Systems, Inc.’s Eagle NT Firewall Version 4.0, and
Secure Computing Corporation’s Sidewinder Security Server Version 3.0 (Seachrist,
1997). The purpose of this paper will be to assess the significance of
firewalls as well as provide background information on firewalls, list the
potential benefits of firewalls, and discuss the legal, social, ethical, and
security issues of firewalls.
Background
The term
‘firewall’ was not coined when the internet was created, the term ‘firewall’
had been used before to describe certain types of barriers in houses and
automobiles that slowed down the spread of fires (Avolio, 1999). In the late
1980’s the first firewalls surfaced and were initially used as “router to
separate a network into smaller LANS” (Avolio, 1999). The firewalls were
initially used to “limit problems from one LAN spilling over and affecting the
whole network” (Avolio, 1999). Later in the 1990’s, firewalls were used for
security purposes; they served as IP routers with filtering rules (Avolio,
1999). Further down the road, the next type of firewall that was invented by
Brian Reid, part of the engineering team at Digital Equipment Corporation; this
type of firewall was more intricate, built on bastion hosts, and more
commercial since it used filters and application gateways (Avolio, 1999). Marcus
Ranum wrote the rest of the firewall code along with new inventions of security
proxies (Avolio, 1999). Several other firewalls were created by Cheswick and
Bellovin at Bell Labs, Raptor Eagle, DEC SEAL, and ANS InterLock (Avolio,
1999). Firewalls are useful technology and are capable of being beneficial.
Potential
Benefits
There are many
potential benefits to firewalls. Regarding the newer firewalls, deep packet
inspection firewalls are considered “the best line of defense against worms
that can sneak past earlier technology to wreak havoc in corporate networks” (Greene,
2004). Another benefit of firewalls, specifically application firewalls, is
that they are equipped with the capability to discover “malicious traffic that
stateful inspection firewalls can miss” (Greene, 2004). According to Greene
(2004), the firewalls accomplish this by looking for common signs within the
packets. Application firewalls also allow “more users to access corporate
networks” (Greene, 2004). Greene’s (2004) trade journal provides examples of
this stating that NetScreen’s firewall allows Virginia Hospital Center to have
access to billing and medical applications. This aspect is resourceful because
it allows networks to access each other’s records without actually and
physically bringing them to one another. While firewalls are beneficial to
networks and people in general, they can bring up some legal and ethical
issues.
Legal and Ethical
Issues
With anything, there are some legal and
ethical issues concerned with firewalls. The three primary issues will be
between decency, free access to information, and freedom of speech and privacy.
Regarding decency, firewalls in a workplace setting can be used to prevent any
provocative material on the Internet from being viewed. It provides the
challenge of filtering out inappropriate content that can be considered risqué
and without this, many people will take steps to ensure their environment is
clean (Bailey, 2003). The fight for decency though then raises the concern for
privacy. Firewalls also include the intrusion of private space. (Bailey, 2003).
Most people see this as an unethical act of transgression on their
confidentiality and do not like the fact what they view can be monitored.
Trailing along with this, another issues arises, the legal issue of free
speech. Firewalls have the capability of blocking websites, which allows the
administration to block the whole network as opposed to each individual
computer (Bailey, 2003). People feel as
though this limits and defies their first amendment rights to look at and write
whatever they please. Some people do not appreciate the fact that they cannot
do whatever they want on the Internet and find this type of monitoring to be
inappropriate. Not only do firewalls suggest some legal and ethical issues, but
they also can have some security concerns that, in the end, defeat the overall
purpose of having a firewall.
Security Concerns
While firewalls
were created to protect computers, but they too can have some security
concerns. One concern is how firewalls assign one user to the entire operating
system. If one person is the sole owner, a hacker has the potential to have
access to the entire network and all of its resources if the hacker gains access
to the main user (Seachrist, 1997). Another security issue is that firewalls
can only reach so far to protect the network (Grochow, 2005). Grochow (2005)
discusses how once accessed through an application that a firewall did not
protect, the hacker can see the passwords and data that is passed behind the
firewall. He goes on to discuss how everyone with access to applications is
allowed full access (Grochow, 2005). Along the same lines, firewalls cannot
protect against all attacks such as social engineering, war dialing,
denial-of-service attacks, protocol-based attacks, host attacks, password
guessing, and eavesdropping (Avolio, 1999). Despite firewalls intended purpose,
sometimes firewalls can have malfunctions and loop holes which leaves them with
security issues. Security problems are not the only problems that firewalls are
capable of having. Their problems reach outside of the technological world and
into the real world as they can have some social problems as well. As firewalls
develop, hurdles still yet must be overcome until its technology is fully
complete.
Social Problems
While firewalls
can keep people out, they can also keep people in and this proposes some social
problems. In China, the authorities hold a tight grip on Internet censorship
and restrict what the Chinese people can view. Chinese citizens cannot read
about sensitive topics as well as being unable to post information that may be
used against the government (China, 2013). The article by China’s Correspondent
states that China’s Great Firewall, as it is called, is “among the most
technically sophisticated internet filtering/censorship systems in the world”
(China, 2013). China uses IDs, or intrusion detection systems, which monitor
all Internet traffic. It looks at key words that are banned and then stops it
from reaching its intended target which then prevents Chinese users from
reaching certain browsers allotted outside of China’s domain (China, 2013).
These firewalls can bring up a lot of social problems that may also be
considered unethical. The government has the potential to govern supposed to be
open spaces, like the Internet, by using firewalls. This may cause the Chinese
citizens to only become more informed about how to use the Internet so they can
go around all of these restrictions. Firewalls can be used for protection, but
the power of firewalls can also be abused and used for the worse.
Future Use
Firewalls have some potential room for
growth just like everything else. In the future, firewalls, now being called
“next generation firewalls,” will be ”application-aware” because they will be
more application based (Messmer, 2013). Many more features will be added to
firewalls such as IPS, intrusion-prevention systems, webfiltering, VPN,
data-loss prevention, malware filtering, and threat-detection sandbox (Messmer,
2013). Other elements such as mobile devices, tablets, and smart phones bring
up new reasons to protect data at several government agencies as well as fire
and police departments. Through “centralizing firewall and IPS log feeds, along
with server logs, helps the city security determine from a single point what’s
a network-security issue that might involve an attack vs. an employee Web
issue” (Messmer, 2013). Although firewalls have been proven to be useful, there
is always room for improvement; the future for firewalls looks bright.
Conclusion
Firewalls are useful technologies that
serve as a type of security that prevents networks from being hacked. Looking
through research, firewalls have many potential benefits that will benefit networks
in the long run. While firewalls have benefits, they also have legal and
ethical issues such as issues with decency, privacy, and freedom of speech. Not
only do they have legal and ethical issues, but they also have security concerns
such as loopholes that allow hackers behind the wall. Lastly, discussed were
the social problems that come along with firewalls such as how China is using
them to keep their Chinese citizens in the dark and quiet. Also, the future of
firewalls was peered into since the technology is always growing, becoming more
innovative, and developing into more sophisticated technology. It is expanding
on several aspects such as new detections and filtering. Although firewalls are
resourceful and provide protection, they also display a lot of issues and
problems that are sometimes overlooked.
References
Avolio, Frederic. (1999). Firewalls and internet security, the second
hundred (internet) years.
Date
accessed: 21 February 2014. Retrieved from
This website was
about firewalls and internet security. It discussed Internet history, firewall
history, types of firewalls, packet filtering, circuit gateways, application
gateways, what firewalls can do, what firewalls cannot do, firewalls today, and
firewalls tomorrow. This journal provided was reliable in terms of the material
when used to historical documentation.
Bailey, John. (2003). Ethical issues in firewall administration. Date
accessed: 21 February 2014.
Retrieved from
This electronic
book discusses the ethical issues in firewall administration especially in
terms of Local
Area Networks. The information in this text is reliable and provides much
cited material
that proves to be useful.
China Correspondent. (2013). The great firewall of China. Date
accessed: 21 February 2014.
Retrieved from
This is an online
report from a China correspondent that describes the current status of
China and the hold
the government has over the internet. This source is reliable for
information.
Greene, Tim. (2004). The evolution
of application layer firewalls. Network
World, 21, 20.
This
trade journal discussed the different levels of firewalls from packet filters,
to stateful inspection, then intrusion detection, and deep packet inspection It
goes on to discuss the potential uses of deep packet inspection firewalls. This
information is reliable and holds much merit value.
Grocohw, Jerrold. (2005).
Firewall’s false sense of security. Computerworld,
39, 23. ProQuest
Research Library.
Date accessed: 21 February 2014. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.mutex.gmu.edu/pqrl/docview/216091045/857E3C54D28643B1PQ/7?accountid=14541
This trade journal
discusses how firewalls provide a false sense of security and goes on to talk
about the reasons behind why the author believes this. This source is a
reliable source of information especially in terms of security concerns.
Messmer, Ellen. (2013). How will cloud, virtualization, and SDN
complicate future firewall
This article
online discusses the future prospects of firewalls and considers elements such
as cloud, virtualization, and SDN. This article is very reliable in terms of
information and provides resources to back up the information.
Seachrist, David, & Holzbaur, Helen.
(1997). Internet firewall software. Computing
Canada, 23,
34-35. ProQuest
Computing. Date accessed: 21 February 2014. Retrieved from
This magazine
discusses how firewalls are becoming essential for companies. It also discussed
the different firewall packages, hack attacks, operating system security
features, and logging and tracing. The information in this article is reliable
and contains many references to support its material.
