BLOG-0-mania

Now days, almost all networks have firewalls installed to protect them from the dangers of the un-trusted outside world of the Internet. When firewalls first came to the scene, they were nowhere near good enough to protect the Network completely. However, with the passage of time, the quality of firewalls has increased to such a level that the present day firewall systems make the internal trusted network almost 100% safe.

They can easily be configured to allow only certain kinds of data to pass through and even can be used to set which ports can be accessed from the un-trusted network (Internet) and which ports are accessible from the internal trusted network. Some good ones also scan all attachments going in and out for viruses and ensure that no confidential data is going out of the company. The present day firewalls have really made life quite easier for the system administrating by giving more than a little protection from the Outside world. However, one area where the firewalls falter is if the attach is from within the trusted internal network or in other words, the attacker is doing something wrong, something which he is not supposed to do from within the network and not through the Internet.

Say for example, you have a well configured; firewall installed at your company’s main server and it scans all incoming email attachments for viruses. Now, if you get a virus attach from outside the internal trusted network and though the Internet, then normally the firewall will either delete or warn you about it. However, if the virus coder, is working for you and is within the internal trusted network, then a firewall would not be able to do anything about it and the virus will spread quite easily.

NOTE: The above is just an example taken to ensure that you understand.