Network Security and Firewall Technology: A Step to Safety of National IT Vision

Network Security and Firewall Technology: A Step to Safety of National IT Vision

Afolayan A. Obiniyi, Ezugwu E. Absalom, Mohammed Dikko
Copyright: © 2011 |Pages: 21
DOI: 10.4018/jdtis.2011040103
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Abstract

With the explosion of the public Internet, corporate networks connected to the Internet, if not adequately secured, are vulnerable to damaging attacks. Hackers, viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and spyware try to invade privacy. This research examines how these threats affect the corporate network and ways to reduce them. MikroTik routerOS was configured as the router to examine these threats. Network Address Translation and packet filtering where the key features configured to make the network hidden for unauthorized users and filter unwanted traffics that might reflect malicious acts. The configuration and test were carried out at Iya Abubakar Computer Center, Ahamdu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. At the onset, the targeted network was full of virus, worms, Trojan horses, spyware, and vulnerable to unauthorized users. The signal strength of the network was usually very poor due to the effect from the threats affecting the bandwidth. The firewall was configured to filter out inherently dangerous services, exposing the network to fewer risks. After the research, the performance and efficiency of the network was improved tremendously.
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2. Firewall Technology

A firewall is a device designed to avoid unsanctioned access to or from a private network. Firewalls can be put into effect in both hardware and software, or both of them joined together. Firewalls are most often used to preclude unsanctioned Internet users from getting private networks linked to the Internet. All data entering or leaving the corporate network pass through the firewall, which examines each packet and blocks those that do not meet the specified security criteria (Kaeo, 2001). Usually, firewalls are setup to guide against unsanctioned interactive logins from the outside world. This assists to disallow “hackers” from logging into machines on a network. More complex firewalls hinder traffic from the outside to the inside, but allow users on the inside to exchange information a little more freely with the outside. Firewalls are important since they can make available a single block point where security and audit can be enforced. Hypothetically, there are two types of firewalls

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