FIREWALLS AND NETWORKS

Firewalls and Network Security



Firewalls and Network Security

Introduction

Emergence of the Internet has extended the operations of a company. Global sharing of information and inter-connected operational systems has given rise to many cyber-security problems. Significant pressure has built on the need of Internet security experts/companies due to vulnerabilities exposed by the Internet growth. Many large firms have established their own secured communication channel for data exchange. However, still many companies are facing the threats in Internet medium. These threats relates to insecure data exchange, malicious programs creation, and penetration of outsiders in the local network of firms for getting unauthorized access to data information.

Purpose of these kinds of threats differs in every context, but the result creates significant loss to the company. In order to manage the vulnerabilities of network protocols, firms are opting to outsource network security systems. Outsourcing Internet security measure provides undoubted benefits to the company. Inclusively, this approach has limitations that are discussed in the following part of this report.

Benefits of Outsourcing Firewall and Security Measures

Firewall uses a security principal logic technique to control the Internet traffic in a system. This determines the network paths and exchange of information over those terminal paths. Firewall helps in filtering the external Internet traffic from entering protected domains.

Outsourcing firewalls and other security measures provide significant benefits to the company in terms of operational cost management. This enables the organization to acquire cyber security services at less cost (Pohlmann, 2004, 59). Firms are not required to establish network security department. It is not required to hire and train employees; instead, these services can be acquired from an external Internet security entity that is competent in providing Internet security services. In case of e-Bsure, outsourcing the RipTech Inc. to handle firewalls provide significant cost savings.

Another benefit of outsourcing firewall is that firewalls and security measures providing IT companies remain updated about the vulnerabilities and can track down the issue in transient responses time (Vacca, 2010, 118). As highlighted in the case, Riptech tracked down the location and intensity of intrusion attack when Trojan software entered into the system of e-Bsure and started sending the secured data to an unknown server in Virginia. Firewall outsourcing companies spend all their time in monitoring networks and keep update about the latest vulnerabilities. They keep releasing latest patches for firewall and other security software product that helps in controlling the possibility of hacking and also limit the movement of traffic to the domain (Vacca, 2010, 124).

Outsourcing the firewall helps in achieving economies of scales. Particularly in IT industry, company gets the advantage of information sharing; liability in such domain is shifted to the cyber security service provider (Belsis & Kokolakis, 2005, 193). Outsourcing the firewall and security measures, transfer the value of loss that can be experienced due to system vulnerabilities and hackers' attack. Outsourcing system security services support low-risk information sharing over the Internet and internal-terminal network links (Petersen, 2009, 141). Free-riding is not possible because firewall tracks the path of information continuously ...