Reasons You Need to Have Your Firewall Turned On

Businesses have been making the shift to digital for several years now, but when the pandemic hit in 2020, the digitization process accelerated. People had to work remotely, and businesses had to shift online. The result was the sheer amount of data breaches and data theft instances.

Although businesses are becoming better at handling their data protection requirements, cyberattacks, too, are becoming advanced. In order to keep your business safe from hackers and cyberattacks, you must have an effective firewall in place.

In this article, we will discuss what a firewall really is, and why you need it turned on.

What is a Firewall?

As the word might suggest, a firewall is like a wall that is built around a network to keep hackers out. Businesses achieve a greater level of protection using both hardware and software. As a result, authorized traffic will get in and unauthorized traffic will blocked.

Reasons to Keep Your Firewall Turned On

Below, we have discussed different reasons for keeping your firewall turned on to protect your business against data breaches.

1. Prevent Malicious Traffic

The primary goal of a firewall is to review incoming and outgoing traffic. It determines legitimate traffic for a particular network based on some pre-defined rules. For instance, each network has particular locations that is accessed by different data. These are known as ports.

So, a firewall acts to block any unauthorized traffic from an unknown provider entering a specific port on the laptop. As a result, your firewall will deny all other forms of traffic. Moreover, you should choose the ‘Deny All’ option when your system is updating.

2. Protect Data on the Cloud

If you don’t choose a highly secure network attached storage, like QNAP Singapore, your data will be at risk. It is because you do not control the server that stores your data. However, by having a strong firewall in place, you can minimize this risk significantly. Your firewall can check every bit of data to ensure that malicious codes do not pass through.

Nowadays, most businesses use cloud storage solutions for hosting all their company data instead of storing it on-site. While it is an excellent economical solution, it comes with its own downsides.

3. Stay Alert about Malicious Activity

A firewall is a fundamental element in protecting against hacker attacks by tracking suspicious IPs, but it can also identify dangerous applications and users. For instance, it can detect DDoS attacks and other related activities. As soon as the firewall detects such malicious activities, it notifies you and immediately blocks them. So, if your business becomes a victim of a cyberattack, a firewall can identify it and notify you immediately of the threat, so your security team can neutralize it.

4. Block Data Outflows

If in an unfortunate instance, your firewall fails to defend against a hacking attempt, it can block the outflow of data. It means that even though hackers might have gotten in, they cannot take any information out.

Think of it like a one-way street, where the traffic can only come in but cannot get out. This strategy is relatively helpful when your security team is trying to identify the origin of the attack. They can examine the IPs and signatures to detect an unauthorized IP getting into the network.

5. Safeguard from Phishing Attacks

Phishing attacks are one of the worst types of attacks for any business. Cybercriminals can get access to your sensitive information, such as account numbers. These types of attacks are commonly carried out via malicious emails that seem like they are sent from legitimate senders.

Fortunately, a business-grade firewall can identify such phishing attacks before any data loss has occurred. It monitors all connections that you access and identifies the ones that are related to a social engineering attack. If it turns out to be one, the firewall blocks the outflow of data immediately. Moreover, many firewalls also have a feature of email filtering to analyze suspicious mail and prevent it from reaching your inbox.

6. Content Filtering

While digitization has improved employee productivity, it can also hinder it. There are many social and entertainment websites that are non-productive for businesses. So, by filtering out such websites, businesses can increase employee productivity during working hours.

Moreover, many such websites also contain malware, so businesses can prevent malicious attacks by filtering out such websites. Businesses can use firewalls to filter and block these sites, and when employees visit these sites, they will see a notification saying “unsafe to visit”. This functionality has been helping different businesses improve employee productivity and reduce the risk of exposing the systems to malware.

7. Limit Bandwidth Use

Besides filtering out non-work-related websites, businesses can also limit the bandwidth use for each employee. When employees spend most of their time on social websites, it uses up valuable bandwidth.

It can affect work for others who might start experiencing slower data speeds. Since many employees use the same network, the speeds can significantly drop, especially if it is used up in viewing videos, listening to music, or downloading photos.

By using a firewall, businesses can limit the amount of bandwidth for non-work-related activities. You can turn it off entirely, too, but it is better to limit it so employees can take a break from the hectic work routine for a few minutes.

8. Secure Network for Remote Employees

Nowadays, most businesses are operating remotely, and work-from-home has become the new normal. While it is beneficial in a lot of ways, it can become challenging to protect your network if your employees are outside of your internet service provider range.

However, a firewall can help in this regard by securing the connection between your server and remote employees. It can also block and prevent other users from accessing or interrupting the data shared by your employees and your business.

The Final Verdict

Businesses are evolving and digitizing rapidly, and so are the cybercriminals. So, make sure you are well-equipped for the cyber challenges facing an increasingly digitizing world by using highly secure firewalls and data protection software. Moreover, you should only use ultra-secure network-attached storage options to store your data on the cloud. Taking these steps is essential for keeping your business safe from hackers and cyberattacks; otherwise, you may end up losing sensitive data and become a victim to data breaches.