Whether you’re a business owner or an individual looking to protect your computer and personal information, using a firewall is a great way to do that. But if you’ve never used one before, figuring out how to start can be confusing. This guide, How to Get Started With Firewall Service, will walk you through the basics of setting up a firewall and getting started with protecting your computer.
Creating zones, configuring settings, and reviewing firewall rules are all part of the process of configuring a firewall.
This initial line of protection against internet criminals is important to network security. Creating a firewall may be daunting, but breaking it down into smaller, more achievable steps can make the process much easier. This guide will walk you through the essential stages of configuring a firewall.
It is possible to safeguard your network using a variety of firewall types. To understand more about your choices, you can speak with a HIPAA or PCI security professional. No matter whatever firewall type you use, the following procedures are essential. This article assumes you’re using a business-grade firewall with stateful packet inspection and the ability to handle several internal networks (or zones).
How to Get Started With Firewall Service?
Protect your firewall.
Security on your network is essentially nullified if an intruder gains administrative access to your firewall. As a result, the first and most critical step in this procedure is to secure your firewall. The following configuration activities must be performed on every firewall before going live in production:
- Make sure any default user accounts and passwords are deleted, disabled or renamed. Make careful to choose passwords that are both complex and safe.
- If the firewall is being managed by more than one person, create additional administrator accounts with varying levels of access based on their roles. Never log in to a shared computer with anybody else’s credentials.
- You can either disable the SNMP protocol or change its settings to use an encrypted community string instead.
Make a plan for your firewall zones and IPs
Identifying the assets on your network is the first step toward securing them (for example, payment card data or patient data). As a result, design your network structure so these assets may be grouped together and placed in networks (or zones) based on comparable sensitivity and purpose.
Set up a system of access controls.
It is time to figure out exactly what traffic must be allowed into and out of each network zone that you have defined and allocated interfaces.
Firewall rules known as access control lists (ACLs) will let this traffic via each firewall interface or subinterface. When at all feasible, make your ACLs unique to certain IP addresses and port numbers, both at the source and at the destination. All unauthorized traffic should be filtered out by adding a “deny all” rule at the end of each access control list. Use ACLs on both the incoming and outbound sides of each of your firewall’s interfaces and subinterfaces to ensure that only authorized traffic enters and exits each area.
Check your firewall setup.
Verify your firewall’s functionality in a simulated environment. Make that your firewall is blocking traffic that should be prohibited based on your ACL configurations. Vulnerability scanning and penetration testing should be part of the process of evaluating your firewall.
You should be able to put your firewall into production as soon as you’ve completed testing it. Keep a copy of your firewall configuration in a safe location in case of a hardware failure so that all of your hard work is not lost.