Firewalls have become a really familiar term, although not everybody knows exactly what they refer to.
The name ‘firewall’ comes from the term used in firefighting for a wall that blocks a fire from spreading to other parts of a building. Similarly, in IT, firewalls are meant to block off areas–a whole network from other less trusted networks like the internet or just areas of a network from less trusted areas of the network.
Firewalls became available commercially in 1992 and since that time, they’ve become ubiquitous–software-based firewalls come on virtually every operating system today, even for personal computing.
A firewall can’t be the entire protective apparatus for a business network, but it is an essential piece. To learn more, watch our short intro video.