You need to have a firewall between your network and the outside world. Check out the Secure Web Gateway shortcuts – the easy way.
Secure Web Gateway Shortcuts – The Easy Way
Data cyber protection is a major concern for businesses and individuals alike. If your computer is connected to the Internet, you need to be aware of the latest scams and viruses, not to mention an ever-increasing number of hacker attacks. For example, according to news reports, on November 17, 2010, a cyber attack was launched that disabled thousands of computers in South Korea.
To protect your computer from this sort of malicious attack, you need to have a firewall between your network and the outside world.
Secure Web gateway Configuration
Here are some simple shortcuts for configuring a secure Web gateway for your home or small-business network:
1. Buy a SOHO (Small Office/Home Office) router and configure it as a firewall. Most brands come with a default username and password for the Web-based administration interface. Change these before you connect it to the Internet.
You may also want to change the internal management IP address to one that is not within the DHCP range. This is usually assigned by your ISP (Internet Service Provider) when you connect it to their modem or cable/DSL box. A simple way to do this is to configure the router’s settings so that its management IP address is always 192.168.1.1.
Its default gateway is 192.168.1.254, set them according to your router’s documentation. That way, if someone does get access to the management interface, they will only have access to your local network, not the Internet. But this is unless they know how to change those settings!
2. Configure it so that traffic from outside the network is destined for any port other than 80 (HTTP) or 443 (HTTPS). This is on any internal machine is blocked, except for traffic originating from machines on the local network (which should be allowed in both directions). In most SOHO routers this can be easily configured by disabling all services other than HTTP and HTTPS.
This is by unchecking all checkboxes under “Enabled Services” in Basic Firewall Settings. Then configuring each port’s access controls separately in Port Management Settings. This will block all traffic other than FTP (port 21), SMTP (port 25), and DNS resolution requests (port 53).
Additional Layer of Protection
As an additional layer of protection against so-called “man in the middle” attacks where someone could try accessing your computer. This is through another computer pretending to be another machine on your
a fundamental requirement for any business that operates in today’s information society. You need to have a firewall between your network and the outside world.
Some internet service providers offer a gateway that is supposed to protect your network from cyber-attacks. But can be very complex to configure and hard to maintain. Some alternatives can work for any size business, including home offices.
Let’s start with the basics. A firewall is a device or software module that controls access between two networks. Each network has its unique security policies and procedures.
Network A can be your private network with computers running Windows, Linux, UNIX, Mac OS, and Solaris. Also, in any other operating system supported by OpenVPN®. Network B can be the public IP Internet-facing network through which all your external access comes.