Host Firewall, or Is the Perimeter Enough?

About this interactive

A network-based firewall sits at the edge of the network and protects the whole site from the outside world. Its limit is that it does nothing inside the network: if one machine is compromised, through social engineering say, nothing stops it reaching the machines beside it. It also does nothing for a device that has left the office. A host-based firewall runs as software on the machine itself. That lets it do two things the perimeter firewall cannot: block machine-to-machine (lateral) traffic inside the network, and protect a laptop wherever it connects, on hotel or home Wi-Fi, where there is no corporate firewall in front of it. It used to be common to turn host firewalls off on the trusted LAN; that is no longer the advice. To sort a card, ask whether the threat is inside the network or off it (the host firewall adds protection) or coming from the internet at the site boundary (the perimeter firewall covers it).

What you'll learn

Explain why a host-based firewall is needed alongside a network firewall, recognizing the threats it stops that the perimeter does not: traffic inside the network and a device off the corporate network

Aligned to

CompTIA Security+

2.5 Explain the purpose of mitigation techniques used to secure the enterprise.

Key terms

Host-based Firewall: A software firewall installed directly on an individual computer that monitors and controls network traffic to and from that specific host. Host-based firewalls provide a layer of defense that persists even when a device leaves the corporate network.
Network-based Firewall: A firewall deployed at the network perimeter to monitor and control traffic flowing between networks or network segments.
Firewall: A network security device that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing traffic based on predefined security rules.

Topics

Interactive Streak Sort

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