Firewall Guide

Many organizations have computing security policies and practices that must be adhered to

Firewall is embodiment of corporate policy

Frequently, hardest part of hooking to Internet, if you're large company, is not justifying expense or effort, but convincing management that it's safe to do so

Firewall provides real security and often plays important role as security blanket for management

Firewall can act as corporate "ambassador" to Internet

Place to store public information about corporate products and services, files to download, bug-fixes, ....

Some firewalls permit only e-mail traffic through them

Generally, firewalls are configured to protect against unauthenticated logins from "outside" world

Site with top secret or classified data doesn't need firewall at all -- shouldn't be hooked up to Internet

Systems with sensitive data should be isolated from rest of corporate network