Top 5 Reasons Why Your Network Needs A Firewall

It takes a lot to truly secure a business network. If your business is notably successful, then this is doubly true. Nefarious people will want to infiltrate your tech in order to steal money or just wreak havoc. Stopping them isn’t easy, but the first step is to set up a firewall. In fact, there are five specific ways a firewall can help your business.

The First and Best Defense

It’s no secret that bad things exist within the space of the internet. Viruses, phishing software and a whole slew of things you want nowhere near your business are all lurking in dark corners of the great wide web. The primary purpose of a firewall is to defend against these threats. By monitoring both incoming and outgoing traffic through your network, the firewall can identify most threats and shut them down before and damage occurs.

Some Threats Are Internal

It’s not polite to admit it, but a lot of times we know the origin of the malicious software. Employees or guests aren’t trying to cause trouble when they get caught up in the process. The most successful viruses are ones we don’t see coming. Regardless, the best way to enhance network security is to just plain block access to known dangerous sites. A firewall can do this, and it can do it without slowing your network or creating any drama. It simply blacklists sites that are known to cause trouble.

Hackers Are Bad Too

Malicious software is the more common threat, but it isn’t the worst thing on the internet. You’ve seen enough news stories about businesses being hacked to know it’s a threat to everyone. While a firewall alone can’t guarantee safety from hackers, it’s impossible to be secure without it. Hacker defense only grows more essential as your business becomes more prominent.

You Can Control Bandwidth

Secure networks are great. They’re also not the limit to what a good firewall can do. One of the coolest features is controlling bandwidth and assigning priorities. If you have multiple people on a network, they might have to fight for bandwidth to do their jobs. With a firewall, you can automatically give more access to the most important functions and throttle stuff that’s eating data for less value. Here’s an example. You can throttle bandwidth to YouTube or social media and leave more available for business critical functions.

Set up a VPN

The last great benefit of a firewall is the opportunity to have a VPN. If you aren’t familiar with the term, a VPN is a virtual private network. Basically, it is a way for people outside of the office to securely connect to the office network. It’s amazing for traveling employees or remote workers to stay in sync with everyone else without skipping a beat. It’s also an extra layer of security which is something we all love.

Security, control and efficiency. These are great buzzwords, and they all apply to your firewall. Talk to your IT team. If you don’t already have a firewall, it’s time to invest. Even if you do, it might be time to check for upgrades. You never want your first line of defense to fall behind the times.

To order or if you have any questions, please contact one of our Network Equipment Experts today.