What is Firewall? Why do we need it?

Protect your PC with a firewall

If your PC is connected to the Internet, you are a potential focus for a variety of digital dangers such as keyloggers, hackers and Trojans. This means that if you like most other people shop and bank online then you are vulnerable to a great amount of identity theft and other malicious attacks.

A firewall works as a hindrance  between your PC and cyber space. When you are connected to the internet you are continuously sending and receiving some sort of data. The firewall filters these small units of information to meet the certain criteria. This restricts hackers from getting inside our PC and steal our confidential & personal data.

Firewalls helps to decide between the authorized and the unauthorized data

There are some firewalls that only monitor incoming traffic by default.  This may give us a false security and will not help you to remain fully protected. This may give a false security. One should keep in mind that outgoing traffic with your credit card information, bank account numbers and passwords is not protected. A good firewall will monitor the outgoing as well as the incoming traffic, keeping all your private information secure. 

Most sophisticated firewalls also include a feature that continuously updates the list of the applications that are good and the ones that are malicious. This way your computer protection is always up to date and the chances for a cyber threat is reduced.

Although a firewall provides protection to keep your PC safe from unauthorized access, it cannot remove malware from an already infected system. Therefore, a firewall should be used in connection with other proactive measures, such as anti-malware software in order to strengthen your resistance to attacks.