Firewalls: Motivation

This concept worked well until the advent of World Wide Web and e-business.

As e-business, World Wide Web, and related applications continue to grow, a closed network was no longer closed and private networks started getting connected to the outside public Internet as well. Extranet connected internal and external business processes. Enterprises realized the benefit of e-commerce applications to business partners and consumers, and connecting sales-force automation systems to mobile sales force.

Today, an enterprise network demands an Open Network (see illustration on the next slide) with the flexibility to connect to the Internet and web apps, and to support telecommuters accessing through mobile devices, and much more. According to the latest statistics, more than 15 billion devices have been connected to the Internet in 2023, and experts predict that the number will be 17 billion in 2024.

Though these applications have an immediate benefit to the end user, they can pose security risks to the individual user and the information resources of a company and government. How can a network protect itself from malicious connections?