Firewalls

A firewall in modern day usage takes its name from its more physical counterpart as walls designed to protect people and neighbouring buildings from damage. In the day of the internet, many technical terms have been borrowed from the physical world, including the word virus, which although still used in the world of medicine, is a term heavily associated with computers. As the world wide web becomes more popular, more and more terms lend themselves to this vast network.

Firewalls do a very similar job to their physical namesake, in that they protect from intrusion. Instead of fire, they protect from network traffic passing through a network and stops anything from getting through that should not be there. As a result, private networks are protected against intrusion from traffic that might cause damage to the software. It can protect highly sensitive files within a business or organisation and ensures that our computers are safe from attack or from software that can steal our security information.

So making sure a suitable firewall is set up on a computer is just as important in some ways as making sure you have a monitor and a mouse. As understanding of the software increases, more and more networks will become safe.