ACHIEVING NETWORK SECURITY WITH FIREWALLS

With the rapid increase in the number of LAN connections to the world's largest computer network (the Internet), new security techniques should be used to protect local networks against intrusion from the Internet. Basically, we need to prevent destruction of data by intruders, maintain the privacy of local information, and prevent unauthorized use of computing resources. To improve network security, network connections to the Internet, in general, do not take place transparently. Instead, firewall servers are used to protect the systems connected to the local network against assaults from the Internet. But, there is a price to pay, usually, because the firewall server results in a bottleneck for assaults from the Internet into the LAN as well as for allowed communication between the LAN and the Internet. In this paper, we will discuss how network security can be achieved via security and firewall design policies to satisfy deferent security requirements in order to protect computer networks against intrusion as they get connected to the Internet. We will also present some recommendations for achieving the security of networks using firewalls