Response to authors on the subject (adding to concepts discussed not remarks on their writing)

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Firewall is a quintessential feature of cybersecurity architecture that ensures the security of networks, be it wired or wireless. It provides the authority to the administrators to execute access controls between the internal network and the external world.

Today, wireless networks are everywhere and enable the wireless network users to access it from anywhere and anytime. But this freedom comes at a risk, and it also poses high security risks and threats to the network. It’s relatively easier to intercept the communication between the users and the network and the introduction of malicious software. But this could be controlled by using WiFi firewall – these are the servers that have the capacity to observe and sift the WiFi traffic. They are also known as WIPS (Wireless Intrusion Prevention System) that enables security enforcement all through the entire WLAN (wireless LAN).

The wired networks are susceptible too and to protect it, a user/admin can utilize some measures to ensure security. One would be to audit and map the network by clearly recognizing the infrastructure of the network, keeping the network up to date by staying on top of software updates and assessing settings to spot any insecure configuration. MAC address filtering is another approach that avoids the neighbor intrusion if not the hacker intrusion.

Although firewalls can protect the networks, it is also vulnerable to issues such as – insider attacks, any missed security patches if the associated software is not managed properly, any configuration anomalies occurred during the firewall setup and DDoS – Distributed Denial of Service that could cause protracted inability to deliver services. 

References

Firewalls for Security in Wireless Networks U. Murthy1 , O. Bukhres2 , W. Winn2 , E. Vanderdez 3

Jeong, J., Chung, M., & Choo, H. (2006). Secure User Authentication Mechanism in Digital Home Network Environments