

This was the first firewall to vet and permit ongoing connections versus repeatedly reauthorizing after each data packet. In the late 80s to early 90s, the various staff at AT&T Bell Labs researched and developed the early concept of the circuit-level gateway firewall.

David Presotto, Janardan Sharma, Kshitiji Nigam, William Cheswick, and Steven Bellovin While some may consider this packet filter as the first firewall, it was more of a component technology that supported the "true" firewall systems to come. This led to the concept of vetting external connections before they make contact with computers on an internal network. In the late 1980s, Mogul, Reid, and Vixie each had roles at Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) in developing packet-filtering technology that would become valuable in future firewalls. This is because it's constantly evolving, and there have been multiple 'creators' involved in its development and evolution.įrom the late 1980s to the mid-90s, each creator expanded on various firewall-related components and versions before it became the product used as the basis for all modern firewalls. The invention of the firewall should be viewed as an 'ongoing'. These barriers are typically set up in two locations - on dedicated computers on the network or the user computers and other endpoints themselves (hosts). As such, firewalls are one security tool in the broader category of user access control. Some firewalls also track the traffic and connections in audit logs to reference what has been allowed or blocked.įirewalls are typically used to gate the borders of a private network or its host devices. Comparably, network security firewalls are for web traffic management - typically intended to slow the spread of web threats.įirewalls create 'choke points' to funnel web traffic, at which they are then reviewed on a set of programmed parameters and acted upon accordingly.

The term comes from the concept of physical walls being barriers to slow the spread of fire until emergency services can extinguish it. What is firewall?įirewalls can be viewed as gated borders or gateways that manage the travel of permitted and prohibited web activity in a private network. It is typically intended to prevent anyone-inside or outside a private network-from engaging in unauthorized web activities and to help prevent malicious activity. This software or dedicated hardware-software unit functions by selectively blocking or allowing data packets. A firewall is a computer network security system that restricts internet traffic in, out, or within a private network.
