DISCUSSION 1:

"How Is Your Firewall Implementation?" Please respond to the following:

Imagine you have installed and configured firewalls in all of the right places within your organization's network. Like any other organization, you try to stay current by deploying the latest and greatest in firewall technology. Similarly, the purpose of your firewall is to filter bad traffic, which your firewall has been doing. Occasionally, you add more rules to filter more traffic, but have no evidence of going back to visit historical log data. Explain in detail and give examples of the problems that result from this practice.

You have a firewall in your production environment and occasionally need to add rules mostly to open up ports, services, IPs, and so on, from ingress traffic from the Internet, but do nothing to egress traffic leaving your network. Determine the possible pitfalls of adding rules to egress traffic leaving the network. Describe in detail solutions to such pitfalls in the order you would implement them.

DISCUSSION 2:

How Much Protection Do You Really Need?" Please respond to the following:

Examine the specifications for an enterprise class firewall and a personal or home firewall. Determine why "all firewalls are not equal". Assess the effectiveness of each and determine if one outperforms another at its intended function. Discuss risk, manageability, scalability, need, and cost of each.

Describe the applicability of software network firewalls, appliance firewalls, and virtual firewalls. Explain the circumstances under which each would be used and why. Discuss risk, manageability, scalability, need, and cost of each.