Distributed Embedded Firewall

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CHAPTER ONE 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the Study Firewalls are important tools in data and computer system protection. A firewall is a computer system that sits between a protected network area and the rest of the network and attempts to stop malicious traffic from entering the protected network, while allowing legitimate traffic to pass in or out. In other words, firewalls are an effective security mechanism for protecting a local computer system or network of systems from network-based security threats and vulnerabilities while at the same time supporting access to the outside world. Embedded Firewall System (EFW) is a newly introduced firewall system that has a solution for one of the most important limitations of firewalls, preventing insider attacks. Moving the firewall from the perimeter one more step back into the network in a defense-in-depth approach. The firewall functions now work on the critical point in the network, Network Interface Card (NIC). EFW works on lower network layers, unlike software based firewalls running at higher layers on the local host. By processing data at the lower layers, EFW can improve processing speed and increase performance. In addition, it is not as easy to deactivate EFW as with software based firewalls because the attacker needs to have a physical access to the host computer in order to disable the NIC. However, there has always been a trade-off between the performance and utilities of a security system. One cannot expect from a particular security system to comprise all of the utilities and also have the best performance. 1.2 Statement of the Problem In recent years data breaches have been of great concern and burden to cooperate bodies and organization with networked systems. Hence the need for data security arose to ensure integrity, confidentiality and limit access to sensitive data on a
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