Are desktop "firewalls" better than none at all for the road warrior and
telecommuter? Almost always, "yes." In fact, I'm fudging. *Always* "yes."
The average user dialed in from a hotel or on a DSL connection from home
(lucky people, but that's another story between me and Verizon :-)) thinks
he is safe and secure. But the personal firewall leak test could be
demonstrated with a URL that telnets to another site or an email attachment
that starts up a server. Most personal use firewalls allow a user on the
system to do anything including outbound connections. In fact, most
corporate firewalls are set up the same way (and that's what we should be
concerned about).
When (if) you turn off too many services in your enterprise, what happens?
In most companies, the firewall's configuration is modified to allow those
other "required" services. At home, what is someone going to do when they
are dialed in from a hotel in Odessa and their office is in Chicago and
everyone is home because it is the middle of the night (or due to a blizzard)?
It should be no surprise that personal firewalls allow all outgoing
connections, unless reconfigured. Why is anyone surprised?
Fred
Avolio Consulting, Inc.
16228 Frederick Road, PO Box 609, Lisbon, MD 21765, US
+1 410-309-6910 (voice) +1 410-309-6911 (fax)
http://www.avolio.com/
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