Firewalls: Not enough of a good thing

Presented at Black Hat USA 1997, Unknown date/time (Unknown duration)

How the firewall fits into the corporate landscape.  While a firewall is a critical part of a companies security model, it is by no means the solution.  All too often, once an organization has realized that they need to secure themselves from Internet attacks, the response is to buy and install a firewall.  This is the right first step, but it ignores several important issues:  Many firewall products have their own failings, both obvious and subtle.  Firewalls are good at stopping known attacks, but not as good at detecting imminent attacks, or maintaining enough information to obtain a conviction.  Most firewalls are sold with the assumption that there is one inside and one outside.  This isn't as quite as simple in a world where most companies on the Internet have remote workers, partners who may also be connected to the Internet, and a company web site that anyone can get to.  This presentation will be an exploration of these problems,  the tools, products and techniques to overcome them.


Presenters:

  • Miles Connley
    Mr. Connley has been an Internet and network security consultant for 5 years.  His customers have included Northwest venture capital and legal firms, as well as top 10 software companies. He currently works for the security consulting branch of a nationally recognized ISP.

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