How Checkpoint Firewalls Work: Security Strategies

Checkpoint firewalls are a popular choice for many businesses because they offer an effective line of defence against malware. If you want to learn more about how Checkpoint firewalls work and how you can use them in your business, then this blog post is for you! ThisIn this post, we will discuss the benefits of using Checkpoint firewalls and some common security strategies that every company should be using.

What is Checkpoint Firewall?

The Checkpoint firewall is security software that runs on dedicated hardware appliances. They are designed to efficiently and effectively secure your company’s data from unauthorized access or malware infections.

How Checkpoint Firewalls Work?

A checkpoint firewall works by allowing trusted programs to pass through the network unharmed while stopping all potentially harmful data packets in their tracks. A checkpoint firewall uses two types of security protocols to perform this task: Stateful packet inspection and Application layer filtering.

Stateful Packet Inspection

In the case of stateful packet inspection, all packets entering or leaving your network are monitored based on their “state.” A connection is considered in a particular state when one device has initiated it with another device replying in response.

For example, if computer A sends out a request for information from computer B, that would put both computers into an ESTABLISHED state. If either party disconnects, meaning that they stop responding to each other’s requests, the connection becomes UNKNOWN/ CLOSED.

This process allows checkpoints to filter out packets that have been incorrectly formed since these types of errors are usually caused by harmful computer programs.

Application Layer Filtering

A checkpoint firewall will scan all data passing through it for known vulnerabilities and weaknesses associated with specific applications in application layer filtering. The firewall can then either allow or deny access to particular applications based on their priority levels.

For example, suppose access to your company’s policy states that only employees should access social media websites like Facebook and Twitter during work hours. In that case, you can create an application rule in the checkpoint firewall, which blocks these sites from 12 pm – 11:59 pm on weekdays.

While this approach may sound simple enough, many other factors must be considered when creating application rules. For instance– not all viruses or malware will use specific applications to transmit data across a network.

This means that infection can spread without ever contacting any external sources through email or instant messaging programs. Because of this issue, most companies now apply multiple layers of security protocols within their Checkpoint firewalls — including stateful packet inspection, application-layer filtering, and antivirus scanning.

What Type of Firewall is a Checkpoint?

Checkpoint is a stateful firewall. This means that it monitors network traffic on an application-by-application basis. It can also track all sessions and maintain session information even if connections are broken, or computers are offline for long periods.

In addition, checkpoint firewalls can be deployed as:

Network Firewalls

The ability of stateful inspection firewall technology allows admins to block specific types of data from entering your company’s network while allowing other types through—this provides businesses with increased customization options.

End-Point Security Firewall

This type of endpoint protection helps prevent viruses, spyware and keyloggers from infecting computers within an organization even when employees open infected documents on those machines.

Network Access Control (NAC)

NAC offers organizations another layer of security that can help prevent endpoints from connecting to a network until they pass the organization’s mandated set of policies and requirements

Checkpoint’s Firewalls Are Made Up Of Three Components

The Control Function

Controls the traffic going through all security functions. It monitors and manages network access to provide a secure working environment while ensuring the optimal operational performance of firewalls, VPNs, anti-virus software and other appliances needed for connectivity.

The Management Function

Provides flexible unified management capabilities that can be adapted to any organization’s infrastructure from small businesses with one office up to global enterprises operating in multiple countries across different time zones.

This enables Checkpoint customers to base their firewall on a single platform, allowing them to manage security policies globally at each location or site they operate in. The policy manager is an essential part of this solution as it makes these changes simple by providing users with a comprehensive view of all connections within your company’s network.

The Security Function

Operates as a high-performance, ultra-fast firewall that can inspect up to 34 Gbps of traffic and supports the latest VPN encryption standards with hardware acceleration for SSL/TLS decryption.

The security functions are capable of inspecting applications running on your servers or inside virtual machines (VMs) by examining packets at the application level, which means they’re not limited to just TCP connections like most other firewalls out there today.

They also provide you with granular visibility into who is accessing what within your company’s infrastructure, so it’s easy for administrators to see exactly where any issues might be occurring across their entire organization. This type of centralized management helps businesses ensure all employees have access only to data they’re allowed to access and that all data transfers are secure.

Benefits Of Using Checkpoint Firewalls In Your Company’s Network Security Strategy

Ensure network security by blocking all traffic that isn’t permitted by your firewall rules
Allow secure remote access with VPN technology and SSL decryption capabilities. This allows users to securely connect from a remote location using their smartphone, tablet or laptop so they can work anywhere, anytime.
Manage Checkpoint Firewalls from any location with easy centralized management tools across your entire organization through the cloud. This is great for companies who have offices around the world as it makes administration simple no matter where you are located.
Secure data transfers against cyber attacks over public networks with IPSec VPNs that provide 256-bit encryption. You also get application-aware firewalling at both ends of every connection, which helps block malware and other types of attacks.
Ensure optimal performance with the ability to inspect up to 34 Gbps of traffic. Hence, employees get fast access to all resources you need them to have while still meeting your security requirements. This helps speed up productivity, which increases a company’s revenue streams by helping staff work faster and more efficiently.

Employees also benefit from faster access when working remotely or out on business trips away from their home office, allowing them to maintain a professional image that reflects well on the organization as a whole.

Ensure security policies are applied to all connections regardless of whether they’re incoming or outgoing. This is achieved by using the same rule set at both ends, which helps create a more secure environment for your network.

Those who try to circumvent these rules will be stopped in their tracks as firewall rules can’t be bypassed without shutting down entirely, which means no one can sneak past them unless you permit them first.

Help keep your business protected from cyberattacks that target data breaches. This includes DDoS, brute force and any other form of attack the bad guys use to try and get access to information stored on your company’s network. The firewall helps stop these issues before they occur by inspecting traffic at the application level to see exactly what is going in or out through each connection. Administrators don’t need to go hunting for problems as everything is already laid out for them.
Ensure your company complies with industry-specific security standards like PCI DSS and HIPAA in the case of credit card or patient healthcare data. These types of compliance reports help organizations protect their brand image by demonstrating that they’re following the rules, which is essential when you’re dealing with sensitive information.
One single network view lets companies see precisely what is happening within their organization and where potential issues might be occurring so they know which areas need to be addressed before anything escalates out of hand. The same goes for when a case has been resolved, as this information makes it easy to track down any recurring problems by simply checking against previous reports until a point at which everything starts running smoothly again.

Different Security Strategies

Although many companies use Checkpoint firewalls to protect against cyberattacks, many businesses still do not take advantage of their full potential. For your business to truly benefit from its checkpoint firewall system, you should consider implementing one or more of these overall security strategies:

Two-Factor Authentication

This strategy requires users accessing sensitive data and applications through the network first to provide two pieces of evidence: something they know (like a password) and something they have (such as an authentication token).

Device Control

To prevent employees from introducing viruses into your computer systems via USB flash drives, CD/DVDs or removable media devices, it’s a good idea to have your checkpoint firewall enforce strict policies that block those devices from being brought onto the network.

Content Filtering

It is a good idea for any company to implement some type of content filtering system on their computer networks; checkpoint firewalls make this process easy and can be used to block access to websites containing pornography, violence and other types of inappropriate material.

Application Control

It is a good idea for companies with remote users or virtualization technology to implement an application control system on their Checkpoint firewall. This strategy allows administrators to only allow specific applications (Microsoft Word) through the checkpoint firewall while blocking all others.

Why Should I Choose Checkpoints Over Other Types of firewalls?

Filtering and inspection features make it easy to keep track of what is happening on your network. Administrators can filter certain types of traffic (such as by port number). The checkpoint firewall inspects every packet, which means administrators don’t need it. Hence, to go hunting down potential problems whenever they occur.
The fact that Checkpoint firewalls provide a single pane view from all locations makes it easier than ever before for companies to see exactly what is going on within their organization. Hence, they know where any issues might be occurring or recurring. This enables them to save time when trying to resolve security incidents because everything has already been laid out before them instead of scouring through many different reports and sources to get an accurate idea of what is happening.
The majority of Checkpoint firewalls are simple enough for even novice users to set up without having any previous firewall knowledge, which means organizations can quickly begin protecting themselves against cyberattacks by implementing a checkpoint solution instead of waiting weeks or months while their IT team takes the time to research, test and implement something that may not ultimately be fully compatible with existing systems.
Since all of the protection features are integrated directly on a single piece of hardware, there’s no need to worry about compatibility issues between software and operating systems.
It’s also possible for companies to integrate their existing security system with the checkpoint firewall through API integration. This means that users will have access to all of the same information and protection features but more conveniently.
Customers can also take advantage of the free trial offer offered by Checkpoint, so they have the opportunity to test out all of these features for themselves without having to invest any money until they are ready.
The checkpoint firewall does not require many hardware resources, making it easy to set up even on older or less powerful computers. This allows companies concerned about breaking their bank just because they need a higher level of security than what was previously available with traditional firewalls to have access to everything through one single device instead.

Conclusion

These firewalls come with several features such as application control, SSL decryption, anti-virus protection, URL filtering and more. The most important thing about these appliances is that they provide centralized management of network connections using rulesets for both incoming and outgoing traffic.

This ensures that all devices entering or coming out of a protected area follow the same policies regarding what type of information can pass through them based on content category (allowed/blocked). In other words, you determine which types of files can pass through this gateway by defining different types of rules.