By Jennifer Adams
Imagine that a hacker tries to hack into your network and is successful. The information you have stored on your computer would be gone, and to possibly retrieve it, you would have to pay a ransom. The average cost of a ransom in the US in 2019 was $4 million according to the Cisco Meraki website. A Meraki firewall is a cost-effective way to protect your business and your customers data.
What is a Firewall?
A firewall is a gatekeeper, a security device that filters traffic and blocks unauthorized people from gaining access to data stored on your computer. Rather in the form of a software, hardware, or both, it not only prevents unwelcome traffic off your computer network, but it keeps malevolent software from infecting your computer.
Next-Gen Firewall
The Next-Gen Firewall features Layer 7 traffic classification and control. Sophisticated software allows the administrator to identify users, content, and applications on the network and filter out the ones that are not supposed to be on the network. For example, filtering out Netflix and prioritizing video conferencing. It has an intrusion detection engine, based on Sourcefire’s Snort, the most widely used intrusion detection and prevention software in the world, to protect your network against any threats. By classifying traffic at layer 7, Cisco Meraki’s Next-Gen firewall technology can control encrypted and evasive content that isn’t covered by a traditional firewall.
This technology is beneficial to a variety, but not limited to, industries such as education, retail, healthcare, government, hospitality, and manufacturing. Meraki Firewalls aid in keeping teachers and students connected with remote learning or safer schools, manufacturing by increasing agility with quick deployments and centralizes management; hospitality by offering a reliable, fast Wi-Fi; and government facilities by enabling state and local governments to spend less time on day-to-day maintenance.