With nearly two billion websites, innumerable security threats are lurking all over the internet. Your company doesn’t need to leave the door open when your employees require access to a certain number of websites to run productively and efficiently. That is why implementing a firewall into your small business system is essential. Firewalls work to keep your entire organization more secure, and the more you can restrict, the less opportunity there is for a security breach.

What does a firewall do?

Your firewall guards your whole network of electronic devices by filtering traffic and blocking unauthorized access to your system while only permitting safe outward communication. For example:

• If a hacker tries to access your computer remotely, they will automatically be blocked from your system.
• If an employee accidentally clicks a link leading them to an unsecured website, the firewall would protect their device.

Otherwise, business operations and communications can continue as usual if they don’t breach the pre-set firewall protection standards.

Why does your SMB need a firewall?

Small businesses are the number one target for cybercriminals, so your IT systems must be guarded with a multi-layered line of defense. A firewall ensures that if a new threat can sneak past one piece of your security system, several others are standing guard to protect your data.

Firewalls also act as a monitoring system by logging network activity and creating patterns to detect incoming threats, blocking the attack before it reaches the system. The longer the firewall is in place, the more data it records, and the faster it can mitigate cyber threats. A firewall will also alert you to any spikes or suspicious activity it finds within the system so you can locate the breach and lock your network down to minimize any damage or data loss.

Since most workstations vary between in-office, home, and remote, small businesses must implement a virtual private network (VPN) solution. A VPN encrypts your data even when employees work on a public WiFi network. It also protects your employees that work from a personal device at home that might already have a virus on it from an accidental click or download.