Written by security expert Marcus J. Ranum, this paper includes fundamental lessons about building firewalls, technical examples, and future predictions.

Internet firewalls have been a popular tool for security practitioners since the early 1990’s. Today, they are considered a mandatory component of any industry or government network. Unfortunately, many consumers of these fundamental networking tools buy and rely on them without understanding that there can be dramatic differences between firewalls that are manufactured by competing security practitioners and their unique engineering teams. Firewall products that are brought to market based on significantly different technical design philosophies and different go-to-market strategies introduce consumer trade-offs that should be weighed when making buying decisions.

Written by Marcus J. Ranum, a world-renowned expert on security system design and implementation, this paper takes the mystery out of the key differences in the main classes of firewall architectures. It includes fundamental lessons about building firewalls, offers technical examples, and concludes with predictions about the future of firewall technology.

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