FIREWALL VS ANTIVIRUS

When it comes to your business, you want to protect it at all costs, we sometimes think that just having an Antivirus will protect us from all forms of cyber-attack, but this is not the case.  

The truth is, an antivirus is designed to protect your laptop or PC by identifying and removing software viruses such as worms, trojans, adware and more. These viruses generally infect your PC through downloaded files, emails or unsafe link clicks. 

To protect your laptop and PC, along with the other equipment on your network, it’s important to have more than just an antivirus. Enter the firewall. A firewall is built to be a barrier between your network and the outside world, acting as a bouncer that allows and disallows certain types of traffic into your network and thus protecting you from malicious network attacks such as ransomware, hack attempts and more. 

Here are a few key differences between firewalls and antiviruses: 

FIREWALL	ANTIVIRUS
Implemented both in hardware and software.	Implemented in software.
Deals with external attacks.	Deals with external and internal attacks. (please elaborate on this)
Inspection of attacks based on the incoming packet.	Inspection of attacks based on malicious files and programs.
Monitors and filters the packets.	Performs the scanning operations and does detection, removals and identification.
Counter attacks will be IP spoofing and routing.	No counter-attacks once the malware is removed.

Antivirus can’t protect your entire network, it can’t even protect your laptop or PC from all of the potentially harmful cyber-attacks it is exposed to by being online. At the same time, having a firewall alone is also not suggested. To fully combat all the potential cyber threats to your local PC and your network, it’s important to use a combination of firewall and antivirus for protection.