Don’t let your files and data leave your computer without your permission.
A firewall helps defend against unwanted intrusions to your computer. Protect your Windows PC or Mac from unauthorized access with Norton Smart Firewall and Intrusion Prevention System, part of Norton Device Security plans. Norton Intrusion Prevention System is also available as part of the Norton Safe Web browser extension.
As part of advanced online threat protection, a firewall is like a gatekeeper for your computer. You want to keep your personal information in and keep cybercriminals’ attacks and malware out. The firewall monitors network traffic and enforces rules about access to a computer.
Do firewalls protect against viruses?
A firewall is like a filter or barrier, but something has to inform the firewall of which rules to apply.
What do firewalls protect against?
You connect to the web through networks, and networks can be accessed by others.
What is an Intrusion Prevention System?
An Intrusion Prevention System is technology that looks at network (e.g., internet) traffic to detect cybersecurity threats like unwanted access.
A firewall is one part of advanced security technology solutions that complement each other to help block online threats like malware, viruses, and intrusions. The Norton security technology stack includes six layers of protection, and each layer works in a different way to help protect you from complex online threats:
6 layers of protection to catch malware.
Intrusion Prevention Wall
Our Intrusion Prevention System helps protect your browsers and operating systems. If there’s a hole in either one, malicious code might get through. Our Intrusion Prevention System inspects bytes of traffic coming to your device. It blocks almost 60% of attack attempts.
Windows PC, Mac
Antivirus File Scan
Malware writers frequently recycle pieces of code from previous attacks. The antivirus scans the files on your device, looking for known snippets of dangerous code. We immediately add new-found malware code to our global threat intelligence database.
Windows PC, Mac, Android
Reputation Database
Every file you download gets a reputation review. Files from reputable developers, with a recognizable signature, pass through quickly. Never-seen-before files raise a flag, and Norton quarantines them to check for potential threat.
Windows PC
Sonar™ Behavior Monitoring
Malware does things that legitimate software won't, such as access your email contacts or create a communication channel with an IP address in another country. Sonar™ Behavior Monitoring notices suspicious behavior and helps stop the action on your device.
Windows PC
Script Control
Scripts are used to add functionality to documents by automating certain tasks and make them dynamic and interactive. Scripts can include ActiveX controls, macros, data connections, add-ins, Linked object linking and embedded OLE files, color-theme files, etc. Script Control helps protect you from malware in phishing emails that you receive or download as attachments.
Windows PC
Powerful Erase and Repair
Advanced remediation tools such as Norton Power Eraser and Norton Bootable Recovery Tool seek out and are designed to destroy deep-rooted malware.
Windows PC
The first layer, the Intrusion Prevention Wall, inspects incoming traffic and helps blocks many attack attempts before they even reach devices. The other layers help defend against malware that does get onto a device. The Norton Smart Firewall and Norton Intrusion Prevention System work together at this first level of protection. A great number of online threats get onto computers through the network connection to the internet, and it's here that these technologies work together as part of the first line of defense for your devices.
Norton Smart Firewall + Norton Intrusion Prevention System, and the other technologies that make up the network-based protection in Norton Device Security, work together to help block malicious attacks before they even have a chance to reach your system.
Norton Safe Web feature
In Norton technology, the Smart Firewall and Intrusion Prevention System complement each other to detect malware and intrusions from network traffic. Each has a different job, but they complement each other toward the same goal of detecting and helping block malware and intrusions at the network level.
You could compare the jobs of the Smart Firewall and Intrusion Prevention System in network security to the jobs of different security checks at an airport. The first security check at an airport checks passengers' identification and tickets, only allowing permitted passengers to pass through. Similarly, the Smart Firewall allows permitted traffic into a network and blocks unpermitted traffic from entering. At the next layer of airport security, security officers and x-ray machines inspect the baggage of authorized passengers who have already passed through the first layer of security. Likewise, the role of the Intrusion Prevention System in network-based protection is to carefully examine the traffic that the Smart Firewall has allowed to enter in.
Many cyberthreats are caught at the network level, and for advanced malware that may sneak past, the other layers of Norton Device Security technology go to work detecting, quarantining, and removing threats from your computer.
The Smart Firewall acts like a traffic cop, monitoring incoming and outgoing internet traffic to help prevent cyberthreats from reaching your computer. Complementing each other, the Smart Firewall and Intrusion Prevention System:
As a key component in cybersecurity solutions, firewalls help protect your devices specifically by doing the following:
Firewalls are one component of protection for your computer. Cybersecurity solutions include several more key technological components that work together to help protect your devices in different ways, such as antivirus technology that works to help protect your information at the file level. Just as you would if you want to protect your home with security cameras and motion sensors, strong locks on the doors and windows, and a guard dog who barks stridently whenever someone approaches, cybersecurity solutions use multiple means for protection, including a firewall that is designed to protect against unauthorized access and from the wrong data getting in or out of your computer.
You connect to the web through networks, and networks can be accessed by others. Someone who gains access to your computer through the internet can access your valuable information. Remote access to your computer can mean cybercriminals can access sensitive files or your saved log-in information. In cybersecurity solutions, firewalls help protect against unauthorized access and data going in and out of your computer. They help block your data like passwords, your keystrokes, or files like your bank statements from going out the door, so to speak, of your computer. Specific cyberthreats that firewalls help protect against include:
A firewall is designed to protect against these types of intrusions to your computer and works in conjunction with the other layers of security to provide advanced online threat protection.
An Intrusion Prevention System is technology that looks at network (e.g., internet) traffic to detect security threats like unwanted access. In Norton Device Security, the Intrusion Prevention System works together with the Smart Firewall to detect malware and intrusions from network traffic. The Intrusion Prevention System inspects traffic in a much deeper way than the Smart Firewall. Once the Smart Firewall lets permitted traffic in, Intrusion Prevention System carefully examines the contents of the traffic that comes through.
A firewall is like a filter or barrier, but something has to complement the firewall with information of which rules to apply. In the Norton Device Security feature, another part called the Intrusion Prevention System, or IPS, uses machine learning to look at millions of data points of what good traffic and bad traffic does. The IPS complements the Norton Smart Firewall with its learnings. This is particularly important for security in the case of new cyberattack methods that cybercriminals try to use to infiltrate computers or home networks, or to help protect against attacks that use old malicious code re-purposed in different ways to bypass security filters. IPS and Smart Firewall are part of the layer of the Norton Device Security feature that helps protect your computer at the network level, and they work in conjunction with other parts of the Device Security feature like antivirus that provides protection in additional ways. With all of the features and technologies that make up the Norton Device Security, you can have peace of mind that viruses and malware that attempt to enter your computer can get caught by one of the layers of advanced security technology.
All Windows™ and Mac® computers have a firewall built in, but a firewall is just one part of cybersecurity. The Norton Smart Firewall provides more advanced firewall features monitoring incoming and outgoing traffic, and is complemented by the Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), which informs the Smart Firewall about what “good” and “bad” traffic to allow or block. Because it looks at communications between your computer and other computers on the Internet, it helps protect your computer by:
While a built-in firewall in a computer is one step toward security, cybersecurity solutions that include a firewall provides much more thorough protection against various sorts of cyberthreats like malware, viruses, and intrusions.
2 Requires an automatically renewing subscription for a product containing antivirus features. For further terms and conditions, please see norton.com/virus-protection-promise.
