What is a Firewall? Firewalls are hardware and/or software systems which protect end users from malicious traffic on the Internet. When data is sent over the Internet, it comes packaged with information about where it is coming from and where it is supposed to go, as well as an indication as to what application the data is for. Firewalls analyze the data, and then throw it out if it looks malicious or forward it to the network if it looks benign. For example, if the firewall