A recent test in the Munich-based computer magazine PC Professionell showed that the software often causes more problems than it solves. Not one of the six firewall programs the magazine tested, regardless of whether commercial or freeware, could prevent all attempts from the test programs at establishing outgoing connections between the PC and the internet.

Many firewalls were even quickly switched off within the simulation. In the most serious cases, damaging software was able to circumvent the firewall in sending sensitive data, from personal surfing histories to passwords and credit-card numbers, to the hacker.

“It’s dangerous to view a firewall as some sort of PC airbag,” warns Professor Stefan Wolf, who teaches applied computer sciences at the Polytechnic University of Lippe and Hoexter, Germany.

Source: Mail & Guardian Online