Do I Need Antivirus Software If I Have A Firewall?

As our technological dependence grows, so do cybersecurity threats. In the UK alone, more than 380,000 incidents were reported last year. Around 52% of these cyber attacks were carried out through malware or phishing attempts, which are both popular tactics. Moreover, the financial expense of these attacks exceeded £4 billion.

While it is usually businesses who are targeted, personal attacks are also on the rise. What makes these attacks more threatening is that it can take a fair amount of time to notice them. This gives cyber criminals a significant window to carry out their attacks while staying under the radar.

Taking this into consideration, the question is often raised about whether basic security measures such as firewalls are enough, or additional layers such as antivirus software become warranted.

Firewalls are helpful when it comes to controlling traffic across networks and denying foreign access, however, they do not prevent or erase any rogue applications that may be on the computer already. For this reason, antivirus software becomes an added advantage to one’s cyber security.

 

What Is A Firewall?

 

A firewall serves as the first level of protection when it comes to the information security of a network. Its main objective is to observe and manage the network traffic, both inbound and outbound.

In this way, it separates your internal network from external networks, particularly from the Internet which may pose security threats.

There are two types of firewalls:

• Hardware firewalls: Usually incorporated in routers or within standalone devices, hardware firewalls enhance security by preventing malicious content from reaching endpoint devices, making them ideal for multi user networks.
• Software firewalls: These are installed on the device itself, and provide a finer degree of control on application-oriented traffic.

At its core, firewalls work to prevent any unauthorised access to your network to prevent cyberattacks.

Even though firewalls play a key role in enhancing the perimeter defence of the network, can’t remove the threats that bypass them such as the malware found in some attachments especially in email phishing attempts.

 

What Is An Antivirus Software?

 

Antivirus programs are designed to specifically find and eliminate all malware and viruses on your computer. In comparison to firewalls, which only manage the traffic passing through the network, antivirus software goes a step further by scanning files, downloads and apps for activities that are considered abnormal.

They monitor your device on a constant basis in the background, which enables them to remove any threats in real-time. The modern systems will even scan your e-mails to detect potential phishing scams.

 

 

Can A Firewall Replace Antivirus?

 

The short answer is no, a firewall can’t replace antivirus software. Firewalls are important for managing system traffic and blocking outside attacks, but they cannot substitute what antivirus software can do.

Firewalls are not designed to handle internal threats for example, if you unknowingly downloaded a virus from an e-mail. Once the threat is already in your system, only an antivirus can detect and remove it.

Additionally, firewalls can’t stop you from opening a suspicious e-mail, whereas antivirus software will flag it before its opened so this proactive approach can prevent any serious harm from taking place.

Cybercrime methods are also becoming more advanced, and firewalls don’t have the capabilities to deal with them.

 

Firewalls vs Antivirus

 

For those who want a comprehensive security measure against cyber threats, it would be ideal to use both a firewall and antivirus. This way, your system is being protected both internally and externally.

Essentially, a firewall acts as a gate. It prevents access from the outside and controls all traffic in and out of the network, but it can’t know when and where it has been intruded into or remove the malware already present within the system.

Yet it works in synergy with antivirus those are designed to find and contain active viruses or other harmful programs such as ransomware or spyware that manage to get past the firewall through phishing, infected downloads, or even flash drives.

Using both systems will offer more security for your devices, and reduce the likelihood of having your systems infected.

 

What Other Security Measures Can You Use?

 

While firewalls and antivirus softwares are the go-to for device protection, there are a few other steps you can take for extra security.

This includes regularly updating your device’s system and apps as the latest versions will offer more protection against threats. Additionally, you should always use strong passwords that combine letters, numbers and symbols as these are harder to identify.

Where you can, you should make use of two-factor authentication to prevent any unauthorised access to your devices.