Cisco Cyber Security Practice Exam

Which firewall combines traditional firewall capabilities with additional network filtering functions?

1. Stateless firewall

2. Next-generation firewall (NGFW)

3. Web application firewall (WAF)

4. Content-filtering firewall

The correct answer is: Next-generation firewall (NGFW)

The next-generation firewall (NGFW) is designed to provide more advanced security features than traditional firewalls. While traditional firewalls primarily focus on packet filtering and stateful inspection, NGFWs integrate these capabilities with additional functionalities such as application awareness, deep packet inspection, intrusion prevention systems, and the ability to detect and respond to advanced threats. NGFWs inspect traffic at a deeper level, allowing organizations to enforce policies based on applications and users rather than merely IP addresses and ports. This helps in better identifying and blocking sophisticated threats that may bypass conventional firewalls by disguising themselves as legitimate traffic. Furthermore, the NGFW's ability to integrate threat intelligence and provide contextual analysis of traffic significantly enhances an organization's security posture. In contrast, a stateless firewall lacks the capability to track the state of active connections and makes decisions based solely on predefined rules, making it less effective against more complex threats. A web application firewall (WAF) is specifically focused on monitoring and controlling HTTP/HTTPS traffic to protect web applications, and a content-filtering firewall primarily focuses on filtering web content based on designated criteria. These firewalls have a narrower scope compared to the advanced capabilities offered by NGFWs.