| In the early days of the Internet each Local Area Network (LAN) connected was known, and trusted, by all the other LANs. In the 1990’s the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) allowed easier use of the Internet, so more public interest was taken and many LANs connected to it. This meant that not everyone using it could be trusted not to abuse it and there were many people, called hackers, who would try to get into the large organisations to obtain data which they could sell to the more unscrupulous. The Internet is now a public network made up of lots of smaller private networks connected together by routers. It is at the junction of the private and public network that most protection is required, in order to stop hackers potentially invading the private network. This where the Firewall is used. |  |
