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According to Cisco, a network device manufacturer, a firewall is a security device that can analyze network traffic and determine if it needs to be blocked or allowed per predetermined rules.¹ Most modern PC operating systems, as well as Wi-Fi routers, have a built-in firewall which is mostly suitable for a single endpoint or SOHO. Enterprise firewall appliances are more powerful and configurable than consumer-grade software-based firewalls, pfSense, for example, supports advanced features such as IDS/IPS, captive portals, traffic shaping and many other features.² While a home or small office network might be well served by a lower end firewall, enterprise firewalls typically have better hardware to allow them to manage the additional features and large networks consisting of hundreds or thousands of users, multiple VLANs, and satellite locations. Whatever the use case, a firewall is a good idea for any network as an extra level of network security from unsafe browsing habits and other lapses of end-user judgment. 

 

Wireless connections, like Wi-Fi, are inherently more insecure than wired connections due to the fact that both the sending and receiving devices broadcast information over a wide area as wireless devices are mobile. Bluetooth does have some security measures such as encryption and the use of a PIN for pairing devices. For increased safety Webroot recommends turning off Bluetooth when it is not being used, using only devices that comply with the newest standards and security measures, and to change default PINs on devices when possible.³

 

RFID is frequently used in the shipping industry to quickly and easily track and identify packages. The technology works well for this as the trackers don’t require constant power and receivers can communicate with the tags from up to 100 meters (for UHF devices). Both wireless and Bluetooth devices need power on both ends to communicate which is impractical in this application. With modern manufacturing advances, all of these technologies can have very small radios/receivers, however, RFID clearly has a size advantage with chips being 0.05 x 0.05 mm.⁴

Answer 1

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Firewall devices as mentioned, for consumer grade needed to be a separate device only until the need of internet was not everywhere(1980 to 1990). With the increasing popularity of personal computers and the demand of internet for everyone the need of security also arouse. This gave birth to firewall devices ensuring integrity and security over wired internet connections. Fast forwarding to the current scenario where there are handheld devices which have access to the internet and the increased speed of network data transfer, several modifications in the routers and firewall devices have taken place. This has integrated a modem with a wireless router which also has a firewall device built in. However these kinds of devices are only consumer grade and can be used only at homes or small scale shops.When there are big organizations or production grade facilities that have multiple devices that need access to the internet , a small scale router with built in firewall is not sufficient to monitor the network data traffic or the usage history analysis. This provides reason to implement a production grade server firewall and a network process controller that controls the data traffic(routing the data).

As mentioned about Wi-Fi, the wireless connection of a device to a router does not require any physical connection or link between the device and the router while a wired connection always has a physical connecting medium (LAN cable or a fiber optic cable) between the device and the router. Thus with proper software and knowledge anyone would be able to monitor and access the data of a system connected on Wi-Fi whereas physical intervention would be required to manipulate with a wired network connected device. This regards to explain why wired connection is regarded to be secured on comparison with Wi-Fi. Bluetooth, on one hand only provides security in the form on a PIN which is usually either 4 or 6 digits. This provides the least security and is easy to breach since the form of encryption over this type of network transfer is very minimal to zero.

RFID devices as mentioned, can communicate over long distances without the need of power. This is possible since there is no need to have a established link between two devices constantly for a long period of time over a particular distance. RFID devices usually send or receive signals , one at a time. i.e., either send or receive. This is not the case with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth which need to first have a established connection and then send huge amounts of data to one another. RFID devices typically have use case scenario to track location, implant on pets and so on. So the data transmitted is basically very minimal which would be Geolocation, coordinate information thus having no requirement for power consumption.