The Evolution of Firewalls

The Evolution of Firewalls: From Network Gatekeepers to AI-Powered Defenders (A Vendor-Neutral Technical History) 1. The Pre-Firewall Era (1970s–Early 1980s) 2. First-Generation Firewalls: Packet Filters (Late 1980s) 3. Second-Gen: Stateful Inspection (1990s) 4. Third-Gen: Application/Proxy Firewalls (Late 1990s) 5. Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW) (2000s) 6. Modern Era: Cloud, AI, and Zero Trust (2010s–Present) Future Directions (2025+) Why Firewalls Keep Evolving Decade […]