Personal Firewalls Mostly Useless, Says Mail & Guardian

hweimer writes "More and more security researchs come to the conclusion that personal firewalls are ineffective in controlling outbound traffic. An article in the Mail & Guardian online mentions a test that 'showed that the software often causes more problems than it solves. Not one of the six firewall programs the magazine tested, regardless of whether commercial or freeware, could prevent all attempts from the test programs at establishing outgoing connections between the PC and the internet.' Simple PoCs are available, too."

Comments

Someone needs to beat this guy with a clue stick

[wizkid]

Personal firewalls are more to protect from inbound attacks. Not to restrict outbound traffic. Yes, it also helps to inform you what programs $M wants to let out. When I build a XP system and put it on the net to put $M patches on it, if I don't have a personal firewall, it will be own'ed before I can finish patching. That seems like a useful thing to me.

DON'T LISTEN TO THIS MORON!!!