Unauthorized users may take advantage of this without proper safeguards. This is a new development for the SOHO user as the analog modem connection was open to the world only when the system was logged on.
Direct connections raise the bar concerning security protection from outside connectivity.
After the basic security events have been completed, such as hardware being clean and locked down, data being backed up, then the outside connection security must be addressed. This brings us to methods of stopping unauthorized persons from gaining access to our computer via connectivity methods. We all know that the safest method of keeping unauthorized persons out of our computer is to never connect it to the outside world. Since we all know that we will not be completely separate from that outside world, we need to have something between our computer and that world. Firewalls are defined as systems, software or hardware based, that handle the approval or rejection of each connection attempt between our computer and the external world of computers.