This site provides the comprehensive list of resources associated with Internet firewalls. The list is divided into sections to make finding information easier. Much of the information presented here is also available at the COAST Archive.The term firewall has seen limited use since the late 1980s to describe a device to block unwanted network traffic while allowing other traffic to pass. The first published description of a modern firewall including use of that name was in Practical Unix Security written in 1990 and published in 1991. The first description of a firewall, although not by that name, was also in 1990, in a paper by Bill Cheswick. A few of the industry pioneers tried to track down the etymology of the word as described in this context. They found several references from the mid80s that used the word to describe a damagelimiting device. The earliest use they found that seems to correspond to a security device was by Steve Bellovin, in some email to Phil Karn, in 1987. But the context suggests that Phil knew what Steve meant, yet Steve doesnt think he invented it.

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