How important is the built in Firewall?

[kat.hayes]

I have a new work MBP with JAMF that prevents me from enabling the firewall. IT will not turn it on because they said it could interfere with JAMF.

1. How big of a deal is it to not have a firewall turned on home WiFi or in public?

2. What types of activities, if any should I not do on this Mac without it having a firewall?

Thanks

 

[KALLT]

It is not that big of a deal.

In your home network or a trusted network (company network, e.g.) you should be protected by the router or the network server. In an untrusted network (public networks) you should consider turning off unused sharing services, if they are not already turned off (in System Preferences → Sharing) and use applications you can trust, such as system applications, apps from the App Store and apps from registered developers. Also consider connecting to a VPN if you do not trust the network at all.

What the application firewall does is prevent applications from listening to and receiving inbound connections, if they have this capability and actively use it. The firewall does not actually block any applications unless you specifically configure it to block either “all” applications or block specific ones. If you have no reason to block any applications from receiving inbound connections then the firewall does nothing for those applications.