Are firewalls actually efficient?

I’ve been wondering about this from quite a few time now. Does firewall actually work? Because almost every PC has firewalls installed in it,

I guess. Then from where do these stories of hacks come in?

Is it the firewall or the people who are at fault?

Now this is quite a tricky question, I tell you. There’s no short answer to this.
For better understanding purpose, let me explain how firewall works for the following OS.

Windows:
Windows has an inbuilt firewall, but most of the times, it is not efficient enough. The reason being it’s not always completely preconfigured to fully protect you. It usually blocks only incoming threats and not outgoing information.

Mac
Similarly, even Mac computers come with an inbuilt firewall. A Mac is built on Unix based code which makes it impossible to catch a virus from Windows computer.
That doesn’t mean it’s totally unsafe.

Linux:
A Linux computer doesn’t come with a firewall. But Linux being an open source, one can get free antivirus protection.

I am sorry to disagree but trust me, your post hardly clarifies anything and most of the things are not right.

I would like to clarify one misconception that most users have. Firewall is not meant to keep you safe from viruses and all. They have other functionalities. Their basic task is to prevent intrusion. Also, now a day, MAC computers can fight with operations from Windows PC as well.

In my opinion, you must opt for perimeter firewalls, also termed as hardware firewalls as they work at the network level and keep you safe from network level hazards.

A combination of a strong software firewall and hardware firewall is one of the best way to deal with security issues.

I disagree to you in a slight context. For basic home PCs, the firewall provided by Microsoft security essentials is enough to keep them safe.

However, if it’s a big server and a shared pc or pc with very sensitive data, network level firewall would be required.

Again, having both s/w and h/w level connection doesn’t really matter. It just gives you layers of protection.

A person with basic common sense can understand the fact that if a person can break a network level firewall, s/w firewall would be a cake walk for him.

Let me answer this to you in a simpler way. Most firewalls are absolutely perfect if configured and installed in the way it should be.

Firewalls are developed by expert professionals who make sure that the output is efficient enough to perform the task it is meant to.

However, the efficiency of it depends on the individual who uses it. A proper firewall installation expert should be called for the solution if the data is that sensitive. Things would simply be fine.

There won’t be any particular thing to worry about.