No business is immune to cyber threats. Hackers are waiting to hack into your network and steal financial, organizational and management information so they can access your firewall. It is, therefore, crucial for any business enterprise to focus on its office network security.
What is Network Security?
Network security is a process that protects computer network infrastructure. The network administrator or system administrator applies the security policies required to protect the network and the resources required for network access. The process of a network security system depends on the level of security and includes security applications and network monitoring as well as hardware components to enhance the overall security of the computer network. Unlike other areas of security such as identity and access management, vulnerability scanning and previous investigation and analysis of files are included.
How does network security function?
Network security consists of multiple layers of controls and defenses. Each layer has a security policy and controls that only authorized persons can only access. The multi-level architecture of network security is spread over the entire organization and prevents malicious threats to infiltrate the organization’s defenses.
Tips on securing your network
1. Access Control
If all users can access the network at all levels, it is a serious threat to the network security of the organization. When planning the architecture of network security, it is important to identify personnel that has to be entrusted with full access to network security at all levels. The organization should restrict access to selected persons who are responsible for their roles.
2. User Identity Management
User identity is the most crucial factor that affects network security. It includes identifying users and their authenticity, and what resources are accessed by these users. Permissions have to be defined for each of these users and actions that may be taken by these users to access the resources and assets of the network.
The organization has to identify the sensitive data. The identity of individuals has to be established first and their digital authentication has to be sent with login details and passwords. Individuals have to be identified as customers or employees, and their privileges are to be identified before granting access to sensitive data. Doing this can segregate key individuals and help the organization monitor their actions more closely, to protect data from being breached.
3. Anti-Malware
Malware is a computer program and software that can be installed into the network servers so that it can spread into individual devices and steal data. The bad thing about a malware attack is that malware can lie undetected for weeks or months.
Similarly, an antivirus program can detect malware and viruses, worms, ransomware, and spyware and prevent them from installing into the system. In-depth analysis and understanding of the computer network is key to installing a good and effective anti-malware software program. The ability to track files and anomalies is also crucial as human errors do pose a threat to the network system.
Ultimately, the antivirus program should constantly monitor the network and detect incoming malware attacks and virus attacks and take steps to remove them and make them ineffective.
4. Application Security
Insecure applications that are unstable and weak in their structure and design pose a serious threat to ransomware and malware attacks. The organization should identify key processes, software applications, and hardware to protect its network. Software and programs that are insecure are a major threat to the network. Programs that are downloaded or paid should be checked for their certificates. There should be protocols that should be applied to such programs to check for their ability to shield against malware and virus attacks.
5. Hardware Security
Hardware security is as crucial to network security as software security. It consists of hardware and physical components that offer security to gadgets and devices that are on the network. It also includes server hardware and software.
Hardware security modules involve crypto-processor chips and digital keys. Together, they provide strong authentication to the network server and individual computers.
6. AI-based threat protection
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the driving force that will revolutionize network security. They have already made giant strides in the digital world. Using these powerful AI tools, organizations can use them to provide robust security against malware and security threats. They can even monitor the network and identify a data breach as it happens.
7. Email Security
Email phishing scams are the top network security threat that an organization can face. A business can face a direct threat from email portals. Email security is the best way that they can exercise to prevent these threats.
Email security applications can help manage outgoing emails and scan incoming messages and block malware from installing into the network.
Training should be given to employees regarding email threats and make them aware of the procedures to identify threats that can come with opening email links and attachments that may look suspicious.
8. Network Security Firewalls
A trusted firewall is key to network security. A network firewall is like a strong defense that separates the internal network and external network. A firewall is based on rules that identify incoming traffic and traffic that should be blocked by the firewall. Firewalls are key to blocking dangerous programs from installation and help detect cyber threats to the organization. A business has to implement and invest in a powerful firewall to prevent malicious attempts on data and sensitive information and documents of the organization from being stolen.
9. Wireless Security
A wired network can be more robust than a wireless network. A weak wireless LAN network can be most dangerous as it can install Ethernet ports where people can access resources on the wireless network.
Nowadays, there are custom-made products and programs made especially for such wireless networks. These products can help a wireless network to protect against a network threat. These products make use of highly developed and latest security tools like encryption, Wi-Fi points, firewalls, secure passwords, using a VPN to mask the network, and hiding network traffic, and MAC authentication.
10. Web security
Organizations can make their web more secure by controlling web use, blocking unwanted threats, and preventing the network from accessing dangerous sites across the internet. This is the essence of web security and is implemented to protect the website of the organization.
11. Virtual Private Networks (VPN)
One of the best network security tools in today’s world is using a VPN network. VPN is like a masked network where a connection is encrypted between a computer and the endpoint. VPN is remote network access where the device is authenticated, and network communications are established privately.
12. Cloud Security
These are the days when the Cloud is increasingly used to process transactions, run applications, and store data. Businesses are wary of using Cloud services and there are many such instances when the Cloud servers came under attack. But protecting the Cloud so that it can provide a great alternative to doing business is very much needed.
Securing the Cloud is very important these days when devices and physical servers in the network can be hacked and data get stolen. The ways that business can secure their Cloud are using anti-malware, being alert of phishing and email scams, hacking methods, using multi-factor authentication, securing passwords, and monitoring online activity.
Final Word
Network security is key for any organization which has loads of data that is valuable. With the development of network security tools, cybercriminals have also sharpened their tools to infiltrate computer systems and networks with malware attacks, virus threats, and phishing scams.