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Network security is essential to maintain the reliability of your network. This is because millions of devices are connected around the globe through a network.
A massive amount of data is exchanged between computers and other devices every second. The data transferred is personal, discrete, and sensitive. To securely transfer this data, we need to understand the importance of network security.
Network security is a set of rules or preventive measures taken by security experts to prevent unauthorized access to your devices. We can also say that it’s our protection wall against cyber threats. Secured networks allow data transfer among devices without breaches and ensure data integrity and confidentiality.
As per a report published by the Identity Theft Resource Center, approximately 1579 data breaches were reported in the United States between 2016 and 2017. Hackers and Attackers are constantly changing their strategies. They are always trying to find and exploit vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities can exist in many areas, including devices, data, applications, users, and locations. In this modern era, to save yourself from cyber-attacks, you need a network security solution; otherwise, be ready to face massive damage to your organization’s bottom line.
Nowadays, whether you are using a personal network or a part of an organizational network, you should strongly consider network security. Here are some reasons to assess network security:
In a network security system, the firewall monitors in-going and outgoing traffic. It is a barrier between your internal and outer networks, like the internet. A set of rules previously defined enables a firewall to make decisions. Three types of firewalls exist, i.e., Packet Filters, Stateful Inspection, and Proxy Server Firewalls. Firewalls act as first-line defensive soldiers in network security.
Anti-virus and anti-malware software is responsible for protecting your devices from the entry of common types of viruses. This software prevents the entry of Malware and viruses, tracks the already present viruses in the devices in a dormant condition, and kills them.
Installing anti-virus and anti-malware software on your device can save you from a whole lot of unpredictable threats and risks.
Network access control is a centralized approach that boosts your network infrastructure’s overall internal security by enforcing policies across all users and devices. Network access control products easily handle the network security of large businesses and companies.
What two Primary Tasks do NAC solutions perform?
Authentication:
In this step, the user is prompted for credentials and identity verification.
Authorization:
After authentication, the system confirms or denies based on the access policies.
If any of these two steps fail, the system blocks the request to assure network security.
Network Access Control security solutions assist you with the following:
Your first step will be to collect data from every device and server.
Assign role-based permissions to users, e.g., separate permissions for admin and end-user
Access will only be granted at the level required for an individual to perform their duties.
To track every user’s access levels and activity, every employee, partner, and vendor of your organization must be registered in the NAC system.
Keep monitoring the security Operations, make adjustments to permission policies and keep them updated timely.
Network and application security go hand in hand in an overall information security program. Application security refers to the security of apps, their front end, source code, etc., from external world threats. The process works by finding, fixing, and enhancing the security of applications. Integrated Application security tools in your application development environment can make this process and workflow more straightforward and effective. In addition, it mitigates security weaknesses against potential threats in your applications.
Data loss protection, as the name indicates, is the process of securing the data by detecting and preventing data breaches, exfiltration, or unwanted destruction of sensitive data. In other words, DLP is a software product that assists network administrators in controlling the data that users can transfer outside the corporate network.
How to start a successful DLP deployment?
Wireless security is a subset of network security that revolves around securing the wireless network from malicious attempts and unauthorized access. In essence, it is the process of designing, implementing, and preventing unwanted users from accessing a particular wireless network. Some common algorithms and standards that prevent an exploit from taking hold in wireless network security are Wired Equivalent Policy (WEP) and Wireless Protected Access (WPA).
One of the effective ways businesses can protect themselves against attackers is through a sound network security system. As a result, network security solutions are gaining popularity as enterprises look for ways to reduce sensitive data leaking outside the company. As a result, 90% of organizations will have implemented at least one form of integrated DLP, up from 50% in 2017.
Having a proper network security solution for your organization ensures that your business will be routinely able to deliver the services and products your customers expect from the company.
Your organization’s ethics must evolve with the pressure of public issues like data privacy and personal data usage.
And it is evident that we live in a digital-first world; that’s why network security is essential to keep our identities from being stolen by hackers and attackers. You make customers in the market based on trust. When people are not getting what they want, like the latest digital technologies, transactions, and information to be readily available at their fingertips, they will move to a better place that will pace with their expectations.
Keeping up your organization with the latest technologies and services will promise an array of long-term customers.
While designing a network security solution for yourself or your organization, you must know about the types of attacks, network threat trends, and strategies.
To start familiarizing yourself with the major network security attacks, you don’t have to rush or hire a team of IT defense experts.
Hackers plant a malicious version of the software in your network. This malicious version of the software can wreak all sorts of chaos. They get this Malware transferred through a file or a link. It mainly occurs through human missteps like clicking a pop-up link with an installed malware bug or downloading an illicit file. Hackers primarily use Malware to perform the following functions, often without your involvement and awareness:
A phishing attack is one of the common types of social engineering attacks. It comes in various forms, but the goal of each form is the same: to get sensitive or personal information from users, like usernames and passwords. Phishing is an attack that uses deceptive emails and websites to gather personal information (i.e., business-critical emails, network passwords, bank accounts, etc.).
Phishing attacks are often more successful for hackers because it’s human nature to touch to get what they need. The hackers mainly send phishing messages in the form that it seems like they are coming from a trustworthy source; in most cases, they are emails that look like they are coming from the people you already know, such as your bank or coworker, or some services that you use. All of these emails contain a link that, on clicking, redirects you to an inconspicuous website. Through that link, the hackers’ implant malware on your device. Then, they make you input the exact information they seek while pretending to be someone you know. We can explain this with an example; sometimes, you are playing some games or going through a post on social media websites; you click on that link, and that link asks you to login into your account with your username and password. Once you input the username and password, your details get transferred to the hackers.
A denial of service attack happens when your website gets too much traffic and cannot function. The hackers bombard your network with a lot of traffic, and your website services become rendered denied and inaccessible to their intended consumers.
It usually works by over-saturating a targeted device’s capacity, which results in the denial of services to original requests. Two types of DOS attacks are there.
Signs that your device is under a DoS attack include:
Denial-of-service (DOS) attacks don’t necessarily extract data but are expensive and debilitating.
When you start using the internet, all your browsing and queries are classified using a unique session ID. The session is discarded once you log out. Session hijacking is when an attacker takes over a user’s session. It’s a sophisticated hacking form that exploits active web sessions and leads to tremendous data loss. The attack relies on hackers’ knowledge of your session cookies, also called cookie hijacking or cookie side-jacking. Session hijacking is most commonly applied to browser sessions and web applications.
A cryptographic hack that works by guessing the possible combinations of a targeted password until the correct password is discovered is known as a brute force attack. Custom software that can generate and attempt hundreds of password combinations within a minute, accelerating their hack and taking charge over a network through a single-entry point, is employed in this process.
Organizations should use different network security measures to keep their company’s data, cash flow, and customers safe online. You can take several actionable security measures to protect and strengthen your network’s security.
Basic security against the most common IT risks can be accompanied by following these processes and tools. Moreover, they are relatively easy to introduce, even for small companies.
Having Strong passwords for your business is the first step to good online security. You can make your passwords hard to guess by following simple rules:
As discussed in the network control access section, ensure that everybody can only access the authorized data. To control access
· Control physical access to computers network
· Deny/restrict access for unauthorized users
· Through the application, controls to limit access to Data or services
· Specify what can be copied from the system and saved to storage devices
Firewalls are effective gatekeepers between your computer and the internet, which you program to monitor only approved incoming and outgoing network traffic.
Ensure that you set up your firewall devices correctly, and check them regularly to ensure they have the latest software/firmware updates installed, or they may not be fully effective.
Installing security software can help to detect and remove malicious code if it slips into your network. Install Anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-malware software in your devices to detect spam, Malware, and virus attacks and block intrusive or intentionally damaging viruses from taking hold of your devices.
Keep your operating system and software updated to avoid falling prey to predators. Back up your system data regularly to prevent data loss.
Never leave it up to chance. Your data is too critical to leave out in cyberspace without proper security. Is your data protected?
