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Network security is arguably more critical for a business than an IT problem in today’s connected world. As cyberattacks become more sophisticated—ranging from ransomware to phishing and denial-of-service attacks—organizations must plan how to prevent breaches in order to protect their most enormous data trove. Plus, these malicious groups are constantly evolving their tactics, leading to devastating consequences for a business.
This article explores what you can do to fortify your networking systems in the face of dangerous hackers. Read on to dive into key safety techniques, essential tools like firewalls and VPNs, and proven defense procedures from the biggest industry players to help you avoid potential threats.
Core Devices and Tools to Protect Your Infrastructure
Before exploring best practices, it’s essential to know the types of tools and security solutions that are key to securing your network. Here is an extensive list:
Network Switches: A device that joins various gadgets or hosts associated with a local area network and spreads data dependent on media access control addresses. It differs from a hub, which can only broadcast information to all the connected equipment. A switch can intelligently steer traffic and prevent website congestion, thus improving general grid performance. Most modern setups use switches.
Routers: Some routers transmit notifications between different networks, allowing communication with the outside world. They use IP addresses to decide how to direct data using the shortest path. Many machines come with built-in security options, like an access control checklist to restrict PC access under a certain IP address.
Firewalls: There are two main types of firewalls, hardware and software ones, which are generally placed at different locations to allow one to connect to the Internet from a secured grid. They monitor and control incoming and outgoing network traffic and aim to create a barrier between trusted internal and untrusted external sources.
Network Access Control: It enforces policies by evaluating the health of the equipment trying to connect to the web. A network access control tool denies access to devices that didn’t update according to the set protection standards, such as antivirus software updates, security patches, and proper configuration.
Web Filters: They efficiently block all malicious sites, stop employees from visiting harmful and unethical content, and improve overall safety by increasing its immunity to cyber threats.
Proxy Servers: A proxy server acts as a middleman between your browser and the Internet. It hides your IP address to keep your online activity private. It also can block access to harmful websites or dangerous content.
DDoS Mitigation Tools: Distributed denial of service mitigation tools fight an assault aimed at flooding and prevent the ability to access the web through a large amount of traffic. Their purpose is to detect attacks from the early stages and lessen their impact.
Proven Defense Tactics from the Biggest Industry Players
With a brief introduction about network security devices and solutions out of the way, let’s explore the key defense strategies prevalent in the biggest players across industries.
Solution 1: Segregate Your Network
Network segmentation is one of the most effective strategies for fortifying network shields. A business can stop an intrusion by dividing the connection into smaller elements that cannot travel far. This isolation limits the risk of a full-scale incursion and provides protection against an intruder who could access all interconnected resources.
A demilitarized zone is a subnet that separates a local area setup from an untrusted source, typically the public internet. It’s often called a perimeter network or screened subnetwork. Public-facing services, such as web, email, domain name systems, file transfer protocol, and proxy servers, are typically hosted within this location to enhance security and protect the internal matrix.
Firms should decide if this sort of digital “airlock” is a good fit for setups that hold important data or backups. So, if an attacker gets into the system, your grid will only lose connection for a short time.
Solution 2: Place Security Devices Properly
Correctly placing defensive tools is vital for your digital stronghold. Every entry and exit point for traffic, like where the internal network meets the Internet, should have firewalls. These barriers block unauthorized access while allowing traffic from verified sources.
Besides firewalls, every enterprise needs intrusion detection and prevention systems to monitor traffic for possible suspicious activity. The detection tools will alert the administrator of suspicious threats, while prevention ones will take IPS one step further and automatically block harmful traffic as it tries to enter critical infrastructure.
Web application firewalls are another security step that benefits from good placement. They shield online platforms from database breaches like structured query language injection and cross-site scripting. Placing the web application firewall in zones where they are hosted, namely demilitarized zones, helps secure the entire grid.
Solution 3: Protect Network Equipment Physically
Physical security is just as important as digital safety. You must control access to key network infrastructure, such as data centers, servers, and equipment. Only qualified personnel should be allowed to access critical areas, and identities should be verified through authentication.
Furthermore, organizations should bar external storage gadgets such as USB and hard drives so that intruders cannot remove code to exfiltrate sensitive information. You should constantly monitor and restrict devices to prevent unauthorized physical tampering.
Solution 4: Use Network Address Translation
Network Address Translation changes local IP addresses to global ones, allowing machines to access the internet safely. It also modifies IP numbers to avoid conflicts when multiple devices request the same destination. This process typically occurs on a router or firewall, where it records the changes in a translation table.
When data leaves the local grid, this conversion tool changes its private address to a public one and vice versa when it enters it. If no addresses are available, the app drops the packet and sends a “host unreachable” message.
To avoid confusion when two pieces of equipment use the same port, the network address translation program also masks the source port numbers and logs this information.
Solution 5: Enforce the Principle of Least Privilege
Enforcing the principle of least privilege is one of the best ways to minimize threat risk and limit the scope of a security breach. This principle dictates that users only get what they need to perform their tasks for their role. By restricting access rights, organizations reduce the damage that external and internal attackers could cause.
In addition to restricting access rights, organizations should incorporate strong credential validation steps, such as multi-factor authentication, to ensure that even if infiltrators steal credentials, they cannot use them to gain illegal access.
Solution 6: Implement VPNs for Secure Remote Access
Remote access is a very practical and modern way of doing business, but it can also lead to security risks, which is why employees should use virtual private networks. Also dubbed VPNs, these apps establish an encrypted connection between the user’s equipment and the corporate circuit, securing the data in transit.
Hunt, Trap, and Block: The Art of Active Cyber Defense
Preventing intrusion is only half the job done. You must continuously monitor your digital spaces to respond to potential threats actively. A few key practices for handling and recognizing cyberattacks include:
Establishing a Network Baseline and Monitor Usage
Knowing how your online infrastructure behaves on any given day is crucial for spotting any unusual activity. Use some or all of the above-listed methods to stay up-to-date with hackers, who are evolving at lightning speeds thanks to AI. From routers, switches, firewalls, and other network devices, take your pick and track your employees’ typical usage patterns. If traffic suddenly increases or there are unusual login attempts, this change from the baseline may flag a potential issue.
Deploy Honeypots and Honeynets
Honeypots act as decoys that lure infiltrators away from valuable assets. Security teams can track all cyber pirates’ actions on a honeypot and analyze their techniques to better understand their strategies.
Honeynet is a collection of various honeypots deployed to emulate a more complex environment of a compromised system. Honeynets allow businesses to learn about emerging threats and enhance overall detection at all levels.
Use Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems
Intrusion detection and prevention tools are still effective solutions that continuously monitor traffic for any sign of suspicious activity. Intrusion detection and prevention systems compare network activity against an established baseline to find deviations that may signal a cyberattack. These defenses can intervene automatically and instantly, blocking malicious traffic without interrupting the administrator, who needs to set up the recovery process.
Automate Reactions to Attacks
Many state-of-the-art security products offer automated response capability. These programs react instantly to threats by stopping malicious IPs, cutting off connections, or gathering other information to understand the nature of the infiltration. Responses can be deployed to help mitigate an attack in real time, away from administrators involved in the investigation and recovery.
Use Multiple Vendors
Businesses should rely on multiple vendors to enhance resilience and patch up their weak spots. Therefore, even if one of the vendor’s tools is compromised, other programs can still raise up their shields. Additionally, using various providers encourages competition, drives innovation, and helps companies access the latest and most effective products.
Conclusion
Strong defenses should be a key part of any organization’s plan to succeed in this rapidly changing world. From segmentation and firewalls, IDS/IPS systems, and VPNs, corporations have a variety of options, all likely to reduce the possibility of cyberattacks. However, combining a few of them will enhance their strength against intrusions, as well as protect sensitive records, and ensure operational continuity.
Network security is an ongoing process that requires constant attention, monitoring, and fast responses to new dangers in the digital space. To help with this, automatic threat reports can alert you if a hacker finds your company site and adds their contact information to web crawl data. If organizations employ these practices and keep in tune with new trends, their grids can be secure from cyber attacks.
