Network Security is a concern that must be taken into consideration if you own a business whether big or small. Network security means the protection of your data and network using both hardware and software technologies. You can easily manage the access to your network by using a network security technology.
The cost to recover from a network security breach can be really high for small and medium business owners. So it’s extremely important for small and medium enterprises to consider the network security as one of their top priorities. So what can you do to protect your network from security breaches? What are the ways to protect your network and precious business data?
Network security offers you various layers of defense for the protection of your data and network. So here I will tell you some of the best ways to protect your network.
Access control
You should limit the number of users who can have access to your network. You need to recognise each user and the device from which they are going to access your network. You can decide which users and devices can access your network and can even impose a limit on their usage.
Antivirus and Antimalware
The second thing you should consider is to install an antivirus and antimalware
software on all your devices. They protect your network and data from worms, trojans, ransomware and spyware. Sometimes viruses and malware infect your network and lie dormant for weeks or even months. The antivirus and antimalware
software not only remove the viruses and malware but also find anomalies and fix the damage afterwards.
Application Security
You also need to protect the applications you use for running your business. Attackers look for the loopholes and vulnerabilities in your software to infiltrate into your network. The application security programs find and close such loopholes and vulnerabilities and protect your network from potential attacks. For example, ZAP (Zed Attack Proxy) is a tool used to find vulnerabilities in web applications. ZAP is used to scan the vulnerabilities and perform the functionalities such as intercepting proxy, websocket support, authentication support, smartcard and client digital certificates support.
Data loss prevention
You should make sure that your staff does not send confidential and sensitive information out from your network. You can use a data loss prevention program that will check people from sending, uploading or even printing sensitive and confidential information in any way. A data loss prevention program detects the data breaches, data ex-filtration transmissions and prevents them from happening. A DLP software classifies and protects sensitive and confidential information which helps a network administrator to control what users can transfer over the network. For example, Symantec Data Loss Prevention is a DLP program which is capable of monitoring thousands of users and devices. It has a unified management platform, content detection servers and light-weight endpoint agents for windows, Linux and Macintosh.
Email Security
Cyber attackers always consider email gateways as their top priority for security breaches. You can use the email security applications to check the incoming security attacks and outgoing emails containing sensitive and confidential business data. For example, CipherMail is an open source email security application which supports multiple encryption standards. Scrollout F1 is another open source email security application which offers almost all the features of email server security along with anti-virus and anti-spam protection.
Intrusion prevention systems
The intrusion prevention system checks the incoming network traffic to block the potential attacks. It can block the malicious activities and prevent the suspected viruses and malware containing files from entering into your network, thereby preventing the security breaches and attacks.
Virtual Private Network (VPN)
Using a Virtual Private Network helps you encrypt the connection from an endpoint to network. A remote-access virtual private network will authenticate the communication between the devices used by your staff and your network. A VPN makes the data pass through secure tunnels and requires passwords, tokens and other unique identification techniques to gain access.
Wireless security
Wireless networks can be less secured as compared to wired networks as there are multiple tools available to hack wireless networks. If someone knows your password he or she can easily infiltrate your network and steal your sensitive and confidential data. So if you are using a wireless network for your business you need to use an advanced protection specially designed for wireless networks. Mostly, WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) and WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) type are used for the protection of wireless networks. WEP is less secure as compared to WPA and is more vulnerable to hacks and security breaches. WPA2 was introduced in the year 2004 as an improved and more secure version of WPA. WPA2 uses a security protocol based on Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) which is more secure than WEP and WPA.
The ideal solution is that you should look for a company that guides you throughout the process and suits your budget. If you are looking for IT support services in Sydney one such company is Zero Effort Networking which is serving its clients for 20 years in Australia.
For more information on Network Security, please visit the following link – IT Support in Sydney You can also Email us at info@zen.net.au or Call us at 1300 93 94 95 and we will be happy to help you.