Business network security gets a bad rap for being expensive. Yet a single data breach, ransomware attack, or other security breach is more costly than many years' worth of good security. Too many businesses take a 'wait and see' approach to security, opting to address issues as they pop up instead of being proactive about security. Those businesses can expect to fork up $154 for every record that gets swiped, for an average cost of nearly $3.8 million per breach. Good, proactive security measures are far, far cheaper, and unlike the network security breach, there is no damage to your corporate reputation, no legal expenses, and no PR nightmares involved. Here are the steps to taking a proactive approach to business network security.
1. Asset Management
The first order of business is identifying the authorized and unauthorized users and devices on your network. That requires a strong asset management system. There are two types of asset management: software asset management (which helps control software licenses use, but also helps identify software on the network that has vulnerabilities) and hardware asset management. Hardware asset management allows you to determine when unauthorized devices and/or users are accessing your network, and it's the first line of defense against network intrusions.
2. Security Monitoring
Network security monitoring works by establishing a baseline of network traffic and using that baseline to identify abnormal use patterns that could indicate a problem or an intruder in the network. Security monitoring does require a deep understanding of networking, but it is also available as a service (aaS) by third-party security vendors.
3. Addressing Network & Software Vulnerabilities
Find a trustworthy source that is regularly updated with a list of known software security vulnerabilities and address those problems as you learn about them.
Did you ever hear your grandma say, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"? Such is the case with network and software vulnerabilities. It's much better to find and fix these than to wait for a hacker to take advantage. You can keep track of current and emerging threats by regularly checking websites like CVE to see what software vulnerabilities and other threats are making the rounds at any given time. Then find ways to patch the security gaps.
4. Business Network Security Auditing
Network security auditing is also sometimes called "white hat hacking" because security teams basically do exactly what hackers would do -- try to break into the network -- only these teams do it to identify and address gaps in security, not to exploit those vulnerabilities.This can be done in-house by your own network security team, or can be done by an outside contractor.
Are you ready to beef up your business network security for added peace of mind? We can help. Request a quote from Turn-Key Technologies today.
