6 Key Components of Business Network Security!

Network security

Everything on the internet is interconnected. Despite some firms having barred others from gaining access to their networks through firewalls and authentication procedures, computer geniuses still find a way to get past these obstacles and penetrate seemingly ironclad cybersecurity network security infrastructures. 

In today’s digital landscape, network security has become a primary concern and priority for businesses worldwide. If you want to know more about how you can further improve your company’s network security, you might want to check Chicago IT services and other similar sites. 

Here are some key components to maintain network security for your business:

1. Threats And Risk Assessment

One of the first things you have to do to enhance your business’s network security is to ask an information technology (IT) or cybersecurity specialist to do a risk assessment of the various threats to your network’s cybersecurity.

Having a risk and threat assessment will help you fully understand the threats and risks to your existing IT system, infrastructure, and network. This is necessary to enhance the capability of your network security to thwart any threat to business information and network security. 

In IT, threats refer to anything that can cause harm or damage to your network, resources, assets, or capabilities. A threat could be physical, such as a looming hurricane, cyclone or tornado, or sudden flooding like those experienced in some U.S. cities. 

2. Network Access Control 

Another critical component of your network security would be system access to your network servers, resources, folders, and files. This refers to your current system administration on how people get permissions to access servers, resources, folders, or files. System administrators have always strived to balance giving access to authorized users and keeping out hackers.

Network access control (NAC) is a fundamental component of security compliance programs. It helps ensure security measures to protect the company’s confidential information or proprietary assets. This includes permissions to access some confidential resources, applications, folders, and files stored in your network infrastructure.

3. Physical Security

Your NAC should include coming up with ways to enhance the physical security of your workplace, including physical access to your servers and computers. You know well how unauthorized people can easily steal information from your networks just by saving some of your information in external drives and bus drives. 

If your servers and mainframes are in a flood-prone area or location, or one with a history of strong earthquakes, then consider setting up backup servers where they will be less vulnerable to natural disasters. Another option would be to opt for cloud servers and infrastructure as your backup solution as part of your physical security measures.   

4. Policy And Administrative Controls

Policy and administrative controls are key components of your network security. These controls manage the potential negative impact of any breaches and incidents caused by unauthorized access. A concrete example is when an employee gains access to folders and files that only executives and managers are allowed to do.

In some of the known hacking incidents, hackers didn’t breach their target networks just by hacking through the system. They needed someone to set up something inside the network to give them access. 

For instance, an insider posed as an intern employee to set up the printer and photocopying machine in one of the most recent banking heists. This gave access to the hackers operating from a remote location. This is a concrete example of what could have been prevented by policy and administrative controls.

You should conduct a review immediately when unauthorized personnel access areas of your office, thereby getting a hold of your servers, folders, and files in the database. This may seem harmless, but it’s best to check your network security for any potential breach or risk, especially if there are obvious red flags. 

5. Technical Security Controls 

Technical security is one of the components over which you have more efficient control and monitoring. Early on, perform an audit of the various kinds and levels of resource permissions you’ve granted to numerous users and admins in your network infrastructure and system administration. If possible, you should form a team to review what access and permissions were given to each employee and user.  

The levels of authorization and access permission granted to each employee should be reviewed by the IT team carefully, in collaboration with the manager of the employees concerned. 

This is relatively easier to do in small businesses than in large enterprises. You can also do this in collaboration with the team leaders or supervisors to ensure each employee keeps the permission they need to do their work.

One of the best ways to enhance your technical security controls would be to implement multiple security clearance requirements and use authentication technology to verify the identity of users. Any unusual activity or use of highly confidential servers, folders, resources, and files should be logged and monitored by the network security monitoring team. Employees should also be trained, given refresher sessions, and kept updated on how to prevent unauthorized people from gaining access to their user accounts.  

6. Responses

The final key component of your network security is your responses to the various threats and vulnerabilities. After you’ve identified and mapped them, you should develop a plan to meet each of these threats. 

Devise ways to minimize the levels of your vulnerabilities. Your risk and threat management plan should address all phases of a potential IT incident or breach crisis. The stages or phases of an emergency or incident management plan are as follows: 

  • Risk Prevention and Mitigation 
  • Risk Remediation and Emergency Action Plan 
  • Disaster Recovery Plan 

Conclusion

Network security has become an essential aspect of business operations, especially nowadays when threats of hacking, malware, and others loom and attackers seem to have never-ending ways to penetrate your network.

With most employees and workers using software applications and tools, businesses have felt the need to balance permitting access to authorized users, physically or remotely, with restricting the risk from unauthorized personnel.

Network security involves significant components that must be secured, addressed, implemented, and managed properly.

Network Security article and permission to publish here provided by Claire Glassman. Originally written for Supply Chain Game Changer and published on July 4, 2022.