Network Security in a business organization

     Couple of weeks ago I had added a post on how you can secure the home network; this one is about securing the network within a business organization. The term ‘Network security’ consists of applications and software designed to protect your organization’s network. Effective network security targets a variety of threats and stops them from entering or spreading on the organization’s network.

     Most common threats to any computer networks are viruses, worms, spyware and adware, hacker attacks, data interception and identity thefts. Multiple layers of security need to be implemented to make sure if one fails, other stand within any computer network. Hardware and software need to be constantly updated and managed to protect you from emerging threats. The components such as Anti-virus and anti-spyware, Firewall to block unauthorized access to the network and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), to provide secure remote access (for businesses) helps accomplishing the goals of network security. Keeping the network secured helps any business organization meet mandatory regulatory compliance and helps protect the customers' data, reducing the risk of legal action from data theft.

     In my opinion, the IT Security Policy is the principle document for network security and it should outline the rules for ensuring the security of organizational assets. Policy should clearly state that employees are supposed to install only the approved applications and software in their office PC or laptops. Analyzing all network traffic flows should be performed and should aim to preserve the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of all systems and information on the network.

The concept of defense in depth is observed as a best practice in network security, prescribing for the network to be secured in layers. These layers apply an assortment of security controls to sift out threats trying to enter the network:

·Access control
·Identification
·Authentication
·Malware detection
·Encryption
·File type filtering
·URL filtering
·Content filtering

     While monitoring the network traffic and user access to the network is an important task for network admin, auditing network use encourages continuous improvement by requiring organizations to reflect on the implementation of their policy on a consistent basis. The cost to implement better network security can turn out to be well spent money over the expenses to recover from the data breaches.

Reference:

Paloalto (n.d.). What is network security? Retrieved April 21^st 2015 from

https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/resources/learning-center/what-is-network-security.html