Network Security should be your number one priority

Network security is the only way to protect your internal IT network against cybercrime. As we all know, cybercrime is on the increase and is costing businesses millions of pounds every year. If your business hasn’t been affected, you have been lucky and it is only a matter of when and not if!

Cyber Protection

This means network security should be top of your priority list. There is no right or wrong way to ensure your network is safe, but you should have at least two levels of protection.

First of all and the simplest to implement is Anti-Virus or EndPoint protection. This is a must for every user on every device. There is really no excuse for not having antivirus because it is as cheap as chips!

Every business should have a network firewall. This is a hardware appliance that is directly connected to the Internet. It manages Internet traffic and all data in and out of your business. Your Firewall should also include software services such as. Intrusion Protection (IPS), Gateway Anti-Virus, Phishing and Application Control.

Unleashed recommend you have an anti-virus and a firewall as a minimum level.

There are a few other levels of protection you may want to investigate.

  • Multi-factor Authentication (MFA)

MFA or 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) is becoming the de facto standard and a strong requirement for Cyber Essentials accreditation. MFA protects the end-user from people trying to hack into their accounts. It adds a second level of security (the first being your password). When you log in to your account it will ask for a second level of authentication in the form of a one-time passcode. This is normally sent by text to your mobile. You cannot get access until you have inputted this code.

Our recommended solutions:

Watchguard AuthPoint

Microsoft Office365

  • Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

EDR is an integrated endpoint security solution with will combine real-time continuous monitoring and reporting of endpoint data. In layman’s terms, it will allow you to see if you have been hacked.

Our recommended solutions:

Panda AD360

  • Entity Behaviour Analysis (EBA)

EBA takes note of what end-user does in their normal day-to-day business life. If this changes EBA will raise this as a red flag and you can investigate.

Our recommended solutions:

Panda AD360

  • Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

EDR and EBA will report if you have anomalies happening on your network, but DLP will stop any of these actions from taking place.

For example, if an end-user is trying to email customer data to a private email address EBA will inform you but not stop it. DLP will stop the file from leaving the business and report it immediately.

Or, your network has been infected with a virus that is collecting data in the background and making changes to files. DLP will not only detect this but block the file from being sent to the hacker.

Our recommended solutions:

ForcePoint

What else can I do to protect myself?

  • Cyber Essentials. This is a new government cybersecurity standard.

  • Monitoring.  Seeing what is going on at the network level and keeping an eye on all user activity
  • Training. Ignorance is no longer an acceptable excuse. Ensure all users have a basic knowledge of cybersecurity. It will also help them outside of work

  • Blocking malicious websites – Stop harmful websites from opening within your business

Taking network security to the next level

IT network security is a very specialised field within IT and not every IT professional is qualified. That is why you have companies like Unleashed. We can help you on many levels. Two specialities that will help you to become more secure:

  • 1. Vulnerability Testing – Firewalls, as we have already mentioned, are complicated devices. The more software services you run the more chance that at some point you will have an open firewall port that is vulnerable to computer hackers. And let’s face it, they don’t need much encouragement to take advantage of any error. This is where Network vulnerability or penetration testing can be invaluable and should be carried out annually. A Pen test will scan your network to open ports or vulnerabilities and report where these are. This means you can close them and shut off any breaches.

  • 2. Phishing – is becoming more and more problematic and is catching businesses out daily. Unleashed, can carry out phishing exercises where we challenge your users to click on a particular website. Of course, our websites are harmless and will tell your user where they went wrong and why. This inexpensive exercise will highlight how aware your users are.

View more information on Cyber Security

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If you would like to review your network security, or for further info on our Cybersecurity services, please get in touch.

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