When it comes to network security, there’s much more than meets the eye. You’re likely already familiar with network security basics: protect physical access to computers and networks, use a virtual private network (VPN), install a zero-trust firewall, and prevent external threats with anti-virus and anti-malware protection.
This is a good start, but there’s much more to network security than having these essentials in place. When your network is only as strong as its weakest link, it’s important to cover every base. Here are seven commonly overlooked network security areas that put your organization at risk:
1. Employees & Contractors
Right behind poorly tuned and managed security systems, employees and contractors pose the greatest security risk to your organization. TechRepublic found that at least 40% of reported security incidents are the result of employee negligence. Sometimes activity is malicious, but more often, it’s unintentional. Threat actor schemes are always adapting to the times.
According to CSO Online, “Phishing attacks account for more than 80% of reported security incidents.” Can your team differentiate between a counterfeit email and the real thing?
Keeping employees apprised of the latest methodologies can help prevent them from unwittingly giving network access to cybercriminals. Award-winning security training companies like KnowBe4 can help your team stay up-to-date on the latest network security threats.
From phishing attempts to malicious websites and access control protocols, such as efficient closure of terminated employees’ accounts, routinely refreshing your team on IT security best practices can help prevent costly data breaches.
2. Segmentation of Network Traffic
Although it might be faster and easier to give everyone on your network access to everything available, this approach provides no stop-loss measures if a threat actor infiltrates your network. While different users have different levels of access control, such as VIP, IT admin, and individual contributor, consider creating further segmentation.
This segmentation helps further apply the zero-trust methodology recommended by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which is used to strengthen an organization’s security posture. When determining access levels, consider using the principle of least privilege (POLP).
Here are a few practical questions to ask yourself:
- Does that contractor need access to your whole SharePoint drive or just one folder?
- Do employee-owned devices have the same level of access as company-owned devices?
- Are guests/visitors given access to the same network as employees?
- Which additional segmentations could provide the greatest security improvements without causing unnecessary delays to workers?
Asking questions like these can help your team determine where to place more digital locks to prevent unchecked access to sensitive information. The goal is to find your organization’s right balance between network security and the user experience.
3. Dark Web Scanning
Scanning for not only common network vulnerabilities, but also dark web activity is becoming more important. With the rise of data breaches, cybercriminals have discovered they can make a tidy profit from the sale of business credit cards and bank accounts as well as admin log-in credentials, intellectual property (IP), and other vital data.
To minimize data leaks to the dark web, run regular dark web threat intelligence scans.
4. Comprehensive Web Filtering
With cybercrime expected to cost $10.5 trillion globally by 2025, companies need to move from basic web filtering to comprehensive Domain Name System (DNS) filtering that blocks malicious and inappropriate websites.
As COVID-19 causes rolling closures across the globe, people are spending more time online and making more digital purchases than ever before in history. Cybercriminals are capitalizing on this trend by building more web-based traps for unsuspecting employees to fall into. Prevent these sites from even being available to your users by blocking them with DNS-level web filtering.
5. Multi-Factor Authentication
This added layer of security helps provide an extra defense against data loss. For example, even if a threat actor gains access to admin credentials, having a secondary authentication step makes the credentials useless to them unless they can also find a way past the second layer of defense—often a more difficult task.
Most IT security professionals recommend organizations use multi-factor authentication, and many urge companies to use an authentication app that generates a random code rather than having a one-time code texted to the user.
Cellphones are notoriously easy to hack, break, or lose. For this reason, disconnecting this second layer of security from a cellphone number is a more secure approach to multi-factor authentication.
6. Data Loss Prevention Strategy
As the name states, Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is a strategy used to prevent company data in motion, in use and at rest from being accessed by outsiders. While it can include the use of software, hardware and cloud-based technologies, DLP spans your entire organization and should include collaboration and training across all departments.
7. Efficient Patching
As one might imagine, Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) postings are like chumming the cyber seas for threat actors. In fact, one ransomware propagator thought to be located in Russia even admitted to this in a recent interview.
To prevent your organization from being another casualty of the roughly 187 million ransomware attacks reported annually, make sure your organization prioritizes patching. It’s an easy task to overlook or put off for later, but simply applying available security patches promptly dramatically reduces the likelihood of threat actors successfully penetrating your network.
Tightening IT Network Security
If this seems like too much for your team to address on their own, know that you seek help from an IT partner to close network security gaps. Convergent is an experienced network security service provider that’s helped hundreds of organizations forge a stronger security posture.