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| Enterprise Security includes the strategies, techniques, and process | Source: |
Overview
Enterprise Security Systems are not a primacy to many organizations.
Businesses of today are too dependent on the Internet like never before. And to
a greater extent, companies are ever more conducting e-commerce transactions
thereby opening all access to their network of resources specifically
customers, business partners, vendors, and remote employees. However, while it
has become extra convenient for them to do business online, it has also become
ever more difficult to guarantee the exchange and communications of reliable
and secure data. This will result in many challenges the company of any size
will face in maintaining a trusted online environment because of the continuous
security threats and changing regulatory standards.
Enabling Secure Business Productivity and
Flexibility
Data and transactions security
are of utmost importance in this era of fast-growing commercial and government
computer networks and the emergent Internet economic practicality. The
deep-rooted challenges of the security issues have developed into a top primacy
in every business that gets to use of information technology. Although there
are guidelines, they are also not comprehensive - mostly focused on the most
critical areas of every organization that needs to adapt - from managing SSL on
servers to providing client-side SSL certificates to workforces to setting up
rock-solid policies and processes for security and embracing paperless business
transactions.
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| Risk Management | Source: https://www.citrix.com/ |
Enabling secure productivity, Citrix helps businesses manage risks while, at the same time, enabling organization flexibility by regulating access to applications and data across every device, location, and network. IT and security professionals always face challenges of reducing risks to satisfactory levels while guaranteeing ease of use and productivity. Individuals need to be able to work in how it best suits their purposes, in any device, location, and network, completely without being disappointed by an excessively constrained or complicated user experience. Simultaneously, it is of vital importance to safeguard business apps and data from being compromised by any security threats, prevents loss and theft, and ensure complete conformity with standards policies and regulations
Planning and Evaluating Security of the Network
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| Business Network Security | Source: Hummingbird Networks |
The security challenges of today’s businesses are growing swiftly across two dimensions, made worse by both ever-increasing risk levels, and the continued development and diversification of applications. Simultaneously, mobile productivity, which is a crucial capability for every enterprise, conveniently depends on a consistent and dependable experience for users anywhere and in whatever manner they work. This extends across each type of app use, on any network, on any device, just as the must-haves of the mobile workforce grow much more complicated, IT must continue to strive for simplicity.
Organizations must not ever remain
complacent on their current best practices and policies for enterprise
security. Cyber-criminals are eternally on the lookout and always trying to
remain a step ahead by sidestepping security systems that are already in place.
Unless the security systems are incessantly evolving, and run through a process
of improvements, it would be too arduous to keep invaluable data protected from
theft or unauthorized dissemination. Designing and implementing a plan for enterprise
security is extremely important and must be given precedence since the world is
becoming increasingly too dependent on technology.
As reported by IBM, in 2014
alone, more than one billion personal records have been stolen or leaked. This
alone is IBM’s highest recorded number of data breaches over the last 18 years.
Moreover, another study by ESG (Enterprise Security Group) showed that from
2013-2015, 49% of businesses experienced data breaches, and 75% of those
businesses were breached more than two times. It was noted that in these
incidents, the attacks originate from three sources, point of sale (PoS),
third-party vendors, and unencrypted data. But the most worrisome finding was
that the biggest and the most harmful of attacks originated from a single point
of access or source.
Fortifying the security systems
starts with developing a basis for evaluation and planning of the security of
the system, which begins with Microsoft’s compiled list of the best practices
aimed at securing an enterprise. The four categories in the list are intended
to just point out a few of the key items that have been identified as areas
for evaluation after working with the customers and are not intended to replace
a full security assessment of your infrastructure.
1. Assessing network environment –
To effectively assess your
infrastructure, familiarize first all its components, and it involves not
only identifying all assets and security concerns but also keeping in check the
attribute of the whole security program. Determine the system’s specific
security needs, such as making sure that your IT staff has the necessary
executive backing to run an efficacious security program. With the support of
management on how to proceed, focus now on establishing a process of
identifying and analyzing all security risks continuingly, since a
management process devoid of such a plan in place, you are risking initiating
works that are not resolving the biggest security problems.
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Enterprise Security Architecture and
Integration | Source: Hold Security |
As soon as a risk management process is set up, you must establish and document a set of
security standards that will control the use of all technology resources in the
organization. Everything within the infrastructure with deficiencies of a
governing security strategy, such as unprotected computing units, must be
singled out and taken out from the system up until such time they are made
compliant with the organization's policies. Removing these computing units will
need a defined process that will help in identifying potentially vulnerable
devices.
2. Protecting the system –
Any computer in the system
connected directly or indirectly to the Internet is potentially at risk of an
attack from external attackers and viruses. Those are always the many benefits
as well as challenges brought about by being a part of the connected world,
though traditionally, a firewall provides good defense against such attacks. To
this end, though, you must review whether the existing rules and processes are
still valid to implement and maintain. Additionally, you must ensure that
you’ve taken sufficient measures to help protect computing devices with
technologies such as host-based firewalls. However, you must not only rely on
firewalls as the only means of defense mechanism. In protecting the system,
there are other factors to consider, such as providing locked remote access
with strong authentication techniques. Likewise, you must know whether
the system is utilizing the latest in quarantine technologies that will help in
automatically identifying remote computing units with ineffectual virus patches
or security. Also, consider the use of technologies such as Outlook access or
Microsoft Outlook Web Access that utilizes RPC over HTTPS to lessen the need to
remotely connect to the network.
What's more, you must make sure
that you have a secured wireless network to help avert illegitimate users from
gaining access to the network resources. Also, consider improving all
Internet-facing servers and take full advantage of the reduced attack surface
of these products, utilize additional security features such as Windows security system for these high-risk devices, and finally consider using IPSec to help
prevent illegitimate users from gaining access to mission-critical resources.
3. Protecting servers and customers –
Be sure to take enough steps to
harden core operating systems and any major applications from common attacks.
Many customers in the past couple of years have spent a sizable number of
resources protecting their perimeter network but have let their internal
infrastructure remain very vulnerable. Strengthen security infrastructure and
security apparatuses, install Windows with AST (Advanced Security Technologies)
on your Windows computing units and remote systems. Additionally, to simplify
monitoring of security automatically turns on a built-in Windows Firewall that
offers additional security for the duration of a computer’s booting time and
shutting down the process.
Furthermore, also check to make
sure that you have deployed the latest antivirus software on all your servers
and the customers. This will additionally let you utilize quarantine features,
among others. Having installed the up-to-date software versions, you must
ensure to have in place a systematic method for keeping up-to-date, regularly
with the latest virus and hacker information. Also, consider establishing
guidelines for emergent secure applications including threat modeling, code
reviewing, and security testing. This strategy of action must include a policy
for fast deployment of the latest updates of all operating systems and
applications before long after the patches are released to the populace. You
might also consider investigating technologies to encrypt and protect
business-critical folders and files.
For purposes of authentication,
if you haven’t done it already, consider using multi-factor authentication methods such as biometrics
or smart cards for critical accounts. Finally, in limiting potential damage
during a security breach or system breakdown, always have a backup and recovery
strategy in place to restore data and services in an agreeable amount of time.
4. Monitoring Environment –
Auditing and monitoring are core
to a company’s security efforts, we often think of monitoring as simply
watching and waiting for something to happen so that we be able to react to a
situation. A secure environment must set up a proactive strategy that audits
the network to identify systems configured in manners that do not meet the
company’s best practices or standards. In achieving this, organizations must
frequently review customer and server logs to study common attack patterns. For
the duration of the review of the security program, organizations must look at
the methods wherein they conduct network security audits. It must have a group that is
focused on computer auditing and applications for compliance with internal
standards or any regulatory requirements. It must be separate from the
operations team in executing the above tasks, a team that is skilled to help in
documenting and remediating issues any audits find.
Conclusively, you must think
through what will happen when a system is compromised. You must know if you
have an intrusion detection system, in what manner it is set up to monitor
access to business-critical systems, and in what way it can be utilized to help
in identifying what fractions of the system were compromised. If ever the
system is attacked or faces a virus-related outbreak, you must have in place
established incident response procedures to help minimalize the effect on the
network and collect data for the betterment of the security team securing the
system against future threats.
Conclusion
With the Enterprise
Security Systems Best Practices, customers were able to implement and
manage these critical measures across a firmly unified solution constructed on
a foundation of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. An established
ideal application delivery consolidates applications and data in the data center and gives contextual access control across every location, device, and
network, resulting in employees, contractors, and partners having the needed
flexibility to choose in what way they work, whether remote, mobile or in the
office. End-to-end connections visibility, user activity, and traffic allow IT
to focus on privacy, compliance, and risk management primacies without
compromising workforce productivity.