It is always a good idea to work on your network security. Most companies are entering the review mode as the year is about to end. You might have ended the year without facing any cyber attack. However, you should still take precautions for next year. In this article, we are going to share a few tips that will help you in securing your network and reducing vulnerabilities.
Why network security is important for your business?
Every business needs good network security for protecting its data. It will help you in ensuring that your data is secure. Some of the main benefits of network security are:
-
Network security will protect your data
Data is very important for every business. If you are a business, then you will be storing a lot of important data. Thus, it is important to ensure that you are protecting this data. Network security will ensure that your data is protected.
-
Network security is required
Good network security is compulsory for most businesses. If you are a medical business, then you need to follow HIPAA compliance. Similarly, if you are operating in the EU, then you need to follow the GDPR policy. Every government is coming with a different data policy. Thus, network security is becoming compulsory.
-
Network security will protect your business from ransomware
Ransomware attacks are becoming more common with time. They are the worst attack. It will block your data until you pay a ransom to attackers. This will affect your entire business. Thus, it is important to ensure that you are protecting your data from malware and ransomware.
Network security will help you in protecting your systems from ransomware. This will ensure that your data is secure.
-
Cost savings
Data and security breaches can be very expensive for your business. You can lose thousands of dollars due to this. Yahoo lost more than $350 million due to a data breach. Thus, it is important to ensure that business owners are investing in good security tools. This will help you in avoiding a data breach. Thus, you don’t need to worry about the costs associated with a data breach.
How to secure your network?
-
Create secure backups
Your business might have an amazing year. Thus, maybe you were very busy this year. However, you should ensure that some staff member was taking the time to backup your systems and data. Many businesses don’t care about backing up their data. This is the biggest mistake that they are making.
If you are not backing up your data, then you are creating a lot of problems for your business. You might have only one copy of your data. If this data gets deleted, then how will you restore your data? Your whole business will be in big trouble as data is everything.
There are hundreds of things that can go wrong with digital devices. Maybe you are logging into your system one day and it doesn’t open. What will you do in this case? If you have a secure backup, then you can quickly restore your data and system.
There are various scenarios where you can lose access to your data. This data loss can be very serious for your business. You should understand the impact of this data loss on your business. The impact will depend on the data that you have lost.
You should ensure that you are backing up your data. This will help you in reducing the impact of data loss. You should consider these data backup options:
-
Cloud backups:
You can use cloud services like Carbonite or Dropbox to store your data. There are various options available in the market. This will help you in saving your information to the cloud providers. Cloud servers will help you in backing up your data automatically. Thus, you don’t need to worry about backing up your data manually.
-
External hard drives:
You can copy your files and documents to an external HDD. This is always a good option. However, you should ensure that your hard drive is always accessible to you. If you lose your hard drive, then you can’t access your backup.
-
USB stick:
You can also save your data to a small USB drive. However, this is not a good idea as you can’t store a huge amount of data on this USB stick. USB sticks can get easily lost.
-
Make every admin password unique
This is a very simple change that you can make to your network. However, it is very fast and powerful. Both Mac and Windows operating systems will have administrator passwords. Most employees are using the password that is generated by default.
There is a chance that you might be using the same password across all admin accounts. This is especially important if you are using domain-joined computers.
It can be very dangerous for your business. If an attacker gets access to your computer network, then they can get access to all the admin passwords. Attackers can do whatever they want with your data. Thus, it is important to ensure that you are protecting your data from attackers.
If you are a Windows user, then you should use the LAPS or Microsoft Local Administrator Password Solution. It will help you in retaining all your admin passwords in the Microsoft Active Directory. LAPS will also provide ACL protection to your computer. This will ensure that your system is secure from attackers.
If you are a Mac user, then you can reset the admin password. All you need to do is restart the Mac. You can hold Command + R before the pops up. After that, you need to click on the Apple Menu, Utilities, and Terminal. This will open the Terminal window where you need to input the reset password into the terminal. This will help you in resetting your new password. You also need to provide a hint in the Mac.
Enterprises should also consider using a password manager tool. This will ensure that your users don’t need to worry about remembering complex passwords. All you need to do is use the password manager tool for generating a unique password. This password will be stored in the password manager tool. Thus, you don’t need to remember it. All you need to do is open your password manager app and check the password.
-
Add SSL Certification
If you are selling a service or product to your customers, then this tip is very important for you. You might be doing thousands of online transactions every day. If there is some vulnerability on the payment page, then you can lose a lot of important data.
Your customer financial data is very important for you. You should ensure that you are protecting it. This issue can be prevented if you are adding SSL certification to your transactions. SSL or Secure sockets layer is an online certificate that will help you in encrypting your server data.
Each SSL certificate will be unique. It will contain data as the public key and the name of the certificate holder. The SSL certificate will also contain the serial number of the certification, the expiration date, and the digital signature.
If you are using an SSL certificate, then your customer session will be secure. It will ensure that your client browser will use HTTPs instead of HTTP.
-
Switch to Multi-factor authentication
If you are using single-factor authentication, then you should switch to MFA or two-factor authentication. The main problem with single-factor authentication is that there is only a security layer. All the user needs to do is provide one single valid credential. If an attacker gets access to your password, then they can easily get access to your data.
You might be using a password, PIN number, fingerprint, retina scans, or voice recognition. This is not secure enough in the modern world. Attackers have access to various tools that can crack your passwords.
Passwords and PINs can easily be cracked by using a brute-force attack. If your password is very simple, then anyone can guess the password. Your personal data can also be sold. Due to this, attackers can easily find your password on the dark web. Even voice recognition and retain scans can be hacked. Thus, you should consider switching to MFA.
Most companies have switched to two-factor authentication. This will add another security layer for protecting your data. Your users can’t use one credential for accessing your network. They need to pass through two layers of security. This will ensure that your network is secure.
You can use OTP for protecting your accounts. In this, you will first input a password and then you will receive an email or text with a verification code. Your users can’t log in until they are entering the correct code.
Multi-factor authentication will help you in making your company more secure. Your attackers can guess a password by using a brute force attack. They will know your password and can try to log in. However, they still need to provide an OTP code for accessing the system.
-
Encrypt with VPN
VPNs or Virtual private networks will help you in protecting your attack from attackers. If you are using a VPN, then your users will be connected to your own private network. Your data will stay encrypted if you are using VPN. This will ensure that your IP address is already masked.
If you are downloading VPN software, then it will help you in taking your data traffic and encrypting the traffic. It will ensure that you are transporting your data through a VPN tunnel. The tunnel will first decrypt all your data and will move it online. It will help you in encrypting the data again before you get access to it. This will ensure that your data is secure.
It is always a good idea to use VPN software for protecting your network.
-
Scan your network
You should scan your network for ensuring that your network is secure. Network scanning will help you in scanning your network for vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities can vary from small-scale to high-scale. It is important to ensure that you are first fixing your high-scale vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities can affect your business. After that, you can focus on medium-scale and small-scale vulnerabilities.
Some examples of medium-scale vulnerabilities are outdated software, system updates, and missed patches. It is important to detect vulnerabilities in your network. You can use a vulnerability scanner to quickly find vulnerabilities in your network. This will help you in beefing up the security of your network. It will also ensure that your network is secure from threats.
-
Update your network name
You should also check the name of your company network. Your company might be using a network name that was provided by your ISP. The name might be a string of random numbers. This will generally be the router number.
You might think that there is no issue with the router number. But, this router number can be used to access your devices. These devices will include smartphones, computers, tablets, and office laptops. Your router will also remember the IP address that you have accessed.
If some attacker gets access to your router information, then they can attack your router. This will give them access to your network. Your credentials will be stolen from your network. Thus, you should update your default network name.
Conclusion
Network security is very important for every business. If attackers get access to your network, then they can steal your data. Thus, it is important to ensure that you are protecting your network from attackers. You can use the tips mentioned in this article for protecting your network. However, it is difficult to protect your network until you have access to an IT security team. Thus, you should consider working with a good MSP like Bleuwire. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire will help you in protecting your network from attackers. They will implement the best security controls for protecting your network. If you need more information regarding IT security services, then you can contact Bleuwire.
Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™ services and solutions in how we can help your business.
