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5 unintended ways companies compromise their network security

May 20, 2021

By Ron Slyker

Solid organization security is a considerable necessity in today’s world—that’s not going to come as a surprise to anyone. Nonetheless, making and keeping an impenetrable organization is something that stays a slippery objective for some enterprises. Organizations of all sizes are continuously struggling with the battle of guaranteeing that each potential security gap is sealed securely.

Most organizations are coming up short with attempting to guard their organizations, making them defenseless against data theft and malicious network invasion. To feature exactly how genuine this issue is we will diagram five of the main manners by which endeavors are accidentally bargaining their organization security, and exactly how they can fix these oversights.

Sole reliance on VPNs as a security bandage

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) assume a significant part in most security procedures for security efforts as they are acknowledged broadly to be the most ideal approach to secure the data ecosystem of a business. However, the greater part of these VPNs are vulnerable, outdated, and have demonstrated to add to most major cyberattacks. Interestingly, VPNs have been in the network safety market for more than two decades, which is viewed as antiquated by industry norms.

This dated technology hinders firewall rule sets, neuters protection systems and intrusion detection, and adds to the intricacy of appropriately getting and regulating networks. A superior option in contrast to the risk-laden VPN technology is Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP) technology. The incredible thing about SDP is that it is a clear, zero=trust framework that secures network access, reduces overhead cost, and neutralizes adversaries. It has a healthier security profile than VPNs because VPN technology is antiquated and will continue to present major risks to organizations. To better manage and reduce their cyber risk, businesses should retire and replace VPNs with the more economical, reliable, and valuable SDP technology.

Outdated/poor network architecture

Many businesses unwittingly jeopardize their network security by failing to properly segment and architect their networks. Failure to segment assets based on security needs may expose an enterprise to threats across all of its data. The issue may arise from the business side rather than the technology side, as the business may not have known what types of information need more safe protections on an operational level.

When network assets are not properly and safely segmented, there is no way of knowing how traffic can flow between high and low sensitive areas. Since there are no checks and balances in place, this is the case. There are really no gateways or firewalls to monitor the flow of information from low-security to high-security areas. Businesses should determine what information is most sensitive to the company when segmenting these assets, and then establish security zones that provide adequate protection for high-risk data.

Sole reliance on one solution to patch exposures

It is insufficient for businesses to recognize a hole and after the fact purchase equipment, hardware, or software widgets to fill those breaches. Security experts are relied upon to manage occasions that undermine their organization security and execute constant testing to guarantee the device being referred to does not become compromised. Otherwise, the association will squander its valuable and insufficient security budget.

Purchasing a solution without deploying rules for assurance testing is inefficient, yet so are evaluating and installing the solution and conducting employee training only after a breach. The worst part is that even without continuous management, having only one solution is at most offering a false sense of security as it claims that the organization is fully protected against tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) addressed.

Not ensuring adequate IoT and OT protection

When it comes to IoT and operational technology protection, the most common blunder is failing to conduct continuous network security monitoring in order to rapidly detect unwanted or anomalous activity. Since you can’t put agents on IoT/OT computers, they’re often unmanaged and unnoticed by IT, so you’d need agentless network monitoring to analyze traffic and search for anomalies. Most IoT/OT devices are considered soft targets because they are often unpatched, vulnerable, and come with default credentials and a plethora of open ports that provide an easy way for attackers to gain access to corporate networks.

They will then begin stealing intellectual property and trade secrets, deploying malware to disrupt operations, and even causing serious safety and environmental accidents, potentially exposing the company to legal liability. A multi-layered IoT/OT security approach requires more than just continuous threat monitoring. To enforce zero-trust, micro-segmentation policies, you’ll also need to conduct auto-discovery to figure out what IoT/OT devices you have and how they communicate with one another.

Failure to anticipate emerging threats

Enterprises need to prepare ahead and have expertise to remain one step ahead of network attackers. As a result, it is critical to recognize the most likely threats, as well as the staff and data that would be attacked. It is important that you remain up to date on security prevention measures and keep the company’s applications up to date with patches and updates.

It is also a good idea to use a threat intelligence service to pinpoint threats and prevent or reduce the amount of time persistent threats spend in the network architecture. If a violation goes undetected in an organization’s IT structure for a long time, the negative effects will multiply.

Filed Under: Topics, Information security, articles Tagged With: Technology, cybersecurity

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