A cyber attack can cause substantial damage, including loss of revenue and data breaches that lead to a poor reputation. Network security tools can protect your organization from such attacks by detecting and preventing malware, viruses, and other threats. Password policies are just one entry point hackers can use to access your information. There are many other preventative measures you can take to secure your networks.
Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS)
Unlike an IDS, which detects potential threats and alerts human administrators to act on them, an IPS actively works to prevent the attacks from succeeding. Depending on the solution, this might involve blocking traffic, stopping an attack in its tracks, or intervening to stop a threat before it can cause damage.
IPS technologies operate at the network perimeter, usually at the juncture with external networks. They monitor and analyze network packets in real-time, comparing them to a database of known cyber attack signatures or a model of normal network behavior. If a match is found, the IPS will take action according to predefined formulas.
This can include shutting down traffic to a specific host, stopping communications between peer hosts or quarantining a file. Because IPS technology works in real-time, it can stop attacks that other security tools might miss. It can also limit the lateral communications attackers use to move across a network, preventing them from accessing different systems.
As with IDS, IPS solutions must be frequently updated with the latest exploits and vulnerabilities. This allows the system to perform more effectively and reduces the risk of false positive results (benign packets mislabeled as attacks). It also increases the efficiency of other security tools by filtering out threats before they reach them.
Network Access Control (NAC)
Network access control is one of the types of network security that is the most important preventative measure to protect an organization’s underlying network infrastructure from unauthorized access and other threats. This network security solution is also a great way to minimize cyber attacks and other threats that threaten business continuity, such as ransomware, DDoS attacks, data theft, and hacking.
NAC solutions help prevent cyberattacks by authenticating and monitoring people and devices before they connect to the organization’s network. The automated capabilities of these solutions make them highly efficient at analyzing users and their endpoints to verify they meet security policies before granting access.
Aside from its pre-admission verification capabilities, NAC can also monitor the behavior of devices once they are on a company’s internal network. By assessing the device’s function and qualities, NAC can categorize them into groups and determine what level of network permission is appropriate for each group. NAC can also prevent unnecessary lateral communication between devices by limiting peer-to-peer communications.
Another benefit of NAC is its ability to integrate with other security systems. These integrations can automatically alert an IT team to any dangerous devices on the network by correlating event logs and sending active replies to them. This way, the rogue devices can be isolated and shut down before they become a threat. This allows organizations to maintain high performance and security while ensuring their employees, partners, and customers continue working safely.
Web Filtering
Web filtering software blocks access to specific websites based on IT professionals’ or individual users’ policies. This can help prevent cyber attacks by preventing employees from visiting sites that host malware or have a high risk of malicious activity, such as sites with phishing methods to steal passwords and other sensitive information.
Web filters can also prevent ransomware attacks by blocking access to sites that allow a malicious hackers to execute ‘drive-by downloads’ on their victims’ computers that demand payment in exchange for releasing the data. This type of filtering can be combined with content-based antivirus software that inspects Windows applications and files to protect against unauthorized computer programs (Shadow IT) that could introduce threats to the enterprise network.
All it takes is one employee to click on a phishing link or accidentally download malware to expose the whole company to a cyber attack. Using the right security measures and educating your employees on cybersecurity best practices can reduce their risk of a cyberattack, but some episodes are too difficult to eliminate. Web filtering can help prevent these kinds of attacks by limiting employees’ access to the internet during work hours so they don’t distract themselves with non-work related content and reduce productivity. It can also limit their exposure to ‘Ransomware as a Service’ websites, where hackers offer would-be attackers the tools and infrastructure needed to launch a phishing campaign.
Firewalls
Firewalls help prevent cyber attacks by blocking suspicious traffic from entering a network and monitoring internal data flows. They can be hardware or software and work by filtering data packets (units of communication you send over digital networks) based on pre-established security rules.
A firewall can be a key defense against common types of cyber attacks, such as man-in-the-middle attacks, denial-of-service attacks, botnets, etc. Man-in-the-middle attacks occur when hackers infiltrate two-party transactions to intercept and steal sensitive information. During a denial-of-service attack, bad actors flood servers, systems, or networks with traffic to clog bandwidth and cripple them. In a botnet attack, bad actors take control of remote devices without the owner’s knowledge to access their information and inflict damage.
To protect against cyber attacks, you must also ensure your systems and software are fully current. Keeping up with regular operating system (OS) patches and installing software updates as soon as they become available can reduce your risk of cyber attack. Most operating systems have a built-in firewall feature that should be enabled and used to help defend your network from cyber threats. You can also purchase third-party firewalls from your local computer store or software vendor. A sandboxing firewall can isolate pieces of code associated with incoming data packets and run them in a controlled environment to ensure they aren’t malicious.
