Expert Advice and Tips to Secure Network Infrastructure

As the world is fighting one of its worst pandemics in a long while, the digital microcosm has seen a rise in cyber attacks that are more sophisticated than before and organisations have seen their security been compromised frequently.

There sure are grave questions like, “What do you need to do, to keep your network safe from an attack”, staring back at security and IT experts across the world. Today, it is one of the most difficult questions to answer, since, with all our experience in cybersecurity we can tell that no amount of strategy or planning can keep a business 100% fortified against cyberattacks.

However, the risk of a breach or fallout from a cyber attack can be reduced significantly by taking a few highly critical steps to secure the business’ network infrastructure.

Conducting a Security Audit

By definition, a security audit is a process by which a business can scrutinize the network security policy and the various assets they have on their network to access if they have any potential flaws that can be exploited by threat actors leading to a security incident affecting the continuity of business.

Such audits are usually done by external conductors; however, larger organizations have an internal cybersecurity team that takes care of this process on their own.

Multiple review processes are covered under a comprehensive audit –

• Identification of Assets – This review determines what kind of assets are on the networks along with more information on them like, what kind of an operating system do they run on. Having knowledge of what asset is on the network is highly vital to understanding potential weaknesses. These weaknesses can be at times fixed with solutions like updating with its latest security patch.

• Firewall – It is important to understand what kind of firewall solutions are in place and where are they located on the network since some can be located at the perimeter and some can be located in between individual servers/assets. It is also important to check if the firewall configurations are up to date and free of conflicts or they can be manipulated by a threat actor.

• Security Policies – A review of the standard each and every employee follows to secure the data of the company is done. Does the organization have a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy at work and if they do, then how are the security policies enforced?

To keep the organization's data highly secure, a review of the security policies and procedures is a must. With the current situation, having security policies becomes important towards securing sensitive data.

• Assessment of Risk – After Identification of all the existing assets and a thorough review of the security policies and procedures, the organizations would know, what are the most significant threats that they need to take care of at the earliest.  Assessment of Risk helps businesses prioritize their cybersecurity efforts to close their biggest shortcomings first.

A security audit is a crucial first step that helps in discovering any potential vulnerability that exists in the network and could be exploited.

Based on the security audit, organizations can then prioritize on which of the following steps can be taken based on the risk they have identified. Due to COVID-19, the nature of an audit might change since most of the employees are working from home due to the countrywide lockdown.

Cybersecurity Awareness

We have time and again mentioned that the weakest link in a cybersecurity strategy is the Human Element, especially when there is a lack of awareness regarding cybersecurity and its practices among them.

Employees who are unaware of the various ways a cyber attack is conducted can fall prey to phishing attacks, downloading viruses and malware to their computers or using a password that makes it easier for hackers to hack their systems.

Knowledge is the biggest security gap in a workforce and cybersecurity training works towards addressing that. It helps the employees understand what the risks are and how to stay vigilant while being able to identify basic phishing methods.

There have already been various instances where COVID-19 has been used as a theme to carry out a phishing attack, this also can be avoided with awareness about methods. This can help secure the Human element of the security chain of an organization.

The policy of Least Privilege  The answer is, by applying Policy of Least Privilege to every user account on the network.

According to the Policy of Least Privilege, user's accounts on the network are restricted to having access to the minimum levels which is required to complete the core function of their tasks and responsibilities at work. This helps in reducing the danger of an insider threat since the network assets would be isolated from one another.

Since the access would be limited, the organization can limit the amount of data that can be compromised without having a breach of other defences which give the Intrusion Detection System (IDS) more time to detect an abnormality in the activity of certain users.

Patch Management

One of the most exploited vulnerabilities in a network is the use of unpatched software. Hence, organizations should always devote time into finding and fixing security flaws in their systems and software’s so they do not give hackers a way past their defences.

While many still worry about Zero-day exploits, the most frequently used exploits are the ones that involve older, known security issues that have fixed available and yet not applied.

Consequently, one of the top priorities after a security audit is conducted it is essential to look at the software’s installed on all the assets existing on the network and make sure that they have the most recent security patches installed.

If there is certain software that is no longer supported by the developer then it is time to replace it with a newer version that is updated on its protection or find an alternative that serves the same needs without compromising on the protection.

Reviewing the Cybersecurity Tools

This step is essential in finding if the organization is having the right tools to sufficiently mitigate the network's cybersecurity risks. It is not necessary to pick every tool that is available at a security personnel’s disposal, however, tools that cover the basics needed for migrating risks and covering regulatory obligations specific to an organizations industry.

The security audit would help decision-makers from organizations to select on which cybersecurity tool that can be added to their network infrastructure. The audit would also help determine network assets and individual cybersecurity tools that can be used to good effect to stop various threats from the digital universe.

Govind Rammurthy- MD & CEO- Mircroworld Technologies Inc.

With an increasing number of businesses opting to take their everyday operations digital, the risk to data security has increased exponentially. Hence, following the above steps in the time of COVID-19 has become increasingly necessary.

Last, but not the least, security measures for WFH

Work from home has become a mantra these days.  And, from the situation evolving, this might remain in force at least till the end of this year.

The most important aspect of WFH is obviously giving access to sensitive internal resources to team members so that work can happen.  To accomplish this, eScan has come out with its Two Factor Authentication (2FA) module, which can help organizations to ensure that access to any internal assets can be safely provided.