Don’t leave your business exposed with poor LAN security!
The threat to your network is growing, leaving your business exposed and weakened. Here we take a look at those threats and how LAN security is evolving to address them.
Whether they know it or not, most organisations have experienced the pain and financial impact of network compromises. The end result can vary greatly, ranging from a tarnished reputation to huge financial loss as a result of penalties or compromised competitive information. Whatever the impact, cyber criminals, viruses, spam, trojan horses and worms to name but a few, are increasing in numbers and strength, meaning that a robust LAN is no longer a desirable option but an essential part of any IT strategy.
Here at IP Integration, we know the importance of effective information and infrastructure security and recently attained the ISO 27001 accreditation. It is important for us to protect our own information but also to maintain the confidence of our customers when doing business.
360° Threat Landscape
Today’s security threat landscape is 360° in nature, with 70% of data breaches in 2010 resulting from external parties, and 48% being caused by insiders such as employees or business partners. The increase in mobility technology such as PDA’s and Smart Phones means that the boundary of your network is no longer as clearly defined as it once was. Threats can take the form of malware, hacking, social engineering, human error and physical or environmental breaches. To battle this changing landscape, infrastructures require an end-to-end adaptive security strategy that combines technology and policy.
Threat Mitigation
There are numerous hardware and software security appliances available today that can help suppress the latest and greatest security threats. However, introducing security products in isolation can lead to increased OPEX and impede user experience and productivity. A unified security platform that combines centralised authentication, authorisation and accounting with remediation technology to enforce patches and software compliance, should be the end goal of all organisations.
86% of information security victims in 2010 had evidence of the breach in their log files, so it is important to combine this with a comprehensive network management system (NMS) that can help identify risks through centralised logging and event monitoring. This can also provide configuration provisioning and backup, so that if your network is compromised you have the information necessary to identify the threat, as well as the tools to recover from one.
It is important to remember the delicate balance between security compliance and technical complexity though. When approaching infrastructure security, IP Integration takes the effort to fully understand every element of your business before recommending technology products. We address not only the technology layers, but the political and human impacts too, whilst at the same time always ensuring that end users get a consistent, secure, high quality experience.
IP Integration can help you achieve these security objectives. Please call 0800 316 6670 or email connection@ipintegration.com to find out more.
Facts and stats sourced from “2010 Data Breach Investigations Report - a study conducted by Verizon RISK team in cooperation with the United States Secret Service”
http://www.verizonbusiness.com/resources/reports/rp_2010-data-breach-report_en_xg.pdf