Whether you operate a mobile banking service or secure HIPAA compliant video conferencing, network security is integral to many businesses today.
Only when integrity, confidentiality, and availability are all present in a network can it truly be called secure. As the IoT becomes the standard, the complexity of network configuration increases.
The Ultimate Cybersecurity Toolkit for Your Business
Hackers are constantly discovering new methods to identify flaws in systems, making them vulnerable at all times. Devices, apps, data, users, and even physical locations can all present security risks. So without a robust security system, significant financial losses can occur from even the smallest of actions like appending a digital signature online.
In broader terms, “network security” refers to safeguarding all IT assets against threats to their availability, privacy, and integrity. These safeguards include security firewalls, anti-malware, intrusion detection, and data loss prevention tools.
Examples of weaknesses in network security
The capacity to compromise infrastructure, plant malicious software, and steal or even change data depends on some form of vulnerability in a network. Examples of such weaknesses are:
- Incomplete or no encryption of data: This can occur when the software fails to take appropriate security measures prior to transmission or storage.
- SQL injection: This technique enables hackers to spy on queries an app sends to the server.
- Missing authentication: Sometimes the software doesn’t verify the identity of its users or the resources they’re using.
- Additional vulnerabilities: This includes weak passwords, lack of authorization, buffer overflow, forgeries and cross-site scripting, code download without integrity checks, flawed algorithms, URL redirects to malicious sites, and software bugs
3 ways to improve your network security in 2023
So, you’re a chief information security officer (CISO) ready to start planning the company’s security budget for 2023. You may be wondering, “Where do I begin?”.
Before you can make informed decisions about your business’s network security, it’s important to understand these three points.
1. Mobile risks
Mobile attacks are on the rise as people rely more on their devices and apps to access the products and services they need.
The security of customers should be of paramount importance, but there are skilled hackers who will exploit any vulnerability in the system. What’s more, hackers today see handheld devices as a golden opportunity because they store more important data than ever before.
Every company must now take responsibility for the security of its employees’ mobile devices, and we can no longer blindly trust device providers.
2. Verifying users
There is a global dispersion of data, apps, and devices as more businesses turn to modern tools for communication and collaboration. This means that enterprise data and systems must be accessible by users anytime, anywhere, and on any device.
With this, the old method of securing a network by creating an impenetrable perimeter is becoming obsolete. Rapidly replacing traditional approaches to improving security is the ‘zero-trust strategy’.
Security in the zero-trust model is preemptive rather than reactive. With zero-trust security models, people and devices alike are subject to constant authorization and verification.
3. Machine learning
It is considerably easier and more efficient for businesses to enhance their cybersecurity practices by using machine learning, saving money both in the short and long run.
When applied to a huge dataset, machine learning not only creates patterns but also has the ability to manage and capitalize on those patterns via the use of several algorithms. This implies that machine learning is always a step ahead of attacks and can defend them instantly.
As a result of machine learning, cybersecurity systems can learn the habits of hackers, which will help avoid future attacks.
Secure the future
Due to the complexity and ever-evolving nature of cyber security, prioritizing the most pressing risks might seem like an insurmountable challenge. But it is possible to protect your company and clients’ data by establishing clear security procedures and planning ahead.
