The founders occasionally forget about implementing important fundamentals of security and start running after shining technology. The security budgets are limited, so they need to be sure about covering highest breach areas before moving onto other things.
IBM reported that more than a billion personal data was stolen and leaked in 2014 alone, which made it the highest recorded number in the last 18 years. Criminals are always a step ahead of the existing security systems. So companies should have best strategies and practices for enterprise security.
So how do we ensure to have the best security systems? It all has to do with having a solid foundation, which starts with these basic practices.
Strong Firewalls
Firewalls are the first line of defense for any enterprise. It basically controls the flow of the data and decides the direction of flow of data. The firewall keeps harmful files from breaching the network and compromising the assets. The traditional process for implementing firewalls is at the external perimeter of the network, but to include internal firewalls is the popular strategy. This is one of the best practices of companies by making it the second line of defense to keep unwanted and suspicious traffic away.
Securing Router
Routers are mainly used to control the flow of the network traffic. But routers do have security features too. Modern routers are full of security features like IDS/IPS functionality, quality service and traffic management tools and strong VPN data encryption features. But very few people use IPS features and firewall functions in their routers. To have improved security posture companies need to use all the security features of routers.
Secured Email
It is highly common to receive emails from the suspicious sources. The email is the main target for the criminals. An 86 percent of the emails in the world are spam. Even if the latest filters are able to remove most of the spam emails, companies should keep updating the current protocols. If the no, of spam emails are large, then it only means the company is at greater risk of getting malware.
Updating Programs
To make sure your computer patched and updated is a necessary step if you are going towards fully protected enterprise. If you can’t maintain it right, then updating already installed applications is an important step in enterprise security. No one can create 100 percent perfect applications, but one can make changes accordingly trying to keep it with the pace. Thus, making sure your application is update will let you know the holes programmer has fixed.
Securing Laptops and Mobiles
You may wonder that why securing laptops and mobiles is in the list. But it is true that securing laptops and mobile phones that contain sensitive data of enterprises. Unlike desktop computers that are fixed, laptops and mobiles are portable and thus are at higher risk of being stolen. Making sure you have taken some extra steps to secure laptops and mobiles is as important as implementing strong firewalls. Encrypting laptops and mobiles with the help of softwares is a great tactic to be followed for secured enterprises.
Wireless WPA2
This is the most obvious feature of all. If companies aren’t using WPA2 wireless security, then they need to start using it. Many methods of wireless security are insecure and can be compromised in minutes. If companies have wireless WPA2 installed, then it will be difficult to breach for criminals.
Web Security
Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report stated that the attacks against web applications in the recent years have increased at an alarming rate, with over 51 percent of the victims. Simple URL filtering is no longer sufficient, as attacks are becoming more frequent and complex. The features that need to be considered for web security systems are AV Scanning, IP reputation, Malware Scanning, and data leakage prevention function. A web security should have the ability to correctly scan the web traffic.
Educating Employees
Making sure that employees are educated about safe and online habits is as crucial as securing enterprise with top class anti virus and firewalls. Educating employees about what they are doing and how to be pre-defensive is more effective than expecting IT security staff to take steps later. Because protecting end users against themselves is the most difficult thing to do. So, employees must understand how important it is to keep company’s data safe and the measures they can take to protect it.
While the world is approaching with more and more cyber theft and crimes, these simple and standard tools based foundation of enterprise security can protect the companies from such attacks.