Quick quiz: What are the best cybersecurity solutions for your company to implement right now? Give yourself a minute to think about your answer.
Guess what? According to statistics cited by Symantec, in that one minute, more than 679 new malware variants may have been created (there were 357 million new malware variants detected in 2016 alone).
With the ever-increasing number of cybersecurity threats out there to deal with, it’s vital that you have the right protections in place. While you may not stop every threat, you can minimize your risks if you have the right cybersecurity solutions. But, which solutions would be the best ones for your company to use right now?
The list of protections that you should use is expansive, but here are some of the most important ones to add to your business’ network security architecture:
1) A Security Patch Management Schedule
Many of the worst data breaches in recent years could have been stopped dead in their tracks if the companies that were targeted hadn’t missed important security patches. While many organizations understandably fear “zero-day” attacks using completely new and unknown security vulnerabilities, the fact is that many successful attacks are carried out using known exploits that have patches or updates that the target simply failed to apply.
Consider, for example, the gargantuan Equifax data breach that occurred in May 2017. As noted in a Wired article, “Equifax has confirmed that attackers entered its system in mid-May through a web-application vulnerability that had a patch available in March.” Basically, Equifax had two months in between being notified of a patch for a security problem and the problem being used against them. Yet, it’s common for much older vulnerabilities to be exploited as well.
By maintaining a rigorous security patch management/update schedule, you can prevent many different kinds of attacks on your network infrastructure.
2) Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS)
While intrusion detection systems might not stop an attack on their own, they’re still crucial technologies for logging intrusion attempts and alerting your cybersecurity response team that a breach has occurred. Without these basic warning systems, hackers could have free reign over your company’s most sensitive data with you being none the wiser.
And, if you cannot prevent a cybersecurity breach, it’s vital that you’re able to study the breach to find out how the attacker got in, what they did, and what they accessed so you can take the right measures to prevent future attacks.
Some detection systems also incorporate automated protective measures to stop an attack in progress. These are referred to as intrusion prevention systems (IPSs), and may offer an extra layer of defense against intrusion attempts.
Another system that could be used to detect intrusion attempts and abnormal activity would be endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions. These systems monitor the individual endpoints in a network (such as individual workstations) for signs of abnormal activity.
3) Managed Cybersecurity Services/Solutions
There are many companies that can work with your business to help you minimize your security risks. Some key services that these managed cybersecurity solution providers may offer include:
- Security Audits and Assessments. A process designed to assess your company’s internal and external security vulnerabilities by utilizing security policy reviews, security architecture reviews, and penetration testing.
- IT Security Staffing. Cybersecurity solutions providers often offer access to dedicated teams of cybersecurity experts with extensive practical experience in managing cybersecurity for enterprise businesses. These staffing services can provide you with instant access to a robust security team for a fraction of the cost of recruiting and hiring a similarly-skilled internal team.
- Security Architecture/Solution Implementations. Managed cybersecurity solutions providers can help you choose and implement new security solutions that will best fill the gaps in your cybersecurity architecture. Typically, this is a multi-stage process involving security architecture reviews and inventories of your IT assets prior to implementation.
Acquiring these kinds of managed cybersecurity services can be a fast way to significantly improve your business’ security posture.
4) Multi-Layered Firewalls and Other Defense-in-Depth Tools
If an attacker makes it into your company’s network, one of your top priorities should be to minimize the damage that they can do. Another should be to slow the attacker down as much as possible until you can cut off their access.
Preparing a defense-in-depth strategy that uses multiple layers of defense to keep all of the different resources in your company’s network isolated from one another is a good way to slow down attackers and limit their access to your company’s most sensitive resources—even after they succeed in breaching your outermost security measures.
To this end, consider adding cybersecurity tools such as “per-app” firewalls that filter traffic requests for each and every application your business runs or individual firewalls for each of the databases or virtualized computing resources on your servers (if you’re using virtual machines on a cloud-based network). The more layers of security that an attacker has to go through to reach all of your company’s resources, the more chances you have to detect and stop them.
These are just a few of the most important cybersecurity solutions that your company could use. There are many more, such as virtual private networks (VPNs) that can help to protect your employees when they remotely connect to your network, antivirus programs (which every endpoint device on your network should have), and application whitelisting/blacklisting security setups that block various access requests.
Each of these tools can have a place in your repertoire of cybersecurity solutions if used the right way. Need help finding and implementing the right cybersecurity protections for your business? Contact Compuquip Cybersecurity for more advice/information on choosing the right solutions for your business!
