Cybercrime is one of the fastest-growing forms of criminal activity. The global cost of dealing with the damage caused by cybercrime is estimated to reach $6 trillion by 2021, doubling the damage recorded in 2015. According to some reports, the average cost of a cyberattack is more than $1 million, and is also expected to rise. Show As a managed services provider (MSP), it’s more important than ever to ensure you’re providing your customers with the best network security possible. Unfortunately, hackers and cyberattackers are persistent and devious, which means you must proactively leverage networking security tools to establish and maintain an effective line of defense. For this reason, it is especially important for MSPs to help customers understand the importance and necessity of maintaining network security best practices . This piece will provide a rundown of the key things you need to know about the different types of network security tools. Recent attacks against MSPs have underscored the need for strong network security, so if you are already familiar with network security basics, consider this a refresher course to help explain these topics to your customers. What network security types are available?Network security refers to the various countermeasures put in place to protect the network and data stored on or passing through it. Network security works to keep the network safe from cyberattacks, hacking attempts, and employee negligence. There are three components of network security: hardware, software, and cloud services. Hardware appliances are servers or devices that perform certain security functions within the networking environment. Hardware can be installed out of the path of network traffic, or “out-of-line,” but it’s more commonly installed in the path of traffic, or “in-line.” The advantage of this is that in-line security appliances are able to stop data packets that have been flagged as potential threats, whereas out-of-line appliances simply monitor traffic and send alerts when they detect something malicious. Network security software, which includes antivirus applications, can be installed on devices and nodes across the network to provide added detection and threat remediation. Cloud services refer to offloading the infrastructure to a cloud provider. The set-up is generally similar to how network traffic passes through in-line hardware appliances, but incoming network traffic is redirected to the cloud service instead. The cloud service does the work of scanning and blocking potential threats for you before the traffic is allowed onto your network. Every good network security system uses a combination of different types of network security tools to create a layered defense system. The theory behind this strategy is that if a threat manages to slip past one security countermeasure, the other layers will prevent it from gaining entry to the network. Each layer provides active monitoring, identification, and threat remediation capabilities in order to keep the network as secure as possible What are the different types of network security devices and tools?There are quite a few different networking security tools you can incorporate into your line-up of services. The following list is by no means exhaustive, but available security tools can include:
What are the principles of network security?There are three principles within the concept of network security—confidentiality, integrity, and availability—which together are sometimes referred to as the “CIA triad.” A network can only be considered secure when it has all three elements in play simultaneously. Confidentiality works to keep sensitive data protected and sequestered away from where it can be accessed by the average user. This goes hand-in-hand with the principle of availability, which seeks to ensure that data and resources are kept accessible for those who are authorized to access them. Challenges to availability can include DDoS attacks or equipment failure. The principle of integrity seeks to protect information from intentional or accidental changes in order to keep the data reliable, accurate, and trustworthy. Every decision made regarding network security should be working to further at least one of these principles. This means that MSPs need to ask if each decision will ensure that data is kept confidential, that its integrity will be protected, and that it will be made more easily available to those with authorization to access it. Why are these network security concepts so important? Cyberattacks are on the rise, with a recent report from Positive Technologies showing that government and healthcare organizations are becoming prime targets for hackers. The report also shows the goal of more than half of cybercrimes is data theft, and that financial gain was the motivation behind 42% of cyberattacks against individuals—and behind 30% of cyberattacks against organizations. As our world becomes increasingly digitized, we rely more and more on the internet and networks to function. This in turn requires that the internet and networks provide us with reliable and secure service. However, as more of our personal and sensitive data is stored in electronic repositories and archives, hackers are turning their attention to networked systems. For this reason, it is imperative that MSPs and security support personnel offer customers robust security systems that protect data from various threat vectors. Interested in learning more about network security? Explore our product suite to see how you can monitor and prepare for potential threats. |