How do you stay ahead of network security threats?

There’s this popular saying “Safety is no accident.” This saying applies to cyber or network security. Organization needs to stay prepared and conscious all the time when it comes to security.. Many numbers of organizations still get breach even with all the security controls because there’s no preparation… Here’s my advice in preparing to mitigate network threats or combat it: Implement appropriate security measures or practices. Don’t leave the controls unchecked because you feel like the controls should work perfectly since it’s costly. Monitor the system, network and controls regularly. Education is also an effective way. Training you staff is very important. Build a good security culture that suits your organization.

Trust me when I say that nearly everyone takes this point for granted. We regularly update our client devices at least once a quarter (if not monthly). When asked why, all we have to do is point out an exploit attempt in the system logs on a firewall that happened two days after we updated it. Easily prevented a multi-million dollar event and having to implement disaster recovery. Good security hygiene pays for itself so many times over.

Staying ahead of network security threats demands vigilance and adaptability. Begin by monitoring network traffic and deploying intrusion detection systems to identify anomalies and potential breaches in real-time. Regularly updating and patching systems, software, and hardware is crucial to mitigate known vulnerabilities. Educate your team about the latest threat trends and best practices through ongoing training and awareness programs. Utilize threat intelligence sources and information sharing within the industry to gain insights into emerging threats. Conduct regular security audits, penetration tests, and maintain an incident response plan to swiftly address and recover from potential breaches.

Encryption and authentication are fundamental pillars of network security, safeguarding data and ensuring only authorized individuals or devices can access it. Recent trends include a focus on post-quantum cryptography to counter the threat of quantum computers, multi-factor authentication for enhanced security, and the adoption of the Zero Trust model, which requires strong authentication and encryption for all network interactions. End-to-end encryption is gaining ground for protecting data privacy in messaging apps. Bio-metric authentication methods, like facial recognition and fingerprint scanning, continue to advance.Staying updated with the latest trends and technologies in these areas is crucial to protect against cyber threats.

Think of encryption as a secret language that only you and your data can speak. Authentication is like a doorkeeper that makes sure only the right people can get in or out of the network. Together they keep your information away from snoops and hackers. Protocols and technologies, like SSL, TLS, VPN and SSH, that help you have private conversations on the network. But don’t forget, that the online security world is always evolving, so you have to stay on top of the latest changes. You also have to balance being safe and being easy in this digital world.

First, think about your goals : what do you want to protect ? Authentication and cryptography are just means to reach the aim.

Monitoring network activity is crucial. You may have spent large amounts of time coming up with the perfect security configurations. You could have done everything in your ability to harden your entire network. Despite this, nothings full proof. There will always be attackers out there spending countless hours to find new ways to attack. That’s why it’s so important to monitor your network, so you can properly respond and remediate an unexpected problem before it does irreversible damage. In my experience monitoring has saved us countless times from potential threats just by noticing anomalies, things that didn’t seem right. That can be the difference between a close call and an incident.

In contribution to educating your users, it is also important to educate your junior professionals especially when working in an organization where you are in that pedastal. This can be done by constantly contributing to the knowledge of the junior professionals, creating post mortem to incidents which will be used each time you are not around, encouring other professionals to horn their skills through labs and certifications. Since the security landscape is constantly evolving, I am sure these implementation will put an organization the trajectory of staying ahead in their security posture.

We have reached a stage in security tech where in an environment by a fairly competent IT team, the human factor is the weakest link. Industry reports from multiple sources between 2020-2022 highlight that the majority (~90%) of data breaches occur due to compromised credentials, and that phishing remains a significant origin of compromise. End user education is now a mandatory aspect of IT security. At the end of the day, most business operations rely on people to make critical decisions and actions. It may even be a good investment to consider placing staff in non-tech positions that have some sort of tech knowledge, as they will better understand why your IT policy requires certain controls.

Very often, organizations got off the wrong start in cybersecurity by investing in very expensive tools, but forgetting or ignoring the user training and process governance. In the end, the investment resulted in nil value, because of various human factors (resistance, ignorance, no-knowledge, no clear process / inconsistent governance). The very first step that every organization should do is to educate their people, and then establish consistent and good process governance. Only after those steps, then they can invest in the tools. It is like the old samurai adage: "a sword is as good as the person wielding it". A tool is only as useful as the skill of the users using it.

A robust backup and recovery plan is of paramount importance for network security, particularly in the face of evolving threats such as ransomware. It ensures data and system restoration in the event of cyberattacks or failures, minimizing potential data loss. Modern ransomware protection methods include air-gapped backups, continuous monitoring, anomaly detection, and immutable storage solutions. Such strategies not only aid in recovery but also in maintaining business continuity and meeting regulatory requirements.

I feel it would be better to suggest intelligence gathering and CTI here depending on the organisations resources. If you are high risk you need to know global trends. Novel threats and active groups and their TTP's. - Intelligence - SOC - VAPT - GRC This provides a holistic model for assurance against compromise. It can be costly. However it is cheaper than ransomware payout and destroyed reputation.

Considering the sheer amount of resources that attackers are able to put into developing and executing attacks, it makes sense to adopt a network security approach treating every system as if it has already been compromised. Also known as Zero Trust, this method of securing network communications significantly reduces the ability and effect an attacker can have once they have already penetrated your network. Building defense in depth is a model that still works, but only if you take it further from the traditional moat and walls model and extend it throughout your network. Host based firewalls configured along the principle of default deny and conditional access are easy first steps to get an organization started along this path.

In the current environment practically it is near to impossible to stay ahead of the Security threats. But what any organisation can do is to make the compromise attempt very costly to the attackers by deploying Defence in Depth effectively.