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The Easiest Ways To Improve Your Network Security

By | Craig Middleton

It is no small surprise that a vast majority of business is conducted on the Internet. However, what does surprise many people who own and operate companies online is how important network security actually is in the modern age. New and increasingly dangerous threats are constantly appearing and pose major issues to companies and their assets. What’s more, it isn’t only the largest companies that are being targeted. Even smaller businesses can fall prey to hackers and other criminals who know how to exploit gaps in a network’s defenses, especially if a smaller business doesn’t have as high-end security systems in place as a large corporate company.

To keep your business safe and protected, you need to take time to improve your current capabilities with your security. This is of the utmost importance to keep your business and employees safe and thriving. Consider these tips and discover how you can increase your protection with just a few easy steps.

Focus on Your Employees

The best way to get started on this task is by focusing on your employees. The people who work for you are the ones responsible for the daily operations of your company. This means that these are the people most likely to encounter, cause, or solve problems related to the security of your network. Whatever changes or adjustments you make to security processes needs to be clearly communicated to each and every member of your team. Doing this ensures that all of your employees are always following the correct and updated guidelines.

Team meetings can be a pain in the neck for most employees, but some serve an important purpose. An initial meeting about security practices should be held with all members of the company. Following this, changes and updates that are made can easily be communicated through less involved processes like a memo or email chain. The most important part of this is to inform everyone of crucial changes in order to limit the odds of a simple mistake from miscommunication causing lasting problems.

Be Diligent and Monitor Flow

This should go without saying, but you need to be careful when it comes to opening emails. Though cyber attacks have been happening by way of electronic mail for as far back as the history of the internet goes, the average person is still likely to open messages from unknown senders at work because he or she assumes it is important. However, hackers and other criminals rely on this susceptibility. If you encourage your employees to be diligent and follow your own advice, it can help immensely.

Another way to pay more attention to pressing concerns is by focusing on the flow of traffic through your network. Monitoring this can be wildly useful to spotting problems on the network in advance and pinpointing the source of most of these issues. Programs like netflow are designed to help you better keep track of the flow of traffic through your network. By breaking down this data in a sensible way, you can begin to develop a strategy that increases your overall sense of protection.

Don’t Forget Associated Devices

While you might spend most of your time and energy focused on increasing the security of your internal devices, there are other threats of which to keep aware. These days, everyone relies on phones and personal devices to stay connected to the world at large. While your employees might have laptops, computers, and tablets to use throughout the work day, it is likely that these people are also bringing along their personal phones and connecting to your network to do some shopping or socializing. While not a huge threat, this is still a point of concern.

Someone opening a corrupted file while connected to the company network through a personal device can create a serious domino effect in no time. Before you know it, the entire company is fighting malware and scrambling to protect financial assets and data. To avoid this, enforce strict rules when it comes to how and when personal devices can connect to the company network. Having a separate wifi network for employee use with key restrictions can be a useful way to limit the odds of a disaster.

Take Time and Form a Plan

Though network security is a pressing matter, you don’t need to rush to find a solution. Make sure to take your time and formulate a strategy that meets the demands of your business and keeps your company safe

 

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