A Beginners Guide To Network Security

Since its inception, the internet has become a crucial part of our daily lives. There are billions of active users each day who rely on their devices to link them with the rest of the world for a variety of social, personal, and professional activities.

You’d think that having open access to such advanced technology would be an overtly good thing. But that isn’t always the case.

As technology advances, there are millions of hackers and network intruders out there working doubly as hard to crash through all security measures. This means it can often be difficult to stay completely safe while using the internet.

If you want secure online activity, you must learn more about network security.

What Is Network Security?

Network security is a broad term that encompasses many devices, technologies, and processes. It’s essentially a set of rules that are designed to protect the confidentiality and integrity of computer systems that employ software and hardware technologies.

Every modern organization requires some type of network security solution if only to ward off cyber threats. Just a few minutes without these preventative measures provides the opportunity for widespread disruption and damage to occur to the organization’s reputation.

The complex nature of today’s network architecture creates an ever-changing technological environment where cyber threats and hackers can get to work by finding and then exploiting specific vulnerabilities. Such vulnerabilities exist in data, users, applications, and locations.

Types Of Network Security

There are a few different components that work to secure your network. Here are some of the most important ones.

Access Control

To prevent potential attacks you must have the means to block unauthorized devices and users from gaining access to your network. Those with permitted access should only work with a particular set of resources.

Authentication

This is an authorization method that verifies all users entering and exiting the network. It has many complex layers of security including two-factor authentication, a username, a password, and even three-factor authentication on some sites.

Behavioral Analytics

Knowing what your typical network behavior and patterns are is an essential part of catching network breaches or abnormalities as they occur. You can use behavioral analytics tools to automatically identify these patterns.

Firewall Protection

This is a service or device that acts almost like a gatekeeper; making the decision on what can enter and leave the network. A firewall utilizes a pre-determined set of rules to either allow or block traffic. Firewalls can be software, hardware, or a combination of the two.

Intrusion Prevention System

These systems scan all network traffic to identify and then block cyberattacks. However, you will also need some hardware and software tools to safeguard your network security. This may include firewalls, web scanners, an intrusion detection system, and also network penetration testing.

All of these software and hardware solutions work to identify vulnerabilities within your network and fix them before they are exploited.

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

A VPN encrypts the connection between an endpoint and a network. This then authenticates communication from a particular device to a secured network, creating an encrypted tunnel for the user across the internet.

Why Do We Need Network Security?

In terms of network security, we may sometimes work in a state of denial that anything could go wrong. This remains especially true for the internet, which has become an essential part of our daily lives.

From sending emails to scrolling through social media and going on a shopping spree, we use the internet for just about everything. This is all data that we would rather be kept private. We will typically assume that this type of data is safe, but that isn’t always the case.

This is because hackers are always on the lookout to find, steal, and expose this private information for their own gain. A hacker will exploit any weak links they need to gain access to your system. This could include passwords to accounts, particular assets, or even your location.

So, taking preventative steps to ensure that your systems are fully protected against any type of cyberattack is absolutely essential. Especially if you want to continue using the internet without a problem.

Summary

Network security can often seem like an overly difficult step to take in guaranteeing your safety while using the internet. After all, there are lots of things to know, set up, and remember about the different pieces of software you can use. Nowadays, with so many hackers, making your network secure is an absolute must.