How to Secure a Business Network

Modern businesses will face threats from multiple avenues, especially when that business has remote workers, cloud storage, or relies heavily on technology.

That’s why it’s important for these types of businesses to understand what network security is, why it’s important, and what they can do to reduce their vulnerability.

What Is Network Security for Businesses?

Network security for businesses concerns any protocols, procedures, or activities designed to protect the network from bad actors and ensure it remains safe for end users.

How Does It Work?

Properly securing a business’ network involves a multi-faceted cybersecurity strategy that includes features like access management, endpoint protection, next-gen antivirus software, password management, workforce education, and much more.

Each of these aspects of the strategy work together to strengthen the others and result in effective business network security.

Steps to Secure a Business Network

Here are a few steps a business can take to help secure their network.

Educate Employees on Cybersecurity Threats, Best Practices and, Protocols

Organization-wide education in cybersecurity best practices is a crucial step toward securing a business’ network because 95% of threats can be traced to user error.

Clicking on dangerous links, opening attachments, and downloading unverified software are all examples of how users can unwittingly invite malicious actors into a business network and cause a data breach.

Businesses should be conscious of their employees’ ability to prevent breaches and their susceptibility to social engineering techniques.

Ensure your workforce is properly educated on:

• Potential threats
• Your organization's cybersecurity protocols
• How to create strong passwords
• Updating software frequently

Have a Backup Plan

Unforeseen circumstances can throw a wrench in the best laid plans.

It’s important every business has a plan for these situations in the form of data backup and recovery to ensure nothing important is lost and that operations can be back up and running instantly. If a business experiences a service outage or is hacked, a backup and recovery plan reduces downtime, saves money, and preserves crucial data.

Update Your Software

Software developers are constantly updating their products—such as anti-virus, firewalls, operating systems, apps—with new security measures that secure old vulnerabilities and reduce errors in the code.

If your software isn’t kept up to date, you’re putting your network at risk and introducing an entirely preventable situation.

Old versions of software have been scoured by bad actors who find and seek out vulnerabilities, if you keep these outdated versions active on your devices, hackers know exactly where to look to find a way in.

Stay Up to Date on the Latest Threats

Cybercriminals are constantly changing up the ways in which they attempt to steal information or penetrate a network.

Make sure your entire organization is updated on these threats so that everyone knows what to look out for and how to avoid falling victim to these scams.

Consistent cybersecurity education is highly recommended in this case as an educated workforce can be a massive aid in the overall security of a business.

Security professionals should also be confident in their knowledge of what threats they’re facing and their ability to contain new and emerging attack vectors into their network.

Types of Business Network Security Solutions

In order to execute the steps we talked about above, a business needs access to top-of-the-line security features and solutions, like:

Endpoint Security

With the rise of remote work and cloud solutions, there are more devices (endpoints) connected to your network than ever before.

Each of these new devices—phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, printers, even smart fridges—presents a potential weakness if they aren’t properly secured.

Endpoint security is the set of security protocols designed to protect your endpoint devices from becoming the source of a breach.

Identity & Access Management

Easily manage your network’s authorized users and their level of access to certain information and data with identity and access management services.

This makes it easier for your cybersecurity team to identify unauthorized use or access and pinpoint who, where, why, and how the network might’ve been breached.

Network Security Monitoring

Cyberattacks can happen at any moment which is why it’s important to have constant network security monitoring so you can spot a potential threat and react quickly and effectively to stop it before it escalates into anything worse.

Backup & Disaster Recovery

Be ready for anything with a backup plan that preserves your data and helps get your business back up and running quickly after any kind of outage.

Why Businesses Choose to Partner With MSSPs for Business Network Security

Properly securing a business network involves a lot of moving parts with consistent hardware and software updates and ever-evolving threats, technology, and strategies. To stay secure, there’s no time to rest on your laurels.

Keeping up with it all can be a daunting task for small or over-burdened IT or cybersecurity teams who may lack the knowledge to tackle such a variety of tasks.

Related Post: What to Expect In an MSP Partner

Whether you have an in-house team or no security team at all, partnering with a managed security service provider allows businesses who can’t afford or don’t have the time to build and maintain a complete internal team with a fully-fledged team of cybersecurity experts at their disposal.

MSSPs have specialists in every facet of cybersecurity who can assess a business’ needs, build a tailored strategy, and implement that strategy with long-term management to ensure everything works, is updated and is ready to fight future threats.

In Conclusion

Securing a business network means building a fully-fledged cybersecurity strategy that covers all the bases from device management to software upgrades to access control.

The number of layers involved can be overwhelming to small or inexperienced internal teams, but partnering with an MSSP can alleviate these issues because they provide all the expertise, tools, strategies, and management that you need to stay secure.

Do you have questions about how an MSSP like DOT Security can help secure your business’ network? Contact us to speak with one of our experts and discover how we can help you today.