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Networking Intelligence

Beyond the Firewall: Layered Security Is Your Best Defense

Sometimes I think we security professionals should take a lesson from history.  

Consider, for instance, that Rome was sacked not just because the Goths made it past the outer defenses; but also because Rome itself wasn’t conceived and built for internal defense.

Beyond_the_Firewall_Layered_Security_Is_Your_Best_Defense.jpgThis is a situation I often find mirrored in IT security infrastructures. The fundamental focus is typically on the perimeter: “How best can we keep threats out?” And of course, that’s a great starting point.  

But it’s only a starting point. Today, organizational assets include a broader range of potential attack surfaces and vectors than ever — think Internet-of-things devices and smart mobile endpoints. This situation translates directly into more opportunities than ever for a breach.   

Add to that internal threats from privileged employees, and the swift evolution of both malware and hacker methodology (which often these days includes advanced persistent threats), and the conclusion seems clear.  

Sooner or later, even the most sophisticated security architecture will be breached.

Does that sound defeatist? It shouldn’t. Just because an exploit has succeeded in making its way into the network doesn’t necessarily mean Rome will be sacked!  

Security as a layer cake

Ideally, it should mean that secondary and tertiary layers of the network defense strategy come into play — or even more layers. But it’s also important to develop those layers in a way that reflects best practices, coordinating how they work in a logical and effective fashion.

Often when organizations try to do this, it happens from a technical standpoint, meaning the layers reflect the network assets. For instance, security layers might be conceived like this:

Looks logical, right?  The problem is that it’s harder than it looks to coordinate these layers as a team. Instead, what you often get is a group of disparate network security solutions that work independently from each other. The result is much less effective than it should be.

So let’s try a different organizational design, based on abstract security functions, including:

  • Policies — Optimize the fundamental rules governing the security strategy.
  • Risk management — Determine what kinds of risks exist and how should they be prioritized.
  • Identity and authorization management — Ensure only the right people can access resources, and then with the right privileges.  
  • Configuration management — Track changes to the network over time, particularly security updates.
  • Incident management — Drive a swift and effective response to security events.

Long experience has taught me that a layered strategy of this sort is both easier to implement and integrate, and more likely to secure the organization against threats both known and unknown.

Develop a custom solution

Naturally, this is only a sketch of a beginning of a strategy. If you’d like to collaborate with a security specialist to develop a comprehensive solution, customized for your needs, consider us — Resilient Intelligent Networks.  

We provide comprehensive networking solutions to all of your IT business needs, combining handpicked, top-tier technologies in networking, storage and server architecture, data security and firewall implementation and many other areas. In particular, we’re a partner of Fortinet — the award-winning provider of layered security solutions.

 

To get your FREE cyber-threat assessment and learn more >>

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