How To Use Network Segmentation for Enhanced Network Defense

Cybersecurity and network defense are the most discussed topics in 2018. While you can use traditional methods, having some network server monitoring software will help save your business time and money.

Fortunately, we’ve come up with 3 different techniques to ensure your network is safe. Through these methods, you’ll find it easier to manage your network and protect it from inside and outside threats.

Data Access

This will boil down to the needs of your business. Who needs access to financial systems or human resources? Who needs to administer the switches or routers? How many people should have access to the security cameras? Be strict; if there’s no business need, then there should be no user access.

Organizations that work on a regional or local domestic level might want to implement blocking of remote geographic regions within the IP layer. In general, create a deny access for every VLAN.

Your network server monitoring software’s goal is to limit access to important information to only those who need it within the organization. And the software must create roadblocks to stop or slow intruders, who might have surpassed one layer of security, from causing any further damage.

Create Segmentation

Network segmentation is important for large organizations. While it’s a long-term project, every step along the way increases the security. You have to start somewhere, preferably with Windows servers and network administrators. In this case, you can create VLANs called network devices (for switches and routers) and network-admins (for the workstations).

Log the traffic segments to find out what is important and what is needed for proper functioning. Once you’ve determined what’s necessary, block access to the VLANs from every other side of the system, with the main goal of default deny.

Make sure that your team has the controls needed to enforce network segmentation. Then, monitor what changes to access will compromise the segmentation. Repeat this process through each group of data, personnel, and assets.

Maintain Your Network

Network segmentation is not a one-time undertaking. Your network policy, which is defined in routers, firewalls, and other related devices, changes constantly to meet your new business requirements.

Ensuring that these new changes don’t violate your network segmentation strategy will require automation and visibility (even though visibility is useful to avoid business disruption and outages due to misconfiguration).

The management that’s overhead that’s needed to maintain the network, is one of the reasons why businesses tend to shy away from it. But, having a good management system for your network is critical. Having a topology network security solution that can help you automate this process is vital.

Conclusion

Network segmentation is a powerful defense system but will require a lot of effort to keep it running. Organizations that use it must be prepared to manage routers, switches, and firewalls, each with a multitude of rules, all that are directly affected by the network segmentation process, and through updates and changes, even after it’s set in place.

While it can be a rigorous process, its better to equip your organization with a strong defense via network segmentation than to explain to your shareholders, media, and followers how hackers were able to steal millions of records placed in your system.