Network Security Controls

We all live in a digitalised era where every organization has their identity on the internet. They must focus on protecting the identity because it reflects your company reputation. Network security is any activity that is designed to protect the integrity and usability of your network and data. In simple terms,

“Network security is the process of taking physical and software preventative measures to protect the underlying networking infrastructure from unauthorized access, misuse, malfunction, modification, destruction, or improper disclosure, thereby creating a secure platform for computers, users, and programs to perform their permitted critical functions within a secure environment.”

It should focus on both software and hardware technologies, protection from a variety of threats and effective secured access to the network. Network security uses multiple layers of defences in the network. It will implement policies and controls to secure the network. Authorized users will get the access to the network while blocking the malicious threats or exploits to the network.

What is 5G ?

5G is the fifth generation mobile network which enables higher speeds, low latency, more reliability, network capacity, increased availability and more user experience. There is a huge competition among nations as well as the companies to build 5G networks. Because they know that they can have huge benefits over other competitors by having 5G networks. If we look at previous generations of mobile networks,

• First-generation: 1G delivered analog voice (1980’s)
• Second-generation: 2G introduced digital voice (Early 1990’s)
• Third-generation: 3G brought mobile data (Early 2000’s)
• Fourth-generation: 4G LTE era of mobile broadband (2010’s) 

The first generation mobile networks were built on analog technology which used radio waves. The second generation started to use digital for transmission of data. The third generation gave digital networks a bandwidth boost and helped the smartphone revolution. US initiated to shifting to 4G which resulted in innovations and upgraded networks. Comparison of 4G with 5G technology shows a huge improvement.

Most Recent Cyber Attacks

To say it simply, a cyber attack is a malicious and deliberate attempt by an individual or an organization to breach information systems of another individual or an organization. Every business may be a target of cyberattacks to seek some benefit from disrupting the victim’s network. As former Cisco CEO John Chambers says,

“There are two types of companies: those that have been hacked, and those who don’t yet know they have been hacked.”

Some of the most common types of cyber-attacks are malware, phishing, man-in-the-middle, DoS, SQL injection, zero-day exploits and DNS tunnelling.

Malware is malicious software including spyware, ransomware, viruses, and worms. Malware breaches typically occur when a user in the network clicks a dangerous or risky link that installs risky software. Malware is capable of blocking access to key components of the network, installs harmful software, obtain information, and makes the systems inoperable.

Corporate Network Security

 

Controlling digital access into and out of an organization is an important aspect when we are implementing network security. Most of the medium-scaled and large-scale companies have their presence on the internet and an organization network connected to it. Partitioning boundary of outside internet and the internal network is a critical security measure. We use firewalls to make a controlled barrier to control network traffic in and out of the organizational intranet. Therefore, a firewall can be identified as a,

“A firewall is a network security device, either hardware or software-based, which monitors all incoming and outgoing traffic and based on a defined set of security rules it accepts, rejects or drops that specific traffic”

The firewalls can be used to control what is allowed to traverse from one side to the other. They can be configured to block network traffic to certain destinations. It could be certain IP addresses or service ports. One problem for organizations is to provide access to services for the public through the internet such as web, FTP, email while maintaining tight security of the internal network. The approach used to address such an issue is to use a DMZ (demilitarized zone).

Are You Safe from Ransomware?

 

If you are in around the year 2020 and search the web for ‘fastest growing malware threat’, most probably you will get the first result on ‘ransomware’. This is a prominent threat since the 2000s and they have become sophisticated and growing over the years. Ransomware is a computer malware that encrypts and blocks access to computer files until a ransom is paid. It targets both human and technical weaknesses in an organization to make the systems vulnerable.

Paying the ransom will not guarantee that the encrypted files will be released. Phishing emails with malicious attachments or drive-by downloading (unintended download of computer software from the internet) are commonly used for ransomware attacks. Crypto ransomware is one of the recent forms of malware attacks which spread through social media with the use of social engineering techniques. For example, you may get an email with a password-protected zip file attachment allegedly from a friend or a reputed company. If you open the file, your computer will be infected and restrict access to files.

The top 5 ransomware variants which target companies and individuals are CryptoWall, CTBLocker, TeslaCrypt, MSIL/Sames, and Locky. CryptoWall was the first ransomware variant that only accepted ransom payments in Bitcoin. CryptoWall is primarily spread via spam email but also infects victims through drive-by downloads and malvertising. First ransomware variants to use Tor for its C2 infrastructure (Command-and-control servers are used by attackers to maintain communications with compromised systems within a target network).