Network security must be at the top priority due to the reports of devastating breaches that make headlines and make their way to boardroom conversations. Data manipulation and theft can be expensive and have negative ramifications on the business & its leadership. Thus, having network security protections becomes quite important to stave off these threats.

The most effective approach will be to leverage the Managed IT services that will provide complete cybersecurity solutions. In today’s post, we are going to explore six ways how to improve network security. Let’s check them out in detail below:

 Ways to Improve Network Security:

 

1. Understanding Network Security: Why It Matters

Before diving into actionable steps, it’s essential to grasp the importance of network security. At its core, network security is about implementing measures to prevent unauthorized access, misuse, or damage to computer networks and systems. A breach in network security can have disastrous consequences, ranging from data theft to financial loss, and even irreparable damage to a company’s reputation.

With the increasing sophistication of cyberattacks—such as phishing, malware, ransomware, and DDoS attacks—network security becomes a first line of defense in protecting everything from personal devices to large corporate networks.

2.Start with a Network Security Assessment

Before you can improve network security, you need to know where your vulnerabilities lie. A thorough network security assessment helps identify weak points, potential threats, and areas that need fortification. This can be done by:

• Performing a Vulnerability Scan: Use tools like Nessus or OpenVAS to scan for vulnerabilities within your network.
• Penetration Testing: Hire ethical hackers (penetration testers) to simulate attacks and pinpoint gaps in your defenses.
• Reviewing Past Incidents: If your network has been compromised before, analyze how the breach occurred and take steps to prevent a recurrence.

Regularly conducting these assessments ensures you’re always aware of your network’s security posture and can respond quickly to emerging threats.

3. Strengthen Network Perimeter Defense   

The network perimeter is the boundary between your internal network and the outside world. It is the first line of defense and must be fortified to prevent unauthorized access. Here’s how you can secure the perimeter:

• Firewalls: Firewalls are essential tools that control incoming and outgoing traffic based on a set of security rules. Ensure that your firewall is configured correctly and updated regularly. Modern firewalls offer additional features like intrusion prevention systems (IPS) and deep packet inspection (DPI).
• Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS): These systems monitor network traffic for signs of malicious activity or policy violations. An IDS detects attacks, while an IPS can actively block them. Together, they provide real-time defense against threats.
• Segmenting Your Network: Implement network segmentation to reduce the impact of a potential breach. By dividing your network into smaller, isolated sections, you can limit the reach of an attacker if they compromise one segment.

4. Use Robust Firewall

A firewall is a critical tool for protecting your network from unauthorized access. It acts as a barrier between your internal network and external sources, blocking unwanted traffic and preventing malicious access.

Best Practices:

• Deploy both hardware and software firewalls: A combination of both hardware (on your router or gateway) and software firewalls (on individual devices) provides multiple layers of protection.
• Customize your firewall settings: Make sure your firewall is configured to block incoming connections from untrusted sources and restrict access to only necessary services and applications.
• Monitor firewall logs regularly: Keep an eye on the traffic passing through your firewall. Monitoring for suspicious or unusual patterns can help identify potential security threats early.

5. Encrypt Sensitive Data

Encryption is a critical part of network security, especially when transmitting sensitive data across the network. By encrypting data, you ensure that even if it’s intercepted, it remains unreadable to unauthorized parties. Key areas to focus on include:

• Data in Transit: Use protocols like HTTPS, SSL/TLS, or VPNs to encrypt data transmitted over the network. This protects sensitive information such as login credentials, financial transactions, and personal data from eavesdropping.
• Data at Rest: Encrypt stored data, especially if it contains personally identifiable information (PII), financial data, or intellectual property. Tools like BitLocker (Windows) or FileVault (macOS) can be used to encrypt hard drives or specific files.
• End-to-End Encryption (E2EE): For highly sensitive communications (e.g., messaging apps or emails), consider implementing E2EE, which ensures that only the sender and recipient can read the message content.

6. Regular Software  Updated and Patch Management 

Many cyberattacks exploit known vulnerabilities in outdated software and hardware. Keeping your systems up to date is one of the simplest and most effective ways to improve network security. Here’s how to stay on top of patches and updates:

• Automatic Updates: Enable automatic updates for operating systems, applications, and security software. This ensures that critical patches are installed as soon as they become available.
• Patch Management Systems: For larger organizations, consider using a patch management system to track and manage software updates across the network. This centralizes patch deployment and ensures that no devices are left unprotected.
• Firmware Updates: Don’t forget about firmware updates for networking equipment like routers, switches, and firewalls. Attackers often target outdated firmware to exploit known vulnerabilities.

7.Monitor and Log Network Activity

Proactively monitoring and logging network activity allows you to detect suspicious behavior before it escalates into a full-blown attack. You can implement a variety of monitoring tools to gain real-time insight into your network:

• Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Tools: SIEM solutions aggregate and analyze data from various sources (e.g., firewalls, IDS/IPS, servers) to detect potential security threats. They can trigger alerts when unusual activity is detected.
• Network Traffic Analysis: Tools like Wireshark and SolarWinds can help you analyze network traffic and identify anomalies that may indicate an attack or vulnerability.
• Audit Logs: Maintain comprehensive logs of user activities and network events. Regularly review these logs to identify signs of unauthorized access, unusual login times, or large data transfers that could signal a breach.

8.Educate Employees and Users About Security

Human error is one of the leading causes of security breaches. It’s crucial to educate employees and users about best practices for network security and to create a culture of awareness within your organization.

Best Practices:

• Conduct regular security training: Provide employees with training on identifying phishing emails, using strong passwords, and following secure protocols for data handling.
• Run simulated phishing campaigns: Simulated phishing campaigns help employees learn how to recognize suspicious emails and avoid falling victim to phishing attacks.
• Enforce security policies: Establish clear security policies and ensure that all employees follow them. This may include guidelines for handling sensitive data, using strong passwords, and reporting suspicious activity.

9. Backup Your Data Regularly 

Regular backups are a critical part of any disaster recovery plan. If your network is compromised, having up-to-date backups ensures you can recover quickly without losing valuable data.

Best Practices:

• Automate backups: Use automated backup solutions to ensure your data is backed up regularly without manual intervention.
• Use the 3-2-1 rule: Store at least three copies of your data, on two different types of media (e.g., hard drive and cloud storage), with one copy stored offsite for disaster recovery purposes.
• Test your backups: Periodically test your backups to make sure they are functioning properly and that you can restore your data if necessary.

10. Secure Wireless Network

Wi-Fi networks are often vulnerable to unauthorized access if not properly secured. Securing your wireless network helps prevent attackers from exploiting weak passwords or exploiting known Wi-Fi vulnerabilities.

Best Practices:

• Use WPA3 encryption: Always configure your Wi-Fi network to use the latest security protocols, such as WPA3, which offers stronger encryption and protection against brute-force attacks.
• Change default router settings: Many routers come with default usernames and passwords that are easy to guess. Change these to something more secure.
• Use a separate network for guests: Set up a separate Wi-Fi network for guests to prevent them from accessing your main network where sensitive data may be stored.
• Disable WPS: Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) is a known vulnerability in many routers, so it’s advisable to disable it in your router settings.

11. Responding to Security Incidents 

Even with the best security practices in place, breaches can still occur. Having a robust incident response plan (IRP) is vital to minimizing damage and restoring your systems quickly.

• Develop an Incident Response Plan: Create a comprehensive plan that outlines steps to take when a security incident occurs, such as isolating affected systems, notifying stakeholders, and contacting law enforcement if necessary.
• Assign Roles: Designate specific team members to handle different aspects of the incident response, from IT staff who will handle the technical side to communication teams that will notify external stakeholders.
• Post-Incident Review: After the incident has been resolved, conduct a post-mortem to understand what went wrong, what could have been done differently, and how to improve your security moving forward.

Network security??

Data breaches often come at a hefty cost. And the most expensive item on the list is the trust of users. Once a data leak happens, retaining customers’ trust is very hard. Regulators aren’t easy on the executives either. Thus, the best option is to safeguard and improve your network security.

What is network security policy management?

Network security policy management is the process of creating, implementing and maintaining policies and procedures to protect an organization’s network and data against unauthorized access, use, disclosure and disruption, modification or destruction.

Specific activities include identifying and mitigating security risks, testing and deploying changes to connectivity and security rules, ensuring compliance with relevant laws and regulations and more.

AlgoSec provides the leading solution for simplifying and automating network security policy management across on-premise firewalls, SDNs and in the public clouds.

Its centralized management enables sweeping visibility, effective risk detection and intelligent automation. These capabilities come together to drive stronger security, sustained compliance, reduced risk and faster application delivery – all while cutting manual work, costs, and compliance efforts.

Why do you need firewall and network security management?

Centralized firewall and network security management is essential for preserving a secure, compliant environment – across the devices and workflows in your IT ecosystem.

It’s also fundamental for solving a range of connected issues that generate security risks and non-compliance concerns:

• Technical debt
• Shadow IT
• Inconsistent, redundant and obsolete rules
• Visibility blind spots
• Growing network complexity
• IT personnel changes
• Emerging security vulnerabilities.

A firewall and network security management solution helps you achieve IT security and compliance goals – at scale – through extensive integration options, full-scale visibility and intelligent automation. It keeps your hybrid network safe by providing clear processes for aspects ranging from change management to compliance reporting, and monitors if these processes remain effective as your requirements evolve.

Network security management FAQ

Network security policy management is the process of creating, implementing and maintaining policies and procedures to protect an organization’s network and data against unauthorized access, use, disclosure and disruption, modification or destruction.

Specific activities include identifying and mitigating security risks, testing and deploying changes to connectivity and security rules, ensuring compliance with relevant laws and regulations and more.

AlgoSec provides the leading solution for simplifying and automating network security policy management across on-premise firewalls, SDNs and in the public clouds.

Its centralized management enables sweeping visibility, effective risk detection and intelligent automation. These capabilities come together to drive stronger security, sustained compliance, reduced risk and faster application delivery – all while cutting manual work, costs, and compliance efforts.

What is network security policy management?

Centralized firewall and network security management is essential for preserving a secure, compliant environment – across the devices and workflows in your IT ecosystem.

It’s also fundamental for solving a range of connected issues that generate security risks and non-compliance concerns:

• Technical debt
• Shadow IT
• Inconsistent, redundant and obsolete rules
• Visibility blind spots
• Growing network complexity
• IT personnel changes
• Emerging security vulnerabilities.

A firewall and network security management solution helps you achieve IT security and compliance goals – at scale – through extensive integration options, full-scale visibility and intelligent automation. It keeps your hybrid network safe by providing clear processes for aspects ranging from change management to compliance reporting, and monitors if these processes remain effective as your requirements evolve.

Why do you need firewall and network security management?

Frequently asked questions about network security management and AlgoSec’s network security policy management platform.

How does firewall security management differ from network security management? 

Firewall security management is one of the specialized components of network security management – the practice of ensuring the overall safety of the entire network and its devices. 

Specifically, firewall management involves configuring rules to allow or block specific types of traffic based on factors such as IP address, port and protocol. Network security management covers a wider range of tasks, but both processes are essential for reducing the organization’s attack surface and for effective risk management.

What key role does firewall configuration management play in network security?

The security and exposure of web, email, VPN and database servers, routers, workstations and other devices depend on effective firewall configuration management. That’s because firewalls are responsible for blocking unwanted or malicious traffic (e.g. malware, ransomware, denial-of-service attacks, etc.) and allowing legitimate traffic to pass through.

Besides creating traffic filtering rules, managing firewall configurations also involves securing access, keeping the firewall up to date. And since most regulatory authorities expect organizations to have firewalls as part of their security controls, the effectiveness of firewall configuration management cascades across compliance requirements as well. 

How does network security management help with risk management? 

Network security management activities help identify the sources of IT security risk, apply mitigating measures and monitor the effectiveness of this cycle as the business environment evolves. Specific processes include:

• Identifying potential vulnerabilities (e.g. application connectivity flows, weak credentials, unpatched software, open ports, etc.) through security assessments and penetration testing.

• Prioritizing risks and keeping security teams aligned on which high-impact security threats need fast resolution to avoid breaches and situations of non-compliance.

• Implementing security controls (e.g. firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, encryption, etc.) that strengthen the organization’s security posture.

• Pushing firewall rules to devices so they don’t open security holes and increase exposure to cyberattacks.
• Continuously monitoring the network for evidence of security breaches, (e.g. unusual activity, unauthorized access etc.).

• Applying cybersecurity incident response plans in the event of a successful attack (e.g. isolating affected systems) to avoid or minimize downtime and ensure business continuity.

How can I proactively assess and manage security threats?

Information security offers a range of options to proactively determine and manage security threats across people, processes and technology: 

• Regular security assessments that scrutinize networks, systems and applications to identify vulnerabilities and exposure to cyberattacks. Examples include penetration testing, vulnerability management and threat modeling.

• Multi-layered security through tools such as firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems and antivirus software. Policy and procedures reviews and updates that ensure they remain compliant and effective against bad actors’ evolving tactics.  Network monitoring with real-time notifications to identify signs of compromise such as unusual login and account activity, suspicious or unknown files, and evidence of device tampering. Network log management that documents activity across cloud environments, web applications, endpoints and other systems, creating a trail of examinable evidence.  Threat hunting searches for indicators of compromise from bad actors who may have evaded detection and maintained a covert presence in the network.  Patch management that pinpoints outdated devices and software, delivering necessary upgrades to close security holes and fix known issues. 

• Security awareness initiatives such as training employees and establishing a communication channel they can use to report potential security issues. 

The right technology reduces the complexity of managing multiple security layers and makes the entire process feasible and efficient. For instance, the AlgoSec Network Security Policy Management platform proactively evaluates the impact of proposed policy changes to minimize risk, prevent outages and maintain compliance. Because it also integrates with leading vulnerability scanners, AlgoSec maps security vulnerabilities to their business applications, so you can effectively assess and prioritize risks based on reliable context data. 

Can AlgoSec unify visibility and management across cloud, SDN and on-premise enterprise networks?

IT and security managers who choose AlgoSec to simplify their network environments mention easy integration and comprehensive network insight as their main ROI drivers. That’s because the AlgoSec Network Security Policy Management platform provides full visibility across firewalls and security controls deployed on public and private clouds, as well as SDNs such as Cisco ACI and VMware NSX.

The consolidation it enables makes it easy to:

Have an up-to-date map of all the devices on the network

Understand the information flow between firewalls

Extract information about specific firewall rules

Trim the firewall ruleset – by as much as 90%

Reduce rule project reviews – from 1 month to 1 day according to our customers. Make firewall rule changes in minutes instead of days. 

Can I stay compliant using network security policy management solutions?

Network security policy management solutions are indispensable to technical and business teams that need to coordinate across complex compliance tasks. They provide tangible benefits throughout the security policy management lifecycle:

Automated discovery and visualization 

Real-time network topology updates

Ongoing clean-up and optimization

Automatic security rules documentation 

Continuous compliance checks

Ready-to-use reports. 

An example of this is AlgoSec’s Network Security Policy Management platform, which generates pre-filled, audit-ready compliance reports for industry regulations (e.g. PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOX, ISO 27001, etc.). The AlgoSec solution also enables you to create customized corporate policies, which reduces audit preparation efforts by as much as 80% according to customers.

I want to migrate my applications securely. Can AlgoSec’s Network Security Policy Management platform help me achieve this?

Absolutely! AlgoSec’s Network Security Policy Management platform simplifies the entire process of migrating applications to the cloud or another data center. 

Its easy-to-use, customizable workflows help you automatically bring documentation up to date, clean up firewall rules, generate and push security policy changes to devices and lots more. It also keeps network access and the security policy’s integrity and compliance intact throughout the process. 

Customers mention effective orchestration of all migrations tasks as a core driver for ROI and report reducing rule migration time by 80%. 

What is the typical pricing range for network security policy management solutions?

The cost of network security policy management solutions depends on:

Pricing model – per license, per user, per endpoint or device or per usage (e.g. gigabytes processed). 

Contract duration – one-time fee or subscription (yearly, monthly).

Add-ons and modifiers – pricing per integration, per update, per deployment hour. 

This results in a broad pricing range with large discrepancies between low-end and high-end network security policy management solutions. Yearly costs for complex environments with hundreds of users and multiple providers typically start at a few thousand US dollars and go up to six figures.  

If you’re interested in AlgoSec, you can request a quote, contact sales or locate a partner near you. We’d love to help!