- Aligns network security controls with techniques proven effective against real-world threats through testing and refinement
- Provides a common language and framework for managing security across an entire organization
- Enables benchmarking against peers to validate program maturity over time
- Leverages vendor-agnostic guidance optimized for interoperability
- Focuses initiatives on comprehensive coverage without gaps
- For these reasons, following best practice recommendations serves as the foundation for developing and maintaining adequate network security across enterprises of varying sizes and industries.
Definition of Best Practices
- Governance and Risk Management
- Identity and Access Management
- Data Security
- Asset Management
- Networking and Communications Protection
- Endpoint Security
- Incident Response
Categories of Security Best Practices
Preventive Security Controls:
- Firewalls: Network/host-based firewalls filter ingress/egress traffic based on content and context to prevent exploitation.
- Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS): Network IPS devices combine deep packet inspection with predictive analytics to block and log known threats. Host IPS prevents endpoint compromise.
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP): DLP tools apply policies to avoid exfiltration and misuse of sensitive files or records.
- Access Controls: Strict logical access controls regulate access to resources based on user roles and multi-factor authentication. Physical access controls likewise limit unauthorized entry to facilities.
- Security Education: Personnel must receive regular training on policies plus emerging methods for social engineering, phishing and common cyber attack techniques.
- Vulnerability Management: Continuous scanning followed by prompt patching of exploitable software/OS/firmware vulnerabilities further shrinks the attack surface.
Detective Security Controls:
- Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS): IDS sensors identify behavioral anomalies and known attack patterns in network traffic, generating alerts for triage.
- Security Information & Event Management (SIEM): SIEM solutions aggregate and correlate audit logs, alerts and machine data to provide centralized visibility plus reporting into security posture.
- Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR): EDR tools monitor endpoint activity for suspicious events indicative of compromise like impossible travel, unusual registry edits, or suspicious outbound traffic.
- User & Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA): UEBA builds baseline models for normal behavior across users, devices and systems to flag risky anomalies like compromised credentials, data exfiltration or privilege abuse.
- Network Traffic Analysis (NTA): NTA reviews flow trends and patterns to detect variants attempting to fly under the radar of signature-based tools.
Corrective Security Controls:
- Incident Response (IR) Process: The IR framework provides structured procedures for investigation, containment, eradication and recovery coordinated by an IR team. The goal is restoring normal operations quickly and safely.
- Disaster Recovery (DR): DR plans prepare for scenarios where compromise disables critical infrastructure through techniques like hardened backups, redundant failover locations, emergency communications procedures and business continuity planning.
- Post-Incident Analysis: Rigorous analysis of root causes, mistakes and environmental factors after major incidents informs continuous process improvements. The impacts of negligence or oversight can be catastrophic.
By planning thoroughly for various incident scenarios, organizations can react more smoothly during crises, minimizing loss. Reviews further bolster resilience against similar attacks.
Challenges in Adopting Enterprise Network Security Best Practices
- Budgetary Constraints: Proactive security investments lose priority to other business initiatives that directly generate revenue. The absence of catastrophe breeds complacency. This leads to understaffed, underfunded security teams attempting to monitor out of date infrastructure.
- Lack of Specialized Skills: Cybersecurity talent remains scarce industrywide. Most organizations lack dedicated resources to architect, implement and optimize controls properly. Complex tools languish misconfigured or underutilized.
- Difficulty Tracking Assets: Onboarding new cloud vendors rapidly expands the attack surface. When IT loses visibility into assets and ownership delineations grow unclear, coverage gaps emerge. Shadow IT exacerbates sprawl.
- Cultural Resistance: Business units often resist controls that hamper productivity like stringent access management. Users likewise avoid security measures seen as burdensome due to poor interfaces or lack of training.
- Dependence on Manual Processes: The cyber threat landscape moves too quickly for purely manual response. Automation is mandatory for rapid, consistent policy enforcement at scale.
- Prioritizing Quick Wins Over Long-Term Initiatives: Pursuit of flashy new tools before nailing down fundamentals leads to wasted spend and limited risk reduction. Patience is essential.
Customizing for Different Business Types
Small Businesses
- Adopt firewalls-as-a-service to avoid large upfront investments
- Prioritize patches/updates, access controls and backup restoration
- Start lean with security fundamentals then increase monitoring/tools accordingly
Large Enterprises
- Map controls to comprehensive frameworks (NIST CSF, CIS 20 Controls)
- Pursue in-depth defense for crown jewels through data encryption, access logging and user monitoring
- Automate policy enforcement, alerting and reporting via SIEM integration
Financial Sector
- Strict access controls, activity monitoring and data loss prevention for sensitive information
- Focus on insider threats through user behavior analytics
- Plan for rapid failover with alternate sites to enable continuity
Healthcare Organizations
- Isolate legacy medical devices lacking security features via network segmentation
- Anonymize/encrypt patient data-at-rest and implement DLP filters
- Continuously scan medical IoT gear for vulnerabilities.
Manufacturers
- Segment plant floor networks from corporate IT infrastructure
- Lock down embedded devices and machinery through firmware updates, patched operating systems and disabled unnecessary interfaces
- Monitor OT network continuously for abnormal communications.
Maintaining Currency of Controls
Explore Our Penetration Testing Services Aligned with Enterprise Network Security Best Practices
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In conclusion, merely adopting new detection technologies without addressing underlying vulnerabilities can lead to systemic security issues. Yet, through a deliberate approach of identifying weaknesses, planning improvements, and monitoring progress, we enable our clients to systematically strengthen their defenses. This strategy is central to our philosophy on Enterprise Network Security Best Practices. Begin your journey towards a more secure infrastructure by visiting our contact page for a detailed consultation.