To carry out the three most essential aspects of a business- secure operations, better communications, and team productivity, it is of utmost importance to have robust Network Infrastructure Security. The lack of proper measures will make the network infrastructure vulnerable to data breaches, cost-heavy setbacks, brand damage, and not-so-good user experience.
While your organization puts in countless efforts to establish a network infrastructure, it is the right strategy that allows the reliable functioning of your hardware, software, and services together.
This article will take you through the crucial elements and aspects of Network Infrastructure Security to help you understand it better. Have a read!
Table of Contents
What is Network Infrastructure Security?
Network Infrastructure Security is ideal for companies’ IT infrastructure. Protecting the hidden networking infrastructure by enforcing preventive security measures to avoid unauthorized access, alteration, theft, or deletion of data or resources.
The security measures could be inclusive of firewalls, access control, intrusion prevention systems, application security, behavioral analytics, and wireless security.
Also Read: What is Network Security
What are the Different Types of Network Infrastructure Security?
Companies can depend on multiple security measures to protect networking equipment and software. Some of the common types of actions for securing infrastructure are:
- Anti-virus programs: Any software-related concerns are identified, monitored and cleared with these programs. Not only the viruses but the anti-virus programs also protect the systems against keyloggers, spam, phishing attacks, adware, and URL threats.
- IPS or Intrusion Prevention Systems: With a scripted response plan, the IPS can also respond to the threat in addition to monitoring and reporting.
- Access Control: This is about preventing physical or virtual access to applications, devices, networks, software, and hardware from unauthorized people.
- Wireless Security: It is a system that keeps unauthorized people from accessing the wireless network.
- App Security: The admin installs specific measures to address any potential loopholes.
- Intrusion Detection Systems or IDS: Within a network, if any malicious activity occurs, IDS monitors, records, and reports it.
- Firewalls: It is more like a gatekeeping measure that checks the network’s incoming and outgoing traffic.
- VPNs or Virtual Private Networks: To make a safe communication path over the internet, VPNs encrypt the bridge between two network endpoints.
- Behavioral Analytics: This measure automatically checks for network activity and detects malicious behavior.
The working of network security infrastructure
Segregation and Segmentation of functions and networks: A great deal of attention is required on the complete network infrastructure. Having proper segments and segregation helps in preventing unnecessary intruder actions from spreading across different parts of the network.
- Put a check on lateral communication: The peer-to-peer communication between the network should never be overlooked. Any unfiltered communication between peers can allow unauthorized people to have network access.
- Make the hardware device robust: To increase the Network Infrastructure Security, the best way is to harden the hardware network devices.
- Limit access to infra devices: Implement multi-factor authentication to ensure that the users are authorized, management of administrative credentials, and privileged access.
- Carry out Oob management: The implementation of communication paths for managing the networking devices remotely is done by Oob management. This enhances network security by separating the management traffic from user traffic.
- Ensure the credibility of hardware and software: The software and devices should conduct consistent integrity checks in an organization.
Also Read: What is Public Cloud
What Are The Advantages of Network Infrastructure Security?
One of the main benefits of Network Infrastructure Security is that the underlying software and hardware can be controlled and defended while running on the network. But there is more to the advantages of Network Infrastructure Security:
- Reliable BYOD: The bring-your-own-device aspect is gaining massive popularity amongst organizations looking to leverage the capital benefits of employee-owned devices. A good and reliable Network Infrastructure Security system is capable of identifying any BYOD-related issues, and this applies to any of the personal devices brought to the workplace by the employees.
- Better use of bandwidth: Having a secure and robust network infrastructure leads to better bandwidth utilization management. The organizations save a lot with quick identification of flow characteristics, including how much bandwidth has been utilized at what time and for what purpose.
- Improved network performance: Having a safe Network Infrastructure Security ensures that uptime increases, leading to enhanced network performance. Organizations enjoy better application performance, quick market time, and calculative expansions.
- Less blast radius: If any unauthorized person tries to access the network systems, the security measures automatically alert the team in defense. The attacker has minimum time to do the damage, and the network stops lateral movement.
- Quick identification of underused assets: A network asset may be unutilized in one place but crucial in another. A good Network Infrastructure Security can quickly identify this risk and move the resources to their dedicated place, saving a lot of money.
What Makes Network Infrastructure Security Important?
Unreliable applications and hackers are potential threats to Network Infrastructure Security as they attempt to have overall control over the routing infrastructure.
The components of Network Infrastructure Security include the devices required for communication over the network, like domain name systems or DNS, firewalls, network communications, servers, switches, storage systems, intrusion detection systems or IDS, firewalls, load-balancers, and routers. These devices have endpoints for hackers to perform malicious activities on the network.
- Gateway Risk: If a hacker gets access to a gateway router, it can monitor, modify, or deny the incoming and outgoing traffic on the network.
- Infiltration Risk: If a hacker gets more access from the switches and internal routing, it can monitor, modify, or deny the incoming and outgoing traffic between the hosts in a network and destroy the relationship between the internal hosts.
Though there are multiple attacks that a hacker can carry over the network, the security and safety of the routing infrastructure should be of utmost importance to prevent deep system infiltration.
Conclusion
A reliable and robust Network Infrastructure Security ensures better productivity, cost reduction, and safety of crucial data from intruders. Although no security measure is 100% effective in minimizing the attack attempts, Network Infrastructure Security can lessen the damage after a cyberattack and ensure the quick redemption of operations.
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