Preparing for the future of network security

Major security breaches, more devices, and more network connections continue to broaden the threat landscape for organizations of all sizes. Achieving a truly secure network has always been about being proactive—assessing network vulnerabilities, upgrading technology and firmware, and monitoring for abnormalities. A proactive strategy is no longer an option. Rather, it is an imperative to protect against a barrage of new and emerging threats.

In today’s current network and application infrastructure environment, the application has become the main point of risk for a number of reasons. One is the proliferation of applications, made possible because they are much easier to build than ever before. Unfortunately, the resources organizations have available to address any security issues these applications may create is relatively fixed.

The IT environment of the future also includes both physical and virtualized, high-density infrastructure plus delivery of an increasingly wide array of cloud-based services. Hybrid environments raise new questions about how to consistently and seamlessly protect information, systems, and people as the virtual fabric introduces an increasing rate of change.

In terms of preparing for the surging Internet of Things (IoT), awareness of application and network traffic is critical since traditional IT security boundaries will essentially disappear. Analytics and visualization tools can give security teams a snapshot of the environment, which they can then use to prioritize security efforts.

Case in point: CipherEx uses specialized tools that analyze and optimize firewall policies to reduce risk and optimize firewall performance. Firewall rules are copied and analyzed offline with no packet transmission, reducing risk and improving change management.

If you are not already, you should be monitoring the network, applications, and quality of service. Now is also a good time to get control over IP addresses, optimize your firewall rules, and implement security-focused policies and processes across the enterprise. All of these are crucial, especially in today’s digital era, in which so much data is accessible through a multitude of devices and touchpoints.

For more information, contact CipherEx at (888) 774-9244 or visit www.cipherex.com.