7 Tools To Keep Your Business Network Safe 

Your choice of cybersecurity will depend on the design of your network, business size, and model. But then, regardless of what comprises your business and network, there are still several options for securing it.

Your first move should be to collate all critical assets on your network, including the areas your network may be most vulnerable. For example, most modern businesses are vulnerable to the endpoint that connects to their network. Taking sufficient time to analyze this aspect and how traffic will help you make the best security tools.

And if you aren’t already taking active steps toward your business security, it is pretty simple; you are making your business accessible to strangers and unwanted users. They may finally snatch the business from you when you least expect it. A report shows that 61% of attacks focus on destabilizing small businesses.

Hackers find small businesses small enough to be vulnerable to attacks and big enough as valuable targets. However, take these seven tools very seriously if you are ready to take your business network security to the next level.

1. Virtual Private Networks (VPN)

Your business needs a VPN to encrypt files and transfer data between users. With data encrypted, it would not be easy to be accessed by an external actor. They are used to authenticate communication processes between business networks and endpoint devices. A hacker that accesses it will only see gibberish and won’t be able to interpret it without an encryption key. So, you have no worries with a good VPN.

Two popular VPN types are Remote access VPNs and Site-to-Site VPNs. Remote access VPNs allow you to connect to a private network like an office network via the internet. In contrast, site-to-site VPNs are designed to allow users to connect two networks on different sites together. So, for example, a company could harness site-to-site VPN to merge their different offices into a single network.

2. Firewalls

A firewall is a security tool that has been very helpful in sifting bad traffic from a network over the years. It leverages defined security rules given to it to decide if it should accept traffic or not. It is often the first line of defense to a network; it creates barriers between controlled and secured internal networks that can be trusted and untrusted outside the networks, such as the web.

Firewalls can be software, hardware, private or public cloud, or software-as-a-service (SaaS). You may think of firewalls as gates that secure the network borders from unwanted penetration from the internet. They manage network traffic and ensure that only authorized users can access secure data.

Firewalls are of different types, which include:

• Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW): Includes deep packet inspection Firewall with an application-level inspection.
• Packet Filtering: involves passing or blocking packets at a network interface based on source and destination addresses, ports, or protocols.
• Stateful Inspection: This dynamic packet filtering monitors active connections to decide which network packets will be allowed through the Firewall.
• Proxy Service: this server application acts as an intermediary between a client making a request and the server delivering the resource to that request. It protects while filtering messages at the application layer.

Firewalls are essential in your security infrastructure to take the guesswork out of the host-level protections and deliver them to your network security device.

3. Anti-Malware Software

Anti-malware is very important to fight malicious software in the form of worms, trojans, viruses, spyware, keyloggers, among others. Anti-malware tools help uncover dangerous programs that may gain access to your system, restrict their activity, and minimize their damage to the network.

However, this isn’t a surefire bet to securing your network from hackers,b but you can be sure to get alerts if your computer gets infected. It will also scan your email attachments to prevent scams. Popular antivirus/anti-malware tools include Avast and McAfee.

4. Password Management Tools

Passwords continue to be one of the potential prey of hackers. They can be hijacked and leveraged to steal important information from your company if they aren’t adequately secured. Password management tools allow users to secure their passwords after forgetting them or being locked out of an account. These tools can also help users synchronize their passwords across systems and allow them to access multiple applications using a single password.

Using strong passwords, managing them properly, and changing them from time to time will also help to reinforce your network security and prevent cyber attacks. And you should consider tools that provide you with a centralized, secure location to manage and update passwords securely.

5. Email Security Tools

Email security aims at addressing human flaws and weaknesses. Phishing is a rampant, increasing strategy attackers use to access resources through the emails of unsuspecting users. Hackers try to convince email users to share sensitive information by working as an impostor or fronting a platform that appears legitimate. Email security can be used to detect potentially dangerous emails that will prevent employees from sharing sensitive data and potential attacks. Email security tools can also identify dangerous emails and block attacks to prevent sharing of vital data.

6. Access Control

One of the important security measures your business needs against hackers is to be able to control access to your network resources. If cybercriminals can access your network, you can hardly determine the level of damage that will be caused. But access control will limit their activities.

And when you also provide measures to monitor internal threats, your security infrastructure will be much stronger. Network users should only be given access to the resources they need to perform a given task at a time. This should only apply to each employee’s responsibility.

7. Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

You’ll be able to easily detect unwanted devices that connect to your network and respond to threats instantly by deploying endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions. For instance, someone may connect to your network with malicious intentions. But your endpoint detection and response tool will provide detailed information about the device used in building the connection. It is also a powerful tool for curating forensic information if you experience a data breach.

More often, enterprise network users who connect via personal devices are often hackers’ targets. Leveraging endpoint detection security will provide an extra security layer to your network. And you’ll be able to analyze the logs generated on the network and be able to uncover the culprit or who connected to know if they were responsible for the breach or not.