Businesses of all sizes that operate on the Internet are facing a vital threat nowadays; cyber-attacks. These attacks are getting more varied, dangerous, and impactful. But thanks to the expertise and lessons learned regarding network security, defending against these threats is more manageable, more accessible, and straightforward.
Network security is mostly thought of as an expensive thing to have and some businesses justdon’t have that kind of money, but this does not mean that you can overlook network security. With the best practices we will talk about below, you can still ensure the protection of your private network with affordable solutions.
Network Security Best Practices
Every online business needs a network security structure starting from company policies toadvanced cybersecurity services, which are shockingly affordable nowadays thanks to cloud-based vendors. We have the whole package of what you need to do and implement. Let’s see these practices.
1. Implement cybersecurity policies
You need to ensure that you have a clear pathway, and a list of allowed and restricted actionswhen employees are in the private network of your online business. The best way to do this is by setting up cybersecurity policies and emphasizing this to your employees the day they arehired.
Thanks to your pre-determined policies, your employees will understand what is authorized and what things might pose risks to the network, so they can avoid them. You can’t expect regular employees to figure out what’s okay and what’s not without guidance.
2. Perform regular network audits
Network security is not something that you can build once and forget about it. You will always have vulnerabilities and blind spots, which are just perfect for malicious users. Regular network audits will allow your business to pinpoint weaknesses, report the current situation, and take action to make it better.
Test your firewalls, see what you can do if you ever need to recover the data, and make sure to evaluate what apps or tools are really necessary. You will be amazed by the feedback you’ll receive with these regular audits.
3. Use multi-factor authentication (MFA)
Online businesses have seen a boom in remote work, mostly due to the pandemic, and it looks like business owners are interested in hiring more talent worldwide. Most of the time, these employees only use passwords to connect to company resources remotely.
The downside of this is that passwords are getting easier to be hacked, and you can’t trust a single password to prevent unauthorized access. One of the first things to do is implement multi-factor authentication, so your employees have a second way of proving their identity. MFA is easy to adopt, virtually has no disadvantages, and offers an added layer of security with things such as SSO, biometrics, or OTPs.
4. Use a dedicated IP address
Dedicated IP is a static IP address that is assigned to a single owner, and to them only. This means that you don’t have to share the IP address with other users, and only you can use it. Shared IP addresses may change and you are subject to being affected by other users in thesame network.
What makes a dedicated IP the better choice is the ability to have full control over your network, identify the users easily and effectively, and have a digital identifier that only belongs to you.
You can single-handedly manage the access since only the employees with your static IP will be able to access your private network, making it more secure than its counterpart. Although dedicated IPs were thought of as inaccessible for smaller businesses, NordLayer is offering competitive prices and outstanding customer service so every online business can benefit from it.
5. Update software regularly
This is one of the most straight forward things you can do to ensure network security, but it’s also one of the most important things on our list. Outdated software is a significant source of cyber threats since no app or tool is perfect in terms of cybersecurity, and updates are there tomake them better.
Most software updates include several improvements in security, so if you don’t update them regularly, you will be stuck with vulnerabilities that are known and already resolved. You need to know that employees are using the most updated versions of every tool they have, so they are always up-to-date with recent risks and threats.
6. Back up your data and create a recovery plan
Backing up the data you have is critical; you can’t always control things and lose a valuable amount of data in case of an unprecedented attack or hardware issues. You can’t simply risk the sensitive data being lost forever with a single instance, or the work you put in is fornothing.
There are several vendors on the Internet that help you back-up data securely and withencryption. But if you don’t have the budget, you can even do this with external storage justin case.
However, in addition to backing up, recovery plans are also critical. You can take online courses or simply outsource an expert on data recovery plans because you already know that there might be times when recovery is your only option.
7. Use SSL certificates
SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates are a staple for every online business today, there is basically no way around it. It is one of the best ways to ensure the protection of your customers and employees as SSL encrypts all the data coming in and out of your website. This will protect your customers’ valuable information and you as the business owner.
Just a little tip, SSL certificates (also known as HTTPS Protocol) is also a great way to improve your SEO results. Since most individual users already know about this, you will build client trust too.
Conclusion
Network security is a crucial part of running an online business, regardless of it is a SaaS service, e-commerce, or an education blog. You will store customer information and business-related valuable data so if you are vulnerable to cyber attacks, you are always facing the risk of business loss. But luckily, network security is now affordable and accessible with simple practices and online services. Make sure to implement these most straight forward but significant precautions.
