Network security starts from authenticating the user, commonly with a username and a password. Since this requires just one thing besides the user name, i.e. the password which is something you ‘know’, this is sometimes termed one factor authentication. With two factor authentication something you ‘have’ is also used (e.g. a security token or ‘dongle’, an ATM card, or your mobile phone), or with three factor authentication something you ‘are’ is also used (e.g. a fingerprint or retinal scan).
Once authenticated, a firewall enforces access policies such as what services are allowed to be accessed by the network users. Though effective to prevent unauthorized access, this component may fail to check potentially harmful content such as computer worms or Trojans being transmitted over the network. Anti-virus software or an intrusion prevention system (IPS) helps detect and inhibit the action of such malware. An anomaly-based intrusion detection system may also monitor the network and traffic for unexpected (i.e. suspicious) content or behavior and other anomalies to protect resources, e.g. from denial of service attacks or an employee accessing files at strange times. Individual events occurring on the network may be logged for audit purposes and for later high level analysis. Communication between two hosts using a network could be encrypted to maintain privacy.
Honeypots, essentially decoy network-accessible resources, could be deployed in a network as surveillance and early-warning tools as the honeypot will not normally be accessed. Techniques used by the attackers that attempt to compromise these decoy resources are studied during and after an attack to keep an eye on new exploitation techniques.
Such analysis could be used to further tighten security of the actual network being protected by the honeypot.Network Integration and Network Integration Services
Security Management for networks is different for all kinds of situations. A small home or an office would only require basic security while large businesses will require high maintenance and advanced software and hardware to prevent malicious attacks from hacking and spamming.
Server Data Backup procedure
Professional help should be sought because the data within computers is not always stored in files that are visible or locations that are known. For example, Microsoft Outlook and Outlook express store data of received, sent and deleted emails in databases and the layman would usually not know the location of these databases. Similarly other software that you might be using could also have their own databases that are stored in specific locations. When you call in your IT and Computer Network Specialist, they will make a short study of how data in your organization is accumulated, frequency of addition of new data or change of data, what kind of data is accumulated, what software is being used and where and how the data is stored. With these details, they can create and implement a data backup plan.
Mock Drills
If a data backup plan has been implemented, it is a good idea to create a mock data recovery drill once every six months or so. The importance of having a mock drill is to find out the effectiveness of the data backup plan. At the end of the drill, you should have been able to recover at least 85% to 90% of the data that was supposed to have been destroyed. Additionally, after the drill, the effected computer(s) should be 100% operational.
You might wonder why 85 to 90% data recovery and not 100%. Unless disaster struck your computer or computer network immediately after the last data backup, there will always a time lag between the last windows server backup, Computer Disaster Recovery and the computer or computer network failing. During this time lag, data might have been added or changed. It is this data that might be lost. Again, there are ways and means of recovering even this lost data – but leave that to your IT and Networking Support company because it takes special tools and know-how to recover this lost data.
For more information, please call BEL Network Integration & Support, LLC (BELNIS) a Networking Support Company and Backup Storage Solutions Company at (804) 796-2631. BELNIS has a 21-year track record for providing quality solutions to business establishments and government offices throughout Richmond & Tri-Cities area in the State of Virginia, USA.
Click For: Computer Network Support and Computer Support Richmond