Network security is a list of requirements, recommendations and policies that are used in the network infrastructure to increase its level of protection and fault tolerance.
The second important function is to analyze the operation of the company’s infrastructure and prevent unauthorized access to information resources by intruders.
Regardless of the scale and type of business (small, medium or large), the use of network infrastructure implies the integration of hardware and software solutions that ensure the operability and security of the network.
Information security
Principles of construction
There are 4 basic principles of network security design at the informatization facility:
- Protection of equipment connected to the network infrastructure. Antivirus solutions with regular database updates, firewalls with traffic filtering and blocking of unwanted subscribers, etc. are used as protective measures.
- The equipment must be fault-tolerant and provide for the possibility of rapid recovery. It implies the presence of duplicate components in critical nodes.
- Systematic monitoring of the entire company’s infrastructure to detect vulnerable points. The system must also provide detailed information about any software or hardware component of the equipment.
- Constant monitoring of the network channel bandwidth. This ensures timely blocking of unwanted traffic, and also allows for manual load balancing.
- Critical infrastructure nodes of the organization must ensure high availability in case of any threat or attack on the company. This is achieved by creating a second independent site (data center) that replicates data from the first one in synchronous mode.
Network security tools
There are 2 types of network attacks based on the status of the action: active and passive. They can also be internal or external.
In any case, it is recommended to use the following measures to prevent:
- proxy servers;
- systems for detecting and preventing hacking threats;
- means of protection against targeted attacks;
- firewalls;
- network monitoring systems;
- VPN.