Importance Of Data Mining

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Network Security Tools

The importance of data in business growth is imperative; however, network holds equal importance as it facilitates the flow of data. This makes it important to secure the organizational network to protect data as well as secure network endpoints. Thus, organizations need to implement effective network security and network visibility strategy.

Here is a list of network security tools that can help organizations in securing their network against security attacks:

  • Access Control: The best way to control damage caused by threat actors is to keep them out of the network. In addition to limiting the access of outside threats, it is equally important to take care of insider threats. Access control tools help organizations in keeping out threat actors and limiting user access to network areas that directly apply to user’s responsibilities.
  • Anti-Malware Software: Malware including virus, trojans, worms, keyloggers, spyware, etc. are designed to spread across computer systems and infect an organization’s network. Anti-malware tools assist organizations in identifying, controlling and resolving malware infections to minimize the damage caused to network.
  • Anomaly Detection: In order to detect anomalies in a network, it is first important to understand usual operations of the network. Network security tools such as Anomaly Detection Engines (ADE) allow organizations in analyzing a network, so that when and if any anomaly or network breach occurs, the IT team will be alerted quickly enough to limit the damage.
  • Application Security: Most cyber attackers consider applications to be a defensive vulnerability that can be exploited to cause network disruptions. Including application security tools can help organizations in establishing security parameters for applications.
  • Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Threat actors tend to use humans to cause data breach or network security breach. DLP technologies and policies help in protecting the employees and other users from misusing or possibly compromising sensitive data or allowing data flow out of the network at any of the endpoints.
  • Email Security: Email security tools are another set of network security tools that help organizations in minimizing human-related security weaknesses. Hackers or cyber criminals persuade employees to share sensitive information or inadvertently download malware into targeted network via phishing strategies. Email security tools assist organizations in identifying dangerous emails and blocking attacks.
  • Endpoint Security: Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) culture has become highly integrated in organizations to an extent that it has become tough to distinguish between personal and business devices. Cyber attackers take this as an opportunity and attack personal devices to launch a network security attack. Endpoint security tools add a layer of defense between remote devices and business networks.

For more information on network security tools, contact Centex Technologies at (254) 213 – 4740.

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Different Areas Of Cyber Security

Cyber security strategies aim at protecting any user or organization’s inter-connected systems, hardware, software, and data from cyber attacks. Absence of stringent cyber security strategies can offer an opportunity for hackers to access the computer system and network and misuse organization’s data such as trade secrets, customer data, etc.

In order to formulate an efficient cyber security strategy, it is imperative to pay heed to all areas of cyber security.

Following are different areas of cyber security:

  • Critical Infrastructure Security: This area of critical infrastructure security consists of cyber-physical systems that modern societies rely on. Some examples of such systems include electricity grid, water purification, traffic lights, shopping centers, hospitals, etc. Hackers can attack the vulnerable infrastructure systems to gain access to connected devices. Organizations which are responsible for managing the infrastructure systems should perform due diligence to understand the vulnerabilities for society’s safety. Other organizations which are not responsible for the systems but rely on them for some part of their business operations should develop contingency plans to be prepared for any cyber attack or network breach that can be launched via an infrastructure system.
  • Application Security: It is one of the most important areas of cyber security strategies of an organization. The branch of application security uses both software and hardware methods to tackle external threats that can arise in development or implementation stage of an application. As applications are majorly accessible over network, they are highly vulnerable. Thus, it becomes highly important to include application security in cyber security strategy of an organization. Types of application security include antivirus programs, firewalls, and encryption programs. Application security techniques ensure that unauthorized access to applications is prevented. Also, these techniques can help organizations in detecting sensitive data sets and implementing relevant measures to protect these data sets.
  • Network Security: This area of cyber security guards an organization against unauthorized intrusion of internal networks due to malicious intent. Network security protocols inhibit access to internal networks by protecting the infrastructure. For better management of network security monitoring, network security teams use machine learning to flag abnormal traffic and issue threat alerts in real time. Common examples of network security protocols include multi-level logins, password security, etc.
  • Cloud Security: Cloud security is a software-based security tool that monitors and protects organizational or personal data stored in cloud resources. Increasing use of cloud services has made way for stringent cloud security strategies.
  • IoT Security: IoT devices can be highly vulnerable and open to cyber security attacks for numerous reasons including unawareness of users. Threat actors target IoT’s data centers, analytics, consumer devices, networks, legacy embedded systems and connectors. So, organizations have to implement stringent IoT security protocols.

For more information on different areas of cyber security, contact Centex Technologies at (254) 213 – 4740.

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IT Security Recommendations For 2021

Rapid growth of technology is changing the way businesses operate. Technologies such as cloud computing, Artificial, Intelligence, automation, and IoT have created numerous growth opportunities for businesses. However, cyber hackers also use these technologies to launch an array of cyber security threats and attacks such as data breach, identity theft, etc.

The rise in number and frequency of cyber threats has created a need for businesses to focus on their IT security strategies. Here are some IT security recommendations for 2021:

  • Cloud Threats: The Coronavirus pandemic has intensified the remote work and collaboration between different teams resulting in increased use of cloud services for data storage, data sharing, app sharing, etc. However, increased migration to cloud has led to higher number of cloud threats. Some common cloud-based security threats are mis-configured cloud storage, reduced visibility and control, incomplete data deletion, and vulnerable cloud-apps.
  • AI Integration: As the cyber security threats keep growing in terms of intensity, AI is emerging as a helping hand to under-resourced IT security teams. Including artificial intelligence in IT security strategy can help in ensuring timely detection of threats and implementing rapid reaction. AI provides threat intelligence by analyzing massive quantities of risk data from structured and unstructured resources.
  • Extended Detection & Response (XDR): In order to ensure data security, it has become essential for IT teams to gain visibility and deep insight into enterprise and customer data across emails, endpoints, networks, servers, cloud workloads, and applications. It is recommended to include XDR in the IT security strategy as it helps in automatically collecting data from multiple sources and correlate it to ensure faster threat detection and incident response.
  • Security Process Automation: High frequency of IT security threats has resulted in a shortage of trained IT staff. Thus, organizations are required to extensively rely on security process automation. These tools eliminate repetitive security operations using pre-established rules and procedures. This also helps in reducing the errors in routine security checks.
  • SASE: Changing organizational environment has transformed the organization’s network security from LAN-based appliance models to cloud-native security service models such as Secure Access Service Edge (SASE). Using this model, organizations can robustly secure remote workforce and cloud applications by routing network traffic through cloud-based security check.

For more information on IT security recommendations for 2021, contact Centex Technologies at (254) 213 – 4740.

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User & Entity Behavior Analytics: Definition & Benefits

User & entity behavior analytics (UEBA) is a type of cyber security process that understands how a user conducts normally. Further, it detects any anomalous behavior or instances, such as deviations from normal conduct. A simple example being, suppose a user downloads 10 MB of files everyday but suddenly downloads gigabytes of files on an instance, the system will detect this anomaly and update the user.

UEBA relies on machine learning, algorithms and statistical analyses to detect the deviations from established user behavior and determine the anomalies that can translate into potential cyber threats. UEBA also takes into consideration the data in system reports, logs, files, flow of data and packet information.

UEBA does not track security events or monitor devices, instead it tracks all the users and entities in the system. The main focus of UEBA is insider threats.

Benefits Of User & Entity Behavior Analytics:

As the cyber threat landscape has become complex, hackers are now able to bypass peripheral security such as firewalls. Thus, it is important to detect the presence of hackers who have entered the system in a timely and efficient manner.

This makes user & entity behavior analytics an important component of IT security. Here are some benefits of user & entity behavior analytics system:

  • Detect Insider Threats: Insider threats such as an employee gone rogue, employees who have been compromised, people who already have access to organization’s systems, etc. can cause a serious threat to an organization’s security by stealing data and information. UEBA can help in detecting data breaches, sabotage, privilege abuse, and policy violations by analyzing a change in normal behavior of an employee.
  • Detect Compromised Accounts: There is a great probability that a user’s account may be compromised; the user may have unknowingly installed a malware on his system or a legitimate account may be spoofed. As soon as a compromised account performs an unusual action, it is detected by UEBA before it can cause major damage.
  • Detect Brute-Force Attacks: Scammers can target cloud-based entities as well as third-party authentication systems to launch an attack. UEBA helps in detecting brute-force attacks allowing the organization to block access to these entities.
  • Detect Changes In Permissions: Sometimes hackers create super user accounts to grant unauthorized permissions to some accounts. UEBA detects such changes in permissions to nip the attack before it is launched.

For more information on user & entity behavior analytics, contact Centex Technologies at (254) 213 – 4740.

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