Network Securityfrom the inside

• Recently we had a customer where management fired an employee but did not let IT know about it which then gave the employee time to get on the network and delete data. Fortunately there were backups made so no critical data was lost. Recovering the data from backups should not have even been necessary had management let IT know immediately about the dismissal so then IT could have had the user account disabled. These types of security practices are just common sense yet many companies continually make these same mistakes over and over again.

  Internal risks like the one mentioned above can result in data loss if best practices are not followed. There are many different types of products available to help reduce risk but ultimately much of what continues to happen with regard to security breaches is mostly because best practices are not followed. M5 Systems has a variety of products which will help your organization reduce risks internally and externally. These technologies when implemented and used properly can provide an effective means to help securing any environment whether large or small.

  Many risks can be avoided with the proper utilization of Microsoft Active Directory. Administrator passwords should be well guarded and users should have limited permissions on critical company data to avoid any possible deletion of data. We have gone into many different types of clients where the Administrator password was known by all of the employees! One of the biggest reasons we were told that this was needed because some application would not run properly without Administrator permissions. That is one of the biggest myths and one of the most often used excuses we hear time and time again.

Network Securityfrom the outside

Through implementing a good best practices solution, perimeter security such as UTM appliance and a good Endpoint Security solution for the desktop, an organization can avoid many of the security threats we face today. At M5 Systems we take security very seriously and spend a great amount of time with our clients educating and advising about best practices and solutions which can greatly reduce risk internally and externally.

A good portion of our business revolves around the information security business and we have been involved with this business for many years. If your organization is deciding on a perimeter security product like a firewall or a UTM device then let us give you a few helpful pointers. Whatever product you are looking at one of the main requirements should be whether or not the device is capable of inspection layer 7 or the application layer of the network stack. Many devices on the market are just plain packet filtering devices which are pretty much useless in today's world. So many attacks come from end users visiting different sites without the slightest knowledge of what could be hidden in the network packets. Many other types of applications like web mail, instant messaging and video need to be inspected for malicious code at the very least. It is important to look at the products specifications very carefully and perform evaluations of the products when possible.

M5 Systems can help your organization in the process of selecting the right security products for your network infrastructure and we can also be there to assist with design and implementation. Take a look at some of the products we represent on our products page or give us a call and schedule an appointment for a free on-site security assessment.