Week 9 - Hardening A Network

There are many ways to harden your network against potential cyber attacks. Hardening a network means protecting it from outside threats. Many companies have been forced to fork out millions of dollars in settlement fees because of not protecting consumer data. These days, almost every electronic device has some sort of WiFi or Bluetooth capability. The Internet of Things (IoT) devices are estimated to reach nearly 75 billion by 2025, and that means people are even at more of a risk for a cyber breach. Protecting your data is more important than ever before. Here are some ways you can harden your network (home or office).

1. Educate employees on how to protect/backup their data. Make sure they complete annual/semi-annual training on network security. Conducting exercises or simulations of cyber attacks or phishing attempts will help employees be more vigilant and aware of suspicious activity. More often the security breach happens from an internal source, so it's vital that employees receive the proper training.

2. Adopt a zero trust culture. Authenticate first/connect second. Traditionally users would connect to the internet first before authenticating. This reverse process is great for protecting the network. It works best against DDoS, man-in-the-middle, and advanced network attacks.

3. Combine on-site and cloud based storage solutions. Having this strategic combination will make it harder for an attacker to access the entire system of files.

4. Use out-of-band remote access controls. Use out-of-band methods where possible for remote access rather than opening up your firewalls to inbound network attacks.

5. Automate configuration management and firmware updates. Leaving platforms prone to configuration mistakes or open to known vulnerabilities can be mitigated by automation.

For more tips on hardening a network, visit https://www.networkcomputing.com/network-security/5-tips-harden-network-security-connected-enterprise