One way to measurably enhance your organization's vital security is by monitoring vulnerable services and settings for network devices such as firewalls, routers, and switches. Firewalls have also taken on whole new importance with today's ongoing data breach environment. On the surface, all of this may not seem very important, but it is.
It Pays to Enhance Network Device Protection
Under any circumstances, downtime is costly and stressful for all concerned which is why increasing protection on an ongoing basis for network devices should be an important part of your protocol. By increasing information security and enhancing protection for network devices, it becomes much more difficult for attackers who are searching for an opening. Their ultimate goal is to uncover vulnerable entry points such as default settings where they can gain unauthorized access to your network.
Some Tactics Used by Cyber Criminals to Gain Access
Cyber security criminals are also constantly attempting to uncover weak points such as electronic holes in routers, firewalls, and switches. Once these are identified, the criminals are able to penetrate network defenses, intercept sensitive information, change network traffic, and generally create havoc through the use of destructive changes within key network resources.
This type of criminal has researched and identified certain network devices as potential targets for the simple reason that it's so easy to find the weak points.
How could this happen you might ask. Over time, many firms frequently leave the "door open" by not keeping tight security controls over network device configurations. As an example, a management request for an exception is made and granted without too much attention to security risks. Sometimes, exceptions are never reversed, they're just left in place and forgotten. When an exception of this nature presents a security risk, we then have an open door for potential criminal activity.
Select Your Devices With Care
It's wise to select quality brands for network devices such as:
- Cisco
- Extreme
- F5
- HP
- Fortinet
