The Challenge of Keeping your Network Secure
As networks are gradually turning into more intricate and accessible infrastructures, the threat environment is changing dramatically. New security risks are discovered every day in commonly used applications, operating systems and network components. These are exploited by hackers and criminals to carry out attacks. With the increased dependency on information technology, the consequences of attacks are becoming increasingly severe. The victims are suffering from losses related to interruption in business, bad publicity and exposure of confidential information.
Organisations are forced to continuously maintain the protection of their networks. Traditionally, this has been accomplished by creating barriers against attacks by investing in reactive security tools such as firewalls, anti-virus tools and intrusion detection systems. In today’s environment these reactive mechanisms simply are not enough. Instead of waiting for attacks to occur, there is a need to take a proactive approach. Only by using proactive security tools that continuously identify security risks is it possible to effectively manage and reduce the risk exposure.
Legislation and compliance with security requirements are also becoming more demanding. The PCI (Payment Card Industry) security standards, Gramm Leach-Bliley act, HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, among others all include requirements for regular testing of network security.