DATA SECURITY

KNOW THY ENEMY
The national media has fully covered numerous and costly ransomware attacks on local and state governments across the country, including four school districts in Louisiana, city governments in Baltimore and Atlanta, and in May, the Colonial Pipeline – causing panic up and down the East Coast. These attacks mean long, painful disruptions of service and require an incredibly large investment to restore these vital services. Take note – and pay heed to what malicious individuals and groups are capable of.

Secure information about your organization is not really secure if it is out there on the dark web. In addition, hackers are able to collect information relevant to your personnel and company and sell it to the highest bidder. Be sure to have a dark web scan performed, so that, if pertinent information is in fact available, you can plug all vulnerabilities, preventing further exploitation. And be sure to also perform a vulnerability scan and penetration test to locate potential weaknesses in your system. These important scans will determine the appropriate remediation.

UNDERSTAND YOUR RISK PROFILE
Organizations are quickly recognizing that network security is a discipline unto itself and an invaluable asset, requiring the resources to focus on this asset exclusively. Your Risk Profile increases with each additional piece of software and hardware introduced into your business.

It follows, for example, that adequate security policies and configurations must be established in order to absorb the new risks of Wi-Fi networks – both public and private. These security measures are vital in order to handle any and all risks generated by the reliance on mobile devices or any threat a rogue employee might make on network security.

Also, as an Administrator, you must be satisfied that company security extends to the practices of third parties such as vendors, contractors, Cloud providers – both for your peace of mind and to meet regulatory requirements (such as HIPAA, PCI, etc.).

PREPARE FOR A MALWARE ATTACK BEFORE IT OCCURS
Be alert to serious threats from Trojans, viruses, spyware, worms, and any hacking activity that will seriously damage your system, steal your identity, ruin your brand reputation, and infect/disrupt business-critical applications. In short, protect your system against any and all threats before they occur.

Here is precisely where wise and proper planning comes to the rescue – well before a serious attack can be launched on your operational system. Through education and commitment to your business, your staff will become knowledgeable security advocates. Classify your data according to sensitivity and install proper security measures to protect that data. Peace of mind comes from having a dedicated staff and a complete picture of your network landscape. In this way, your risks have been mitigated through proper planning and designation of proper safety measures, enabling you to avoid a malicious attack before it occurs.

SECURITY CONTROLS: PROTOCOLS, ACTIONS, INFRANSTRUCTURE
In order to provide the necessary security for your system, there is an ever-expanding number of data protection measures that can be installed. Naturally, the choice of the controls to adopt varies according to the risk profile of the organization.

Here is a partial list of the Security Controls available to defend infrastructure against
malicious attacks:

• Anti-Virus
• File/data retention using backup and restoration
• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plan
• Email gateway
• Web gateway
• Firewall
• File/data encryption
• Encryption at rest
• Encryption in transit
• Intrusion detection
• Mobile device management
• Secure disposal
• Patch management
• Multifactor Authentication
• Digital/AI forensics analytics
• Network Segmentation
• Dark Web scan
• Vulnerability scans
• Penetration Testing
• Security Awareness Training
• Policies and Procedures
• Cyber Security Insurance

Finally, the requisite protocols that must be in place to protect your organization’s data can be delivered as a package by a Security Operations Center as a Service (SOCaaS). This platform has a reactive component providing Cloud monitoring, custom alerting, incident investigations and response solutions, and a proactive component providing Penetration testing and vulnerability testing, for example. Furthermore, this platform can be enhanced to deliver the services of a Virtual CISO (Chief Information
Security Officer).

ELER TECHNOLOGIES IS HELPING YOU STAY SECURE
Eler will provide you with a thorough, efficient, and honest assessment of your current network security needs. And we have the state-of-the-art technology to implement or upgrade your network security. We look forward to working for you.