What is network security

We do not sell or otherwise share personal information for money or anything of value. We use strictly necessary cookies to enable site functionality and improve the performance of our website. We also store cookies to personalize the website content and to serve more relevant content to you. For more information please visit our Privacy Policy or Cookie Policy.

Network security is a broad term that covers a multitude of technologies, devices and processes. In its simplest term, it is a set of rules and configurations designed to protect the integrity, confidentiality and accessibility of computer networks and data using both software and hardware technologies.

Every organization, regardless of size, industry or infrastructure, requires a degree of network security solutions in place to protect it from the ever-growing landscape of cyber threats in the wild today. Today's network architecture is complex and is faced with a threat environment that is always changing and attackers that are always trying to find and exploit vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities can exist in a broad number of areas, including devices, data, applications, users and locations.

For this reason, there are many network security management tools and applications in use today that address individual threats and exploits and also regulatory non-compliance. When just a few minutes of downtime can cause widespread disruption and massive damage to an organization's bottom line and reputation, it is essential that these protection measures are in place.

There are many layers to consider when addressing network security across an organization. Attacks can happen at any layer in the network security layers model, so your network security hardware, software and policies must be designed to address each area. Network security typically consists of three different controls: physical, technical and administrative. Here is a brief description of the different types of network security and how each control works.

These layers are built through the deployment of firewalls, intrusion prevention systems IPS and antivirus components. Among the components for enforcement, the firewall an access control mechanism is the foundation of network security. Providing CIA of network traffic flows is difficult to accomplish with legacy technology. Traditional firewalls are plagued by controls that rely on ports and protocols to identify applications — which have now developed evasive characteristics to bypass the controls — and the assumption that IP address equates to user identity.

Next-generation firewalls retain an access control mission but re-engineer the technology; they observe all traffic across all ports, can classify applications and their content, and identify employees as users. This enables access controls nuanced enough to enforce the IT security policy as it applies to each employee of an organization, with no compromise in security. Additional services for layering network security to implement a defense-in-depth strategy have been incorporated in the traditional model as add-on components.

IPS and antivirus, for example, are effective tools for scanning content and preventing malware attacks. However, organizations must be cautious of the complexity and cost that additional components may add to network security and, more importantly, not depend on these additional components to do the core job of the firewall. The process of auditing network security requires checking back on enforcement measures to determine how well they have aligned with the security policy.

Auditing encourages continuous improvement by requiring organizations to reflect on the implementation of their policy on a consistent basis. This degree can help individuals interested in a career in network security get a foundation in key skills that are used in protecting individuals and organizations from damaging cyber-attacks. Learn more about what you can do with a computer networking degree.

The safety and security of our society rest on our ability to protect confidential information from outside threats. You can be part of the front line against these threats if you pursue a career as an information security analyst.

Chris LaBounty is an academic and technologist with more than 20 years of experience in higher education and technology. He has developed and managed programs in information technology, mobile applications, networking and software engineering. In addition to teaching and leading academic programs, Chris has worked as a certified field engineer and Java Enterprise developer.

He lives in Minnesota with his family and enjoys the outdoors. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook Multiple factors, including prior experience, age, geography market in which you want to work and degree field, will affect career outcomes and earnings. Herzing neither represents that its graduates will earn the average salaries calculated by BLS for a particular job nor guarantees that graduation from its program will result in a job, promotion, salary increase or other career growth.

Subscribe to our Newsletter. How To Overcome Test Anxiety. If your company is worried that users will send an email that contains sensitive information such as a credit card number to someone outside the company, data leak prevention DLP is the solution. DLP tools watch for traffic that should not leave a business, which would be a leak, and stop that transmission. At least that is the idea. DLP is very difficult to configure properly, but it is worth looking into to protect your company from accidental data leaks.

The most important control to add to all businesses is monitoring. It is important to watch for attacks, threats, breaches, hackers, etc. In security, it is best to assume that your business will get hacked, and that users will make mistakes. Then watch for attacks and be prepared to respond. One of the biggest problems for the average business is that they do not even know that they have been attacked.

Devices need to log events so you know what has happened and what is happening on your network. Once the events are recorded, they should be sent to a central syslog server for analysis. It has the job of correlating events and looking for indications of compromise IOC. If there is an IOC, someone should review the event and determine if action needs to be taken to stop an attack or repair and restore the systems after an attack. Learn more about network security measures.

Network Security Topics. Types of Network Security. Network Security Basics. Network Security Measures. Firewall history. What is a firewall. What Is Network Security? Threat landscape Threats are potential violations that affect resource confidentially, availability, or integrity. Vulnerabilities For a threat to be realized, there must be an exploitable vulnerability.

Prevent, detect, response Confidentiality, integrity, and availability CIA are the main attributes that define the goal of any information security process. Access control Access control is a type of security control that almost everyone is familiar with.

Network segmentation Network segmentation is dividing a network into smaller logical parts so controls can be added in between. Perimeter security Traditional networking within a physical data center had a clearly-defined perimeter.

Firewalls Firewalls are a very traditional security measure that have been added to networks and end systems for over 25 years. Virtual private network A virtual private network VPN protects the confidentiality of data as it traverses your network. Digital rights management When your company has content, books, manuals, etc. Data leak prevention If your company is worried that users will send an email that contains sensitive information such as a credit card number to someone outside the company, data leak prevention DLP is the solution.

Related articles Firewall history What is a firewall.