Think a firewall is enough to keep your business safe from hackers? Think again.
We recently wrote about a local Abilene business that fell victim to a spoofing attack. Hackers stole the identity of an IT worker and tricked restaurant workers into downloading a malicious program that resulted in a data breach that affected thousands of credit card customers.
This is just one case among many that illustrates an important fact about your network security: whether your company is as big as Target or as small as a local taco shop, network security is a crucial consideration for every business. A network assessment is the first step in helping your business protect its most valuable data.
3 reasons you need a network assessment
Here are three reasons why your business needs a network assessment.
- Firewall protection isn’t enough. Too many business owners think that installing a firewall is all they need to protect their network from cyber-attack. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. While a firewall can protect your business from many types of incoming malicious traffic, it’s not a complete solution to network security. Hackers are creative, continually coming up with new ways to attack. Networks and firewalls have to be continuously updated to ensure they are able to stop new threats. In addition, not every type of threat is going to come in through your network. Some threats may be within your network, or behind your firewall – such as mobile devices that are brought in by employees but which are not running through your firewall. Your physical security practices could also put your business at risk. A network assessment helps identify all these types of threats.
- A firewall doesn’t replace a solid network security plan. Firewalls can stop incoming traffic, but they can’t resolve an issue that’s already happened, and they don’t constitute a plan to keep all your data safe. A network assessment looks at your whole network – what kind of traffic is coming in, what should or shouldn’t be connected to the network, and which components of your technology infrastructure require which types of protection. This information is then used to develop a network security plan to keep your data protected.
- A network security audit could get you lower insurance rates. Little known fact: businesses in the financial services and health care industry that handle financial information or HIPAA protected data are now required to have cyber-insurance. Many insurers require these businesses to have a network security plan, charging higher rates to businesses that don’t have one. If you’re like many smaller businesses in these industries, you could be paying more for your business insurance than you need to, as a result of not having a network security plan. An audit is the first step in developing such a plan, and could help you get a lower rate.
What is a network assessment?
Tolar Systems offers a network assessment that includes interviewing your organization’s key team members, analyzing hardware, software and vendor service agreements, examine physical security, data storage practices and much more, evaluating your network against more than 100 security best practices to identify vulnerabilities and propose corrective action.
The assessment looks at your entire network, from IT infrastructure and software requirements down to machine level performance and individual practices, resulting in a detailed plan to safeguard your organization’s critical business data.
Does your business need a network assessment? Let us know if we can help in the comments.
