Network security is safeguarding corporate networks and resources from all kinds of malicious intrusions.
When the pandemic began in 2020, remote work became a new normal for many of us, and we quickly embraced it. But, for businesses, remote work increased the complexity of corporate networks and a remote workforce brought great security risks along.
During the last two years, maintaining network security has become more important than ever.
Because employees were no longer inside the corporate perimeter and legacy technologies were inefficient to protect cloud-based resources and these technologies couldn’t provide secure remote access to employees.
In today’s decentralized working environments, legacy technologies can’t maintain overall network security. So, businesses need to adopt more comprehensive and modern approaches for their cyber security posture.
Modern security components can help businesses have enhanced network security that will keep all kinds of malicious intrusions away from corporate networks.
Before listing the benefits of enhanced network security, let’s explain enterprise network security solutions further.
Network Security Components
1- Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)
Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) is a modern security approach that is grounded on the idea “never trust, always verify”, it assumes that every user, device, and application is hostile until proven otherwise.
Regardless of their roles, every user has to authenticate their identities before they can access the corporate networks.
Zero Trust includes the best identity access management tools so that IT admins can set access privileges for each user, device, or application, and control these privileges. Zero Trust can seamlessly integrate into a business’ already existing infrastructure.
By implementing Zero Trust, businesses can reduce the risks of malicious intrusions on corporate networks. In short, it enables enhanced network security and doesn’t permit unauthorized users, devices, or applications to gain access to corporate networks.
2- Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
Today, over 60% of corporate data is stored in the cloud, that’s why businesses need to maintain security in the cloud environment. SASE architecture is a cloud-native security approach that consists of five main components.
These are SD-WAN as service, Secure Web Gateway (SGW), Firewall as Service (FWaaS), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA).
SD-WAN allows users to access corporate networks and resources anywhere in the world. SASE enables secure remote access via secure web gateways. Before employees can access corporate networks, ZTNA demands authentication of their identities.
SASE framework enables improved network security, and it protects both on-premise devices and cloud-based resources, and applications. By implementing SASE architecture businesses can enable overall security across the enterprise.
3- Remote Access VPN
Remote Access VPN can be a good solution for improving network security. Additionally, it doesn’t require any on-premise setup, commonly users access corporate networks via client VPN software.
Remote Access VPN creates private tunnels between users and corporate networks, and resources. It uses end-to-end encryption and makes data transfers unreadable for unauthorized users.
It hides corporate networks from the public internet and makes them invisible to malicious actors. But, if you want to improve network security, Remote Access VPN should be used with multi-factor authentication tools.
Benefits of Network Security
1- Enhanced Network Protection
Modern network security components enable enhanced network protection against both internal and external threats. Zero Trust ensures that only authorized users can access the corporate networks and resources.
Additionally, it limits users’ access privileges so that they can only reach necessary files for a short period of time.
By implementing SASE architecture, businesses can secure all the edge points and end-users against threats. Lastly, these modern approaches allow businesses to respond to threats immediately, and they include improved threat prevention features.
2- Reduced Security Risks
Modern network security components help businesses to mitigate the potential security risks. For example, Zero Trust segments the network and doesn’t allow lateral movement.
Even if attackers can gain access to corporate networks, they can’t move to other segments or roam in the network.
In this way, Zero Trust minimizes surface areas of cyberattacks, and cybercriminals won’t be able to make further damage or accomplish their malicious goals.
All network security components aim to reduce security risks and prevent network intrusions of all kinds.
Last Remarks
As of 2022, cybercrimes continue to increase drastically, and every company is up against the risk of cyber-attacks regardless of their size. In today’s world, maintaining network security is really important.
Modern security approaches like SASE, Zero Trust, or Remote Access VPNs can help businesses improve their cyber security posture while ensuring enhanced network security.