IT Security Software
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Compare the Top IT Security Software of 2020
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Compare the best IT Security software currently available using the table below.
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1
SolarWinds Passportal
SolarWinds MSP
SolarWinds® Passportal provides simple yet secure password and documentation management tailored for the operations of an MSP. The platform is cloud-based and offers channel partners automated password protection and makes storing, managing, and retrieving passwords & client knowledge quick and easy from virtually any connected device. The SolarWinds® Passportal product suite also offers value-added service products including Documentation Manager, Blink™ and Site™ all which promote compliance with industry regulations and help protect businesses from data breaches, cybersecurity threats and network vulnerabilities.
Starting Price: $18.00/month -
2
SolarWinds Mail Assure
SolarWinds MSP
SolarWinds® Mail Assure cloud-based email security solution provides advanced threat protection for inbound and outbound email using collective threat intelligence, 24/7 email continuity, and long-term email archiving. The service includes a multitenant web-interface with predefined settings, reporting, and views designed to ensure control and visibility over email flows. SolarWinds® Mail Assure’s proprietary technology incorporates input from processing large volumes of email data that feeds the Intelligent Protection and Filtering Engine. This combined with real-time pattern threat recognition leveraging a variety of filtering technologies help protect against spam, viruses, phishing attacks, impersonation, spoofing, malware, and other email-borne threats.
Starting Price: $1 per month -
3
Netwrix Auditor
Netwrix
Netwrix Auditor is a visibility platform that enables control over changes, configurations and access in hybrid IT environments and eliminates the stress of your next compliance audit. Monitor all changes across your on-prem and cloud systems, including AD, Windows Server, file storage, databases, Exchange, VMware and more. Simplify your reporting and inventory routines. Regularly review your identity and access configurations, and easily verify that they match a known good state.
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4
BetterCloud
BetterCloud
BetterCloud is the first SaaS Operations Management platform, empowering IT to secure user interactions across SaaS applications. Over 2,500 customers in 60+ countries rely on BetterCloud for continuous event monitoring, quickly remediating threats, and fully automating policy enforcement. Common use cases for BetterCloud include: - Automated user onboarding and offboarding - Content scanning and data protection policies - Privileged access management For more information about BetterCloud, visit www.bettercloud.com.
Starting Price: $3/user/month -
5
1Password Business
1Password
1Password is a secure, scalable, and easy-to-use password manager that's trusted by the world's leading companies. Using 1Password makes it easy for your employees to stay safe online. Once 1Password is part of their workflow, good security habits will become second nature. 1Password Advanced Protection is now available with 1Password Business. Set Master Password policies, enforce two-factor authentication team-wide, restrict access with firewall rules, review sign-in attempts and require your team to use the latest version of 1Password. Our award-winning apps are available for Mac, iOS, Linux, Windows, and Android. 1Password syncs seamlessly across devices, so your employees always have access to their passwords. When everyone uses 1Password, your risk goes down — and your productivity goes up.
Starting Price: $3.99/month/user -
6
jetNEXUS Load Balancer
edgeNEXUS Limited
jetNEXUS is the most beautiful and easiest to use Load Balancer /ADC Application Delivery Controller available Our ADC Load Balancer allows you to easily implement and manage security, traffic, SSO/Pre-authentication and, of course, load balancing.
Starting Price: $1,942.50/one-time -
7
Acunetix
Acunetix
Acunetix is the market leader in automated web application security testing, and is the tool of choice for many Fortune 500 customers. Acunetix detects and reports on a wide array of web application vulnerabilities. The Acunetix industry leading crawler fully supports HTML5 and JavaScript and Single-page applications, allowing auditing of complex, authenticated applications. Acunetix provides the only technology on the market that can automatically detect out-of-band vulnerabilities and is available both as an online and on premise solution. Acunetix also includes integrated vulnerability management features to extend the enterprise’s ability to comprehensively manage, prioritise and control vulnerability threats – ordered by business criticality. Acunetix integrates with popular Issue Trackers and WAFs and is available on Windows, Linux and Online
Starting Price: $4,495 yearly -
8
Netsparker Security Scanner
Netsparker
Netsparker web application security scanner automatically detects SQL Injection, Cross-site Scripting (XSS) and other vulnerabilities in all types of web applications, regardless of the technology they are built with. Netsparker is easy to use and employs a unique and dead accurate proof-based scanning technology that automatically verifies the identified vulnerabilities; so you do not have to manually verify them. Netsparker is available as desktop software and as an online scanning service and is trusted by world renowned companies such as Samsung, NASA, Microsoft, ING bank, Skype and Ernst & Young.
Starting Price: $4,995 per year -
9
AppTrana
Indusface
AppTrana is a fully managed 24x7 application security solution that identifies application-layer vulnerabilities; protects & accelerates them instantly through a WAF and CDN; monitors traffic through proprietary machine learning algorithms and with its in-house security experts blocking emerging threats and DDoS attacks. We are trusted by over 1700+ global customers. We currently serve the Government, Banking, Finance, E-Commerce and SaaS based sectors.
Starting Price: $99/month -
10
MasterControl
MasterControl
MasterControl provides a complete line of quality and compliance software solutions and services to customers worldwide. Combining industry best practices and flexibility, MasterControl products enable companies to ensure compliance and get to market faster. MasterControl's enterprise quality management software system covers audit and observations, batch records, Bill of Materials (BOM), documents and records, food safety, training and competencies, and more.
Starting Price: $1000.00/month -
11
SolarWinds N-central
SolarWinds MSP
Join the thousands of MSPs and IT professionals who use SolarWinds N-central to remotely monitor and manage devices and complex networks. Built with security in mind, N-central provides the visibility and efficiency you need to scale. With the time you save, you can invest more in your business. N-central can help you: 1) Proactively monitor everything on your customer networks – not just servers and workstations – and troubleshoot quickly 2) Stay on top of threats with features like MFA, antivirus, integrated Endpoint Detection and Response, data backup, disk encryption, email protection, and password management 3) Automate routine tasks using Rules and Filters to customize policies by customer, site, or device type to get the precision and control you want
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12
SolarWinds RMM
SolarWinds
SolarWinds® RMM® is a cloud-based IT solution that makes it easy for MSPs to deliver valuable technology services within hours, not weeks or months. Clear graphical dashboards place alerts front and center so you can focus on what needs you most. Built-in remote access and security features help you support and protect from day one. And when you’re ready, grow your business with additional security layers and add-ons services to expand your offering. SolarWinds RMM features include remote access, network path visualization, automated monitoring and maintenance, prescriptive data analytics, data-breach risk intelligence, and more. SolarWinds RMM is also available for download as Android and iOS mobile apps to allow users to manage issues anywhere.
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13
Esper
Esper
Move beyond a Regular MDM, towards a highly focused Android DevOps platform that includes not only all the features of an MDM but also DevOps tools that can help you configure, deploy, and manage your devices complete Android Device lifecycle. Esper offers powerful, intuitive features to control enterprise devices, including hardware, firmware, app development, monitoring, and remote remediation. Esper is the first solution to combine custom OS, enhanced firmware, a complete DevOps toolchain, and endpoint detection and response. Esper's full-stack admin suite goes beyond a regular MDM with unprecedented support for device management, remote control, and real-time OTA updates. It's the only single-dashboard suite for remote device diagnostics, advanced telemetry and debugging.
Starting Price: Free forever for upto 100 devices -
14
Miradore MDM
Miradore
Miradore is a cloud-based Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that provides a smarter way to securely manage both company-owned and personal Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows devices. With Miradore, you can stay up to date with your device fleet, automate device management across multiple operating systems, distribute business-critical apps, and secure your company data. Getting started is simple and always free, and when needed, you can unlock additional features with Business and Enterprise plans. You can test all the features risk-free with a 14-day trial of the Enterprise plan. No credit card information is required.
Starting Price: Forever free for unlimited devices; Enterprise plan: $3 / device / month -
15
Imatag
IMATAG
IMATAG protects your visual content online, such as product images, brand visuals, licensed content, or sensitive files. It comes in two flavours: - IMATAG LEAKS, the first online solution for the identification of photo or video leaks, - and IMATAG MONITOR, the most reliable visual search solution to track the use of your content on the internet. How it works: The software discreetly places an imperceptible identifier at the pixel level of images or videos. This invisible watermark allows to identify your content on the web regardless if it has been resized, cropped or trimmed, posted on social media or copied via a screenshot. Used as a tracker, it is also able to trace the origin of a leak. Supports images (photos, renders, design), videos, and PDF. Available as SaaS via Web UI or API, or on premise software.
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16
SiteDocs
SiteDocs
Your Safety & Compliance Made Easy! A business that operates in industries involving Construction, Oil & Gas, Mining, Manufacturing, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, Heating, and Excavating know first hand the importance of staying in compliance with mandatory documentation. In addition, how a company manages to keep everything organized is equally important. SiteDocs is a highly interactive advance Safety Management System that takes organizations from pen-and-paper archiving to a complete, cloud-based, digital workspace. Built with features that allow users to work remotely, mobile, and even offline, the system can virtually be accessed across multiple devices that run on iOS or Android. Employees can now easily complete & sign forms, upload photos with comments and acknowledge receipt of important documentation. All while admin users ensure that staff records, reports, and certifications are automatically updated using system parameters within the web-based panel.
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17
Integrum QHSE Risk & Compliance Software
integrum Management Systems
Integrum is a multi-award winning web-based Quality, Health, Safety & Environmental Management (QHSE) Risk and Compliance Software. This singular, cloud-based risk and compliance solution is suitable for a variety of industries with user-defined templates, audit processes, observation cards, and inspection lists. Core features of Integrum QHSE Risk & Compliance Software include investigation management, incident management, action management, contractor management, risk and compliance management, controlled document management, audit management, and reporting and analysis.
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18
Domotz Pro
Domotz
Domotz is the premier Remote Network Monitoring and Management platform for IoT. We offer powerful network management software for MSP's, Integrators, Security Professionals, and Business Owners. Domotz enables the complete solution to cost-effectively manage and monitor your customers’ networks with plug and play setup, a friendly UX, and a comprehensive feature set, accessible from any desktop browser or mobile device.
Starting Price: $19 per month -
19
SolarWinds Backup
SolarWinds
Protect servers, applications, databases, workstations, and Microsoft 365 data with SolarWinds Backup. Cloud storage in one of 30 worldwide data centers is included, with the option to keep a local copy of your backups using the hardware of your choice. Flexible recovery options include bare-metal restore, virtual restore, and file/folder-level recovery. Reduce administrative time by managing backups for all your customers, and all their device and data types, from a single dashboard. Automated recovery testing provides screenshot backup verification. TrueDelta deduplication, compression, and WAN optimization make daily backups lightweight and fast. Find out how easy fast, reliable data protection can be, with SolarWinds Backup.
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20
CPTRAX for Windows
Visual Click Software
Server File Activity Tracking - Audit who is creating, accessing, moving, and deleting your files and folders. Track file permission changes. Real-time alerts about critical file activities. Workstation File Activity Tracking - Audit who is copying files to USB or other removable drives. Track who is uploading files from a browser or via FTP. Block files from being created on USB/removable device. Email alerts when a removable device is connected. Active Directory Auditing - Keep audit logs and get real-time alerts of important Active Directory changes without dealing with SACLs or Windows Event Logs. Server Authentication Auditing - Track authentications into Windows Servers and Citrix sessions. Review all failed logon attempts. Workstation Logon/Logoff Tracking - Get visibility on workstation logons/logoffs, including locks, unlocks and password changes. Review all failed logon attempts. GPO Auditing - Track creation, deletion, and linking of Group Policy Objects.
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21
SOC Prime Threat Detection Marketplace
SOCPrime
SOC Prime Threat Detection Marketplace® is a SaaS content platform that enables security professionals to detect and respond to cyber threats using SIEM, EDR and SOAR tools. Threat Detection Marketplace (TDM) is an online library of over 52,000 SIEM & EDR rules, queries and more designed to work directly in the SIEM platform you already own. TDM contains SOC ready dashboards, rule packages, Machine Learning recipes for the Elastic Stack, and Sigma rules updated daily and streamed via API. 94% of the content is mapped to MITRE ATT&CK framework aimed at uncovering the latest Malware, APT actors activity, Exploitation attempts and enabling real-time Forensics and TTP threat actor attribution use cases across on-premise and cloud data. As of May 2020, Threat Detection Marketplace is used by 9600+ security specialists of 4100+ organizations across 146 countries in the world.
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22
USB-LOCK-RP
Advanced Systems International
USB Control & Lockdown Software to Block USB Devices Access and Lock USB Ports in Windows Systems. Centralized USB Device Management, Monitoring and Whitelisting to Protect Computers in a Network. USB Device Control is an important part of Endpoint Security Management and focuses in the protection of computer systems and data assets from threats posed by unauthorized USB device usage. Controlling USB devices access to endpoints is required to secure networks that control machinery or store sensitive information. - Centralized USB Device Management. - Secures Groups of Computer or Specific Computers. - Whitelists Specific Devices by Hardware ID and Blocks the rest. - Receives Alerts & Logs Device Connections in the Network Automatically. - Presents Full Screen Locking upon Blocking Devices (includes your company logo). - Monitors & Encrypts File Transfers from Endpoints to Authorized USB drives (ON/OFF). - Easy Client Deployment through Group Policy (Windows Installer MSI).
Starting Price: $20 per client/one-time -
23
Certainty Software
Certainty Software
Certainty is a powerful and trusted enterprise-level audit and inspection software solution to manage and report business risk, compliance and performance metrics easily and efficiently. Used by more than 100,000 professionals to complete over 2,000,000 audits and inspections annually, Certainty Software is an audit and inspection management solution that provides all you need to easily collect, collate and report consistent, accurate and meaningful metrics across your business. Certainty allows for data entry from paper, browser, Excel import or the Certainty app for smartphones and tablets and provides all you need to design and manage audit/inspection checklists; collect and report audit/inspection data and manage and mitigate the risks, incidents and issues identified in the audit/inspection process.
Starting Price: $14 per user per month -
24
Codeproof
Codeproof Technologies
Codeproof Technologies Inc. is an American software and technology company that offers a suite of cloud mobile device management(MDM) software and integrated security solutions. The company offers software as a service(SaaS) environment. The company’s flagship platform is the Codeproof platform, an MDM solution that offers customers an industry-leading feature set, easy onboarding, and a simple interface. Codeproof also offers DriveSafe, SiteSecure, and Managed Mobile Hotspot, which allows individuals and companies to manage and secure mobile devices. Their offerings are built on a patent granted in July 2015. The company is best known for associating with medium and large organizations and helps them create a centralized environment for endpoint management of their workforce. The company is headquartered in Redmond, Washington.
Starting Price: $3/device/month. Setup and support included. iOS/Android/Windows all in one cloud platform. -
25
SmartCompliance
SmartCompliance
Insurance tracking and compliance management solutions. Self-service & full-service solutions that automate certificate of insurance or proof of insurance renewals, eliminate manual data entry, & help ensure compliance. COI tracking software and services that manage the time-consuming process of collecting certificates of insurance, sending renewal requests and confirming third-party compliance. Proof of insurance tracking software and services that help property managers easily track tenant policies to ensure coverage & compliance with renter’s insurance requirements. Certificate issuance solution and services that relieve the burden of creating, delivering, storing and managing certificates of insurance. Experience for yourself why SmartCompliance is the most trusted provider for certificate of insurance or proof of insurance tracking, issuance, and compliance management.
Nowadays, business owners have more options in terms of computer security than they’ve ever had before. With technology evolving as it has, hackers have many more ways to exploit a computer network. In terms of potential threats, the attack surface is larger than ever and there’s a myriad of new ways to exploit a network. This has led to internal policy changes for offices, and a whole host of new approaches for security specialists. Overwhelming as it may seem, there is still going to be one correct choice. That choice, however, is going to be different depending on the individual needs of your business and the structure and size of your office. This means identifying the business’s individual risk and determining where the attack surface is.
This isn’t the easiest of tasks, especially for those that aren’t computer savvy. Security specialists are trained to think like hackers. They’ll be looking at your business’s network as if it is an attack surface. They’ll be identifying vulnerabilities and they’ll come up with a security solution that meets your individual needs.
Consider, for instance, the use of Bluetooth devices. Most folks would consider them innocuous everyday devices that power their wireless keyboards and headsets. On the other hand, what if the signal from a wireless keyboard could be intercepted without the individual who is using it being aware that their data is being transmitted outside the network? This would allow a potential hacker to steal passwords by logging the individual keystrokes coming from the keyboard. Not only is it a risk to your system, but it would also risks your client’s information.
Another issue for business owners is not understanding fully what the risks are to their system or paying for an advanced security system that does not entirely meet their needs or protect the entire network. It thus becomes an issue of prioritizing the risks to your business and shoring up any potential holes in your security. For a layman, that’s no easy task. This article should help you get the lay of the land and make a better choice for your business.
What is Business Security Software
In the old days, security software was the only option available. Today’s needs for security go much farther. Security software still exists, but now there’s also hardware and hosted cloud-based services that businesses can purchase. Each of these represents a different approach to managing a business’s security needs and they are often used in tandem. In order to fully understand the different approaches to security and determine for yourself what the best approach for your business will be, you’ll have to familiarize yourself with the many different ways of securing a network and computer. These are the basics.
Firewalls are the computer’s first line of defense against intrusion. They prevent a hacker from attacking your network simply by infiltrating the IP address. Firewalls for personal computers are generally software, but for businesses, they can also be hardware combined with a software solution. Firewalls are designed for the specific purpose of determining what traffic is allowed into your network. Most businesses rely on more sophisticated firewalls than your typical home PC will employ. For instance, these firewalls will be able to determine the specific applications employees use allowing security specialists to implement a precision threat assessment. Many of these firewalls will come with options that are above and beyond what some businesses need. In addition, they have expensive price points and in order to customize them, you’ll need to know a thing or two about IT security or have someone on staff that can configure them properly.
Antivirus and Anti-malware software is a staple of both home PCs and business networks. Antivirus software works by conducting scans on a computer. It looks for viruses and malware and then quarantines and removes them. In order to do this, it must have an expansive virus definition file. The scan runs through each file on the network to determine if one bit of code in a program matches up with one of the known viruses or malware. It also scans new files that appear on the computer or network immediately for threats. These can include spyware, bots, and keylogging software in addition to computer viruses. This solution, while effective, is also incredibly clunky, eats up lots of RAM, and slows down your entire network. It’s a brute force solution to the problem of harmful software infiltrating your network.
Encryption involves the process of making your data readable only to those within your business. In terms of security, encryption is one of the most effective means of protecting data. It’s nearly impossible to decrypt data without the security key used to make it readable to those in your inner circle. Even for networks that are breached, hackers won’t be able to make good use of the data unless they can read it.
Email represents one of the most common avenues of attack for hackers. Some companies institute an email policy while others employ software that scrutinizes the contents of the email to determine if attachments are themselves malware or if there is a potential threat from clicking a link. Other businesses will find it necessary to install a secure email gateway. These can scan traffic moving both into and out of your network. It catches potential malware earlier than an antivirus can and before it enters your network.
Integrated Security Suites: What are They and How do They Work?
Integrated Security Suites are a good option for those that have dedicated security staff on hand to manage the configuration and deployment of the suite. They tend to be among the cheapest options, but they will also cost a business elsewhere. Namely, you’ll need someone on hand that is well versed in network security to monitor, update, configure, and reconfigure your defense strategy.
In addition, there may be an option to have the security bundle monitored remotely. A vendor may offer this as an option, or there may be a third party that monitors the network. Any of these options are going to make the security bundle less cost effective to the business but will improve network security.
Bundled security packages tend to include the various services listed below in some combination.
Endpoint Protection constitutes protecting each and every device on the network. An endpoint is simply techspeak for a device. This includes mobile devices, laptops, desktops, tablets, printers, or anything else that is connected to the mainframe. Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP) are bundled security packages that are installed on each individual device. They include common security software such as antivirus, encryption, intrusion detection and prevention, and a firewall. As a point of policy, network security specialists should not allow devices that have not been outfitted with the software to connect to the network.
Unified threat management also known as UTM may either be a locally installed piece of hardware or a hosted service. This will contain what is called a “Next Generation Firewall� and a host of other security tools including antivirus, spam blockers, intrusion prevention and detection, and content filtering.
UTMs can be an ideal choice for small to medium sized businesses. Because a UTM is fundamentally either a managed service or a piece of hardware, it can be circumvented by a clever hacker that attacks an endpoint. UTMs provide a perimeter defense scheme to protect endpoints, but once an endpoint has been compromised, the network may be vulnerable. Thus the fewer devices on the network, the smaller the attack surface is, and the less vulnerable the network will be.The larger the network, the larger the attack surface.
A Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution is ideal for networks that have a lot of mobile devices such as tablets and phones requiring access. An MDM can determine which devices are authorized and which aren’t, excluding those that aren’t. Since MDM is a kind of Endpoint Protection Platform, it can be bundled together with some EPP packages. MDM will allow network administrators to determine precisely what individual mobile devices can access and if need be, the network administrator can erase company data from an individual device remotely.
Protecting Against Traffic Risks
A good metaphor for understanding the problem of network security is to consider your home as a metaphor for the network. Your home has a few different doors from which you can access the inside. You want some people to be able to access the inside, but not others. A firewall fundamentally creates a barrier between unwanted visitors and your family.
Unlike a home however, data flowing into and out of a computer on a network isn’t immediately recognizable. A security specialist must program a set of rules determining which ports are safe to receive data from. For instance, you want your company’s website to be able to receive data from clients and customers. The firewall thus creates an exception for the individual port that your website operates from.
Threats can come from outside the network and they often do in the form of hackers. However, the threats that come from inside your network are likely the ones that leave you the most vulnerable. These can be from employees clicking an email that installs some kind of malware on your network, or from an unregistered bluetooth device that is being used by a employee that is not heeding (or simply unaware of) company policy. In both instances data that is leaving the network may be received by a hacker on the other side that can compromise your client’s and your company’s most sensitive data.
Thus, traffic must be monitored both coming and going.
A Secure Web Gateway can differentiate between different kinds of content coming into and exiting the network. A typical firewall blocks traffic based on where it’s coming from. In other words, it gives a network administrator more control over the firewall. There’s a lot of applications that run over the network that require internet access. Firewalls need to be able to allow these programs to open ports in order to let information in and out. A Secure Web Gateway, unlike a typical home computer firewall, can ensure that certain kinds of data are not leaving the system.
A Secure Web Gateway can also restrict employee access to certain online websites. In addition, it scans all data that is coming over the network and leaving the network specifically looking for suspicious activity. This can be of major benefit to businesses that employ a vast number of workers. It typically happens that your employees are themselves security risks either due to malicious intent, or pure carelessness. Secure Web Gateways are designed to prevent honest mistakes, and consciously malicious actions taken by an employee. Many times, malware can come from emails or over the web, so Secure Web Gateways are designed to catch malicious code while it’s being transferred through the network, not as it’s being executed or as part of a scan. In other words, it preempts the process of downloading and executing the malware.
Secure Web Gateways are an ideal solution for any size business. They can be implemented as either a software solution, hardware, or as a remotely hosted service.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) refers to a method of defending against the theft of sensitive company data. This can include your customer’s credit card numbers or other confidential information. DLP is aimed at sifting through data that is being sent through the network elsewhere. It can determine if an individual user is allowed to send certain data through the corporate network, or even if an individual recipient is authorized to have that data.
One thing to note is that DLP is not meant to prevent intrusion. It can, however, stop data packets from leaving the network rendering a potential intrusion fruitless. It is generally offered as part of a broader package as it ensures a critical line of defense against hackers that can invade a system in a variety of ways.
IPS and IDS refer to Intrusion Prevention and Intrusion Detection Systems. Firewalls are designed to keep intruders out, but they have no way of determining if an intrusion has taken place. In addition, IPS offers a degree of protection that goes above and beyond what your typical firewall is capable of providing. Intrusion detection is meant to ensure that malicious activity is blocked even when the intruder may have accessed the system using legitimate credentials (which happens often). In other words, IDS identifies malicious behavior.
Access Management
Access management involves the administration of credentials to access the network at various levels. For instance, you might not want an entry level employee to have access to every aspect of your company’s business. You still, however, want this employee to have access to the network in order to do their job. Access management tools regulate who gets access to what within an individual network.
There are two main components to Access Management. Those are Identity Access Management (IAM) and Network Access Control.
Identity Access Management refers to the software that manages employee usernames and passwords. It authenticates individual employee credentials and manages their level of access. Some sort of IAM solution becomes necessary the larger your business is. Smaller businesses face a different sort of threat profile when everyone is operating out of a single small office. Larger businesses may have hundreds of employees, so it won’t necessarily trigger alarms if someone comes in off the street and starts hacking away at a network terminal. Smaller businesses generally don’t have that problem.
In contrast, Network Access Control is a kind of software that determines what devices are allowed to access the network and what level of access individual devices should have. Large organizations will employ NAC as well, but even smaller organizations that allow their employees access to the network will benefit from NAC software.
Threat Intelligence
Threat intelligence is designed to scrutinize behavior to determine if it’s a threat to the network or not. Most modern cloud based security systems run on lightweight servers that do not employ vast virus and malware definitions. Instead, they analyze the behavior of certain programs and determine whether or not they’re behaving in a threatening fashion. This is an integral piece of the puzzle because there are no security systems in place that can be 100% effective against preventing files or data from coming into the network. So threat intelligence programs exist to minimize the damage caused if there is a breach in network security.
System Information Management and Security Event Management are two distinct methods that operate in tandem to track down suspicious activity, identify suspicious activity, and respond to suspicious activity. This, in essence, is the network’s last line of defense against a threat. Logging the data will help a company respond to a security issue in the future, while the other methods neutralize suspicious activity as it’s occurring.
Vulnerability Scanning also known as Penetration Testing employs software that “attacks� your network for weaknesses. In other words, it simulates a hacker attempting to gain access to a network in order to shore up weaknesses within your network. Security teams employed by a company will attempt to break in to the company’s mainframe using a variety of sophisticated attacks. If successful, the company then can respond by shoring up that hole in their security.
Considering the Cost
Most security software operates on the same basic licensing agreement that any software license operates on. That means paying the license on every device on which the security software is installed. In some cases, it will also mean employing additional IT technicians to monitor the network and configure the software. The added cost has caused many companies to move toward hosted services that operate and manage a company’s security remotely. This means less of a burden on an IT staff and an individual company. Individual companies have also begun consulting third party security specialists to analyze their network and determine what the most cost effective strategy would be for their individual needs. Scalability may be a major concern for larger or growing companies, but smaller companies are going to be most interested in providing themselves with effective protection at a manageable price.
Evaluating Security Software and Security Packages
Over the last decade, network security specialists have diversified to the extent that it actually feels like you have to be an expert simply to select the right security package for your business. Indeed, many companies have recruited consultants for the very purpose of determining the company’s security needs. According to a recent poll, however, this has not led to a wide amount of customer satisfaction. What did lead to customer satisfaction was due diligence on the security firm’s references and having a trusted lawyer go over the agreement before signing.
One could argue that satisfaction is not the best determiner for the quality of a security service. If you never notice the security system then it’s doing its job properly. On the other hand, with so many options to choose from, analyzing a vendor’s credentials and having a lawyer read over the fine print of an arrangement isn’t such a bad option.
In the end, an article such as this can only help companies and their executives understand the options that are available to them. Different businesses will indeed require different kinds of protection. Many security vendors offer entire boutiques of protection for a wide array of businesses. The reputable ones are those that put a premium on customer satisfaction and repeat business.