Network Security is Always in Motion: It’s Either Getting Stronger or Weaker

Network security is the all-encompassing protection of network infrastructure from outside threats, including data theft, unauthorized access and misuse. It exists within each and every organization’s IT ecosystem, but the effectiveness of these controls and solutions, and whether they are truly improving the security posture of the network, is another question. The state of network security is constantly changing due to several factors including newly discovered vulnerabilities, available patches, configuration changes, and evolving techniques and tactics leveraged by bad actors working to breach enterprise networks. If these instances aren’t addressed properly and in a timely manner, they are inherently making the network security posture weaker and easier to breach, every single day. Organizations must prioritize a network security automation approach to do the exact opposite — that is, continuously improving the security posture to make the network more resilient and harder to breach, every single day.

Network security should always be top of mind for enterprises big and small. In order to avoid IT downtime caused by cyberattacks and outside threats, as well as be properly prepared in the event of a disaster, organizations must prioritize the strength of their network security posture through automation. In its simplest terms, network security automation is a portion of network automation that is focused on consistently enhancing network security posture. When executed properly, network security automation creates an environment where the network should always be more secure at the end of the day than it was that morning. Network security automation enables the entire IT ecosystem to become more resilient, reliable, and agile when faced with changing conditions. When organizations build an automation system that is continuously improving the security posture through threat intel data, the IT ecosystem is conditioned to become more and more robust. Network security automation should incorporate insights from a variety of data sources- including threat intel sources, vendors (for information on known exploits), and users (for updates on configuration changes) – in order to continuously refine configurations and harden the perimeter around the network.

At a minimum, network security automation solutions should include:

• Disaster Recovery; Backup and Restore: Highly available and well-orchestrated network infrastructure backup and recovery systems can significantly reduce downtime and reduce the risk of lost or compromised data from outages.
• OS Upgrade, Patch, and Vulnerability Management: Combining network security automation and vulnerability management capabilities allows you to strategically plan your infrastructure upgrades and rapidly accelerate implementation.
• Compliance Validation and Automated Remediation: Network automation tools can audit device configs, in real-time, to ensure that they adhere to compliance standards, industry best practices as they relate to security policy endorsement, and firewall rule maintenance.
• Cybersecurity Asset and Attack Surface Management (CAASM): Especially as other forms of automation swell the size of the IT estate and the range of assets involved, network security automation is the key to maintaining visibility and control over these expanded asset ecosystems.
• IT Service Management (ITSM): Network security automation can bring consistency and standardization to the ITSM framework an organization uses to design, build, deliver, operate, and control information technology services offered to customers.

BackBox delivers all these benefits and more as the leading provider of network security automation.