As most of you probably know, corporate and home networks are often connected to the Internet 24/7, exposing them to the wide variety of malicious software circulating on the Internet.
Because of this, enterprises are continually designing and improving IT/network security architectures that use a layered approach to secure their networks and computing environments.
Paraphrasing (OK… plagiarizing) the immortal dialogue between Shrek and Donkey:
Shrek: For your information, IT SECURITY is much more than what people think.
Donkey: Example?
Shrek: Example? Okay, er… YOUR SAFETY… is… like an onion.
Donkey: Does it stink?
Shrek: Yes… NO!
Donkey: Or it makes you cry.
Shreck: NO! LAYERS! Onions have layers. IT security has layers. Onions have layers…get it? They both have capes!
Donkey: Oh, they both have layers… You know, not everyone likes onions… CAKES!
Everyone loves cakes! Cakes have layers!
So take your pick. Whether you choose the onion or the pie analogy, a well-designed IT security architecture consists of multiple layers to thwart and prevent hackers from entering the network to wreak havoc and compromise sensitive data.
To mitigate potential health risks to corporate networks and IT environments, most companies use multiple layers of security to help protect against known and unknown viruses and denial-of-service attacks.
Some of these layers include:
• Firewall to limit access to/from the Internet
• Intrusion detection/prevention system to protect yourself and distribute alerts of possible attacks against the network
• Vulnerability scan of critical servers for known vulnerabilities
• Attachment blocking – Specific types of attachments are blocked from being delivered to end users, based on best practices determined by antivirus vendors.
• Two-way email scanning for known viruses
• Scanning of workstations and file servers for known viruses, both in real time when files are opened or saved, and periodically when doing a full disk scan.
• Scanning of websites for potential malware and, if detected, access denied
• Periodic penetration tests to ensure that perimeter measures are effective.
• Black hole DNS: Known “bad” websites cannot be accessed
There is always a window of opportunity between the time the wrong technician releases your creation and the time it takes for antivirus vendors to identify it and release new pattern files to their subscribers. That’s why most companies block specific types of files from being automatically delivered to recipients.
Contrary to what some people believe, most IT departments don’t try to stop users from doing their jobs. However, they try to take appropriate measures to minimize the risk to their entire network, and therefore to all users, using the different layers of the security onion.
After all is said and done, end users provide the last layer of protection. Each user is the “heart of the onion”. Regardless of the steps taken to protect the corporate IT infrastructure, IT departments ultimately depend on a population of informed and educated users to understand the dangers posed by spam emails, attachments, embedded links, etc. and the websites they access.
Without an informed/educated end-user population, the personal/confidential information of companies and individual users is at risk.
Does your company have a security awareness campaign to inform and educate the heart of your security onion? Ought!