An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. While old, this adage is as true today as it always has been, especially when it comes to cyber security and protecting your business’s network and private data.
In light of that adage, you probably see many managed network service providers offering cyber security or network protection, most them seeming to focus on limiting the damage once a hack or virus strikes your organization’s network infrastructure. They may offer back-up and disaster recovery (BDR) and business continuity services ensuring your business minimal network damage and downtime, but little in the way of actual incident prevention.
Network protection should include prevention
While BDR and business continuity are services you absolutely should employ to protect your business, network breach prevention is just as important.
Often, though, when organizations speak of prevention, they tend to speak of network user education, namely training which helps network users identify and avoid social engineering schemes. While effective in staving off many and even most cyber attacks, education coupled with firewalls and other network security measures simply are not enough. Attackers are still able to bypass network defenses, forcing companies to resort to last measure kinds of defense such as BDR to prevent a total network disaster.
Wouldn’t it be better for organizations to employ strong preventative measures to reduce potential for network disasters in the first place? Such measures do exist allowing businesses to wholly encompass their networks in protection and not just — to borrow an expression — “close the door after the horse has left the barn.”
So what can companies do to prevent network intrusion and compromise? Read on to find out what we do.
A 3-pronged approach to prevention
RK Black, as a managed network services provider, in addition to providing BDR and business continuity services, offers a triumvirate of services designed to together identify and, for the most part, prevent compromise of your business’s network.
Active, constant network monitoring for threats— An agent we install on your network actively looks for security alerts on your network. If it finds anything, it immediately creates a ticket and notifies our team of the threat. For example, if someone trying to access your network incorrectly inputs their password five times or logs in unexpectedly from another country, we’ll know about it.
The agent, which also can be installed on your network’s firewall, not only identifies threats, but looks for and identifies weaknesses, helping us to proactively prevent a network exploitations and breaches. It integrates with Office 365 too.
Simple, user friendly two-factor authorization— This tool requires network users, when logging on to your systems, to provide verification that they are who they say they are. Basically, whenever you log in on your computer, a dialog box appears on your phone requiring you to accept the log in attempt. With this system, you will know if someone that is not you is trying to log in under your credentials.
Unlike the two-factor authorization you’ve seen with online tools such as with Google which gives you a screen full of tiny-fonted codes, this tool only produces a pop-up screen with an approval button, making logging in simple and painless.
Active email filtering and threat identification— Where sometimes network users may fail to identify emailed social engineering schemes bearing malicious links and attachments, this service will scan and filter emails for possible threats.
Before an inbound email it even goes through Office 365, it goes though a security filter, which checks attachments, blocks credit card numbers and identifies links. Once it’s verified, it goes to Office 365. With this service, if a user does click a bad link, they are taken to a website warning them of malware.
The service also provides users with an encryption tool, allowing them to compose encrypted messages, forcing the receiver to log in to an online portal to retrieve the message.
To sum it up: You don't buy home insurance without buying door locks
Said another way, the preventative measures listed above are to your network as locks, cameras and security systems are to your house. Additonally, BDR and business continuity systems are to your network as insurance is to your house.
Would you buy home insurance without first investing in doorlocks for your home? No. Of course not. When it comes to your network, not only are we providing "insurance" for your network through BDR and our other services, but here we are offering you locks, a security system and an alarm system for your network.
Does this mean with all of these protections in place theives won't break into your home, so to speak? No, as locks, cameras and alarms keep honest people honest, so will our protective measures keep most threats out. But if malactors do make entry, we'll know about it and be the first to be on top of the situation to keep the damage minimal.
If you are interested in learning more about how we can better secure your network, click the red button below, fill out the form and we'll contact you right away. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
About R.K. Black, Inc.
R.K. Black, Inc. is an Oklahoma City-based, family-owned leading provider of office technology solutions to small and medium-sized businesses in Oklahoma and Kansas. We specialize in everything business technology from copier, fax, printer and scanner technology to document management, onsite paper shredding services, VoIP phone systems and managed IT support to video surveillance solutions.
If you want to learn more about us, feel free to explore the website, read our other blogs or click the button below to be contacted by one of our reps and tell you! Also, be sure to keep watching our social media channels on Facebook and Twitter for more business tips from our blog.
