Preventing IT Security Attacks with a Strong Security Base
New and advanced technologies such as the cloud infrastructure that help in reducing the IT costs are in great demand. However, these new technologies have also made companies more vulnerable to online attacks. The security concerns of the IT infrastructures are increasing due to less staff and cost cutting methods. Although several security options are fervently marketed they hardly serve the purpose because none are able to address the basic security levels. Simply installing security controls is not enough to protect the critical infrastructure and corporate data.
The IT environment can never be 100% safe. It is extremely important to address the foundation of the company’s security. Thus it is advisable to take measures to assess and harden the IT systems for blocking and tackling the risks. The solution that is deployed must help in the assessment and configuration of inventory on all servers and devices. The results must be analyzed to check whether they fulfill the security criteria. The solutions must provide real-time insights on changes made on files and configurations that are relevant to security.
Addressing the basics in IT security means the elimination of use of default or weak administrative passwords and firewalls that are inefficiently configured, and discarding open ports and services that are no longer used. It also means constantly monitoring the IT systems to identify any signs that indicate an attack in the near future such as disabled security controls by anti-forensic activities, sudden changes in critical files and abnormal permissions. The security configuration management solutions have the capability to make the security professionals aware of such unusual issues. The solutions provide them with automated tools and information to handle these issues competently.
The IT settings in the corporate world are complex and it is very easy to overlook the basic security arrangements. Due to deployment of software, upgrades and patches the environment is constantly changing and it becomes difficult to manage the standard configurations. A small change can weaken the entire security setup. Thus the security professionals must be provided with increased visibility of the entire IT infrastructure so that they are aware of any changes that are made to standard configurations.
The security configuration management tool defines and hardens the security policies to build a steady foundation. The tool can be integrated into any existing infrastructure and facilitates the hardening of servers, firewalls, switches, desktops, virtual systems, applications, databases etc. It monitors the infrastructure consistently for detection of any sudden changes in configurations. It is an automated solution that helps in retesting the configuration status whenever a change is detected. It controls the security guidelines of the third party and eliminates the time consumed in creating custom rules for the solution to work. The tool when combined with Security Information and Event Management tools helps the security professionals to detect problems quickly.
The cloud infrastructure may provide cost saving and many other benefits but it also increases the risks that can cause irreparable damage. Security configuration management is the best solution as it increases the level of difficulty for attackers to gain entry into the corporate infrastructure. It creates a strong security base which helps in removing a major portion of security vulnerabilities. It also helps companies to measure the security levels and reduces workload required by other security tools.
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