Go into 2022 with hope, faith, and determination. That last part is where this article comes in.

Chances are because you are reading this, you are determined to make 2022 the most secure year for your network security. That is the best attitude to have, and with just a few tweaks to the topics below – you can sleep soundly at night.

When it comes to any department or industry, there are a set of best practices that govern the approach you should take when dealing with those elements. Here are five best practices for your network security for this exciting new year:

Firewall

There are four basic types of firewall rules – network level, circuit level, application level, and stateful multilayer. These rules need to be in play for any of the three basic types of firewalls. Those are packet filters, stateful inspection, and proxy servers.

Your business needs to harden and properly configure your firewall to secure it. If these words are Greek to you, you desperately need help from the professionals.

IPS and IDS

Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) work together to stop cyber-attacks. The IDS system analyses network traffic to scan for digital signatures that match known attacks. The IPS system also analyses packets, but it can also stop these packets from being delivered.

In network security, no other tool is as valuable as intrusion detection. You must ensure that your company has key processes in place for the deployment of both of the above.

Access Control

Having thousands of users with custom permissions can quickly become a nightmare scenario for your IT team. Implement an access control program that is simple and intuitive so that it can be used and understood by everyone.

Automate your user provisioning processes with sapphire.net, and monitor your access policy compliance. The precise access controls that your company needs will largely be dependent on your IT environment. The best practice here will be to properly size your IDS installation and add overhead for expansion in the future.

Anti-DDoS

The best only way to successfully prevent a DDoS attack is to know your network’s traffic. To do that, you must hire a SOC team to secure and monitor your network’s perimeter, data, customers, and remote users.

They will put systems in to detect, analyse, and respond to all detected threats.

Network Segregation

Network segregation and segmentation allow you to know who is connecting to your network. That will improve your security and performance by dividing your network system into manageable subsystems, which gives you control over how traffic flows across your network.

That is a vital step for security to avoid network breaches. Once a network gets breached, it takes, on average, over half a year to locate and isolate it to shut it down. By segregating your network, you can be one step ahead of your attackers by restricting them to one area of your network. That will go a long way to limiting the amount of damage they can cause.

Be smart this year by implementing these best practices today!