Network Security

Security is an important ingredient for computer network (LAN, WAN, MAN) maintenance. It is the job of the network administrator to save your online presence from malicious attacks of hackers, viruses, and Trojans through a reliable security system. Whether you are working in a home or enterprise network, try to secure it by implementing advanced and protective security strategies. Network security is the study of implementing different techniques to save your business and home computers from malicious hacking and virus’s attacks. Here is a brief overview of some common network attacks.
Denial of services Denial of service strategy is applied to a specific web server so that it becomes unavailable for internet users. Hackers usually send too many requests for general information. In this respect, it makes use of web server resources that can either slow down or crash the server.
BlackHat Hacking

Network hackers with technical knowledge can easily access any unsecured network. Common network damage involves configuration change in network equipment like router servers. They usually make these devices unavailable for internet users. Consequently such types of problems take network administrators a great deal of time and effort to fix the problems. It results in a loss of money because productivity is reduced drastically. Some hackers even get access to private information like patient/client record, or credit card details. These damages can cost thousands of dollars to your company. At home, these network hackers try to steal your sensitive information like credit cards and other scanned documents.
Here, I would like to suggest some essential network security principles that every computer user must install on their network servers and systems.

Firewall

It is called a set of principles to deny or allow access to the network. It is usually installed inside the network router. The basic purpose of using a router is to get access to the network. Firewall works on a set of rules based on closing and opening of ports associated to protocol. Whenever any internet user stops using a network protocol for communication, the router closes the port of this protocol.
Access Control Lists

Access control list works like a firewall. Its basic function is to filter network traffic based on various metrics included in IP packets. Access control list is configured to test the secure status of each packet (data segmentation on OSI layers) and IP address destination. It also checks the destination and source port number. Usually, a network administrator writes an access control list and specifies the range of IP addresses communicating to each other and the protocols used in this communication session. In such situations, it becomes quite tough for network hackers to get access to a network in which the router is blocking unauthorized access.
Encryption

It is an easy and simple algorithm used to convert information into an unreadable format. Only a person who has access to the specific algorithm can decrypt it. Always try to send sensitive information through these encryption techniques.

WEP / WPA

These days, wireless networks are widely used due to their portability features. It is also necessary to protect your wireless network from hackers. Recent research indicates that a new version of wireless network called WPA2 is more secure than its previous version (WEP). When you are setting your wireless network, you must set your security to WPA2.

Posted in: Network Security