Confused about cybersecurity? You’re not alone
At one point or another, nearly everyone has had a moment of cybersecurity gone wrong. Whether it’s a bit of spyware downloaded from your personal email or a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack launched against your company’s network, experiences with security threats are not especially rare these days.
But understanding the odds and ends of cyberthreats is something that still eludes the casual computer user. Terms like malware, spyware, DDoS, botnet, advanced persistent threats, we know they’re bad news, but beyond that they’re just jargon used by IT guys and technology pundits. Even those who do claim to understand the nuances of cybersecurity have a tendency to confuse the details or explain them unclearly.
Why it’s important to know your network traffic
Investing in bandwidth upgrades without knowledge of traffic is like filling a bucket with a leaking hole
“We are growing and need more bandwidth.”
“We’ll need to double the bandwidth as we are over-utilizing the existing pipe.”
These are common complaints – or requirements – of CIOs and Network/IT managers. Upgrading bandwidth to meet business demands is critical. But equally important is the need to know what traffic types are flowing across the network. Are users making right use of the current bandwidth? Is a DS3 being fully utilized with production or business traffic?
Most companies do not identify their traffic flow due to lack of time, resources, or skill. Budget is commonly available to upgrade the bandwidth but not to analyze the traffic, which is rarely considered a necessity under the assumption that all traffic is legitimate traffic. As a result, it’s comparatively easy to make a business case to upgrade bandwidth than it is to invest in identifying the traffic.
A day in the life of a SOC Engineer
Arrive at work a little early to get ahead of the day. I have some tickets to confirm, work, and close. On top of that there are new engineers to be trained on Virtela processes and tenured engineers to be trained on new, more advanced features. And then there is refresher training for all.
Today my focus will be training. Virtela’s Managed Security Services is growing and our group has doubled in engineers in all tier groups. We have a very diverse group of minds and experience. There’s a significant amount of collaboration and cross-training. There are expert engineers for every device and every security concept.
The Security Side of Mobile Device Management
Previously, Ben had blogged about Why Mobile Device Management (MDM) is necessary for today’s enterprises. Today, I would like to touch on how to secure mobile devices. The main two components of securing mobile devices are 1) securing the connection between the mobile device and the corporate network, and 2) securing the device itself.
Securing the Connection
There are several ways to secure the connection to the corporate network while providing seamless access from any device, anywhere.