What is Network Security?

Network security is a computer networking system policy to assure the security to its organization assets, software
and hardware resources. The term network security also emphasis on monitoring and controlling of unauthorized
access, misuse and any unwanted modification in the networking system.

The most common authentication process practiced everywhere is to assign an exclusive user ID and password to
the user for authentication and to access the resources of the network.
The term security is inclusive of both private and public domain networks like RTGS or NEFT through online
banking.

What Is Network Security And Its Management?

Security management in any network, whether public or private, is a set of policies and routine procedure
implemented by the networking system to shield their network from unauthorized access, denial of computer
service, interruption in running, etc is known as Network Security Management.

It also emphasizes on round the clock monitoring of the network to prevent the system from virus attacks, and any
misuse or modification in the database.

The best ways to manage security is to use advanced antivirus and anti-malware software and keep updating the
system at regular intervals of time.

Need for Network Security

The use of the Internet has been increased drastically, as we are moving even our day to day activities towards
complete digitalization. Due to the increase in the use of the Internet, hackers and attackers also become more
active and our networking system tends to a higher number of virus attacks.

Basically, the need for network security is to perform two tasks mainly, first is to secure the information from any
unauthorized access and the second is to provide the security to the data stored at PC or laptops not only for an
individual network but also on the shared or public domain networks.

The need for information security is based on the following points:

• To protect the information against any unwanted access.
• To safeguard the data from any inappropriate delay in the route followed to deliver it to the destination at
the desired period of time.
• To guard the data from any undesired amendment.
• To prohibit a particular user in the network from sending any mail, message in such a way in which it
appears to the receiving party that it has been sent by some third party. (Protection from hiding the
identity of the original sender of the resource message).
• To guard our hardware like hard disk, PC’s, laptop from the attack of malware, viruses etc., which can
damage our system by corrupting or deleting all the content stored within it.
• To protect our PC’s from the software which if installed can harm our system as hackers do.
• To safeguard our system from Trojan horses, worms etc. which can completely destroy our system.

Network Security Types

We can shield our networking system in various ways, based on the type of network attack.

Thus, there are many solutions, and out of which few are discussed below.

#1) Antivirus and Anti-malware Software:

The protection software that is used to shield our system from viruses, Trojan attacks, worms etc is an antivirus and
anti-malware software.
This software scans the system and network for malware and Trojan attack every time when a new file is
introduced in the system. It also detects and fixes the problem, if found with any infected data or with a virus. #2)
Data Loss Prevention (DLP):
The MNC’s or large-scale organizations, maintain the confidentiality of data and resources by making sure that
their internal information will not be leaked out by any of the employees to the outside world.

This is done by deploying DLP technology in which the network administrator restricts the employee’s access to the
information to prevent it from sharing to the outside world by blocking ports and sites for forwarding, uploading or
even printing information.

#3) Email Security:

The attackers can induce the virus or malware in the network by sending it through an e-mail in the system.

Therefore a highly skilled email security application which can scan the incoming messages for viruses and is
capable of filtering suspicious data and controlling the outflow of messages to prevent any kind of information loss
to the system is required.

#4) Firewalls:
These are an integral part of the networking system. It acts as a wall between two networks or between two
devices. It is basically a set of pre-defined rules which are used to prevent the network from any unauthorized
access.

Firewalls are of two kinds, i.e. hardware, and software. The software firewall is installed in the systems to provision
shield from various types of attacks as they filter, block and fix the unwanted creatures in the network.

The hardware firewall acts as a gateway between two networking systems so that only a particular pre-defined
user or traffic can access the network and its resources.

Intrusion prevention system (IPS): It is the network security system which contains some set of rules and by
following them you can easily figure out the threats and block them as well.

#5) Mobile Security:

The cyber-criminals can easily hack or attack the mobile handsets with the data facility on the handsets, and they
can enter into the device from any unsecured resource link from the website.

Hence it is necessary to install an antivirus on our device and people should download or upload the data from
reliable resources and that too from secured websites only.

#6) Network Segmentation:

For the security point of view, a software-based organization will segment their crucial data into two-or-three parts
and keep them at various locations and on several resources or devices.

This is done, so that in the worst case, if the data at any location is corrupted or deleted by a virus attack, then it
can be again reconstructed from any backup sources.

#7) Web Security:

Web security refers to provisioning limited access to websites and URLs by blocking the sites which are more
vulnerable to viruses and hackers. Thus it is basically concerned with controlling the web-based threats.

#8) Endpoint Security:

The networking system in which a user present at the remote end, accessing the crucial database of the
organization from a remote device like mobile phones or laptops, endpoint security is required.

Various software which has inbuilt-advanced endpoint security features and is used for this purpose. This provides
seven layers of security inclusive of file reputation, auto-sandbox, web- filtering, antivirus software, and a firewall.
#9) Access Control:
The network should be designed in a way in which not everyone can access all the resources.
This is done by deploying a password, unique user ID and authentication process for accessing the network. This
process is known as access control as by implementing it we can control the access to the network.

#10) Virtual Private Network (VPN):

A system can be made highly secure by using VPN networks in association with using encryption methods for
authentication and floating data traffic over the Internet to a remotely connected device or network. IPSec is the
most commonly used authentication process.

Types of Security provisions at various levels in a system