Nowadays, businesses can no longer be successful without using modern technologies. Therefore, the information (IT) security of the enterprise comes to the fore. This is a set of measures to protect information from phishing, any unauthorized access for the espionage, withdrawal, or alteration of data, which leads to “failure” or malfunction of various systems.

The principles of enterprise IT security include not only the elimination of external threats, but also the prevention of harm by employees due to incompetence or malicious intent.

The main types of enterprise information security threats  

They can be divided into 4 groups:

• Undermining confidentiality and disclosing business secrets. This means the interception of transmitted data, third-party intrusion into the system by downloading confidential files;

• Hacking. This means a change of route or the creation of fake transactions, erasure or redirection of data sets, hacking protection of enterprise data to destabilize the work or cause financial damage;

• Restricting or blocking authorized access. Users cannot log in, use individual resources or services, create and send documents, etc., which means that all working processes are paralyzed;

• Internal damage. This category includes the transmission of classified information by personnel to third parties through electronic networks, virus infections, the organization of “leaks” and the provision of access to third parties.

Experts also divide threats into internal and external, force majeure and artificial. Force majeure includes all factors related to natural disasters or insurmountable obstacles: fire, earthquake, war, hurricane, etc.

Artificial is related to the activities of a particular person: a hacker attack, error, or intentional actions of an official user that led to a critical situation.

Organization of enterprise information security: methods and basic principles

It should be noted that a comprehensive approach to enterprise data protection is required. Using 1-2 methods will not actually lead to a positive result.

Protection is carried out programmatically and administratively. The latter includes:

• creation of internal regulations and agreements with all employees on “non-disclosure” and rules of use, transfer of information received;
• ensuring control over the implementation of local regulations;
• availability of an effective method of authentication, with differentiation of access levels to arrays of information;
• regular efficiency analysis and timely upgrade of information security management systems of the enterprise;
• permanent backup to restore the information system in case of failure or attack.

As for the software, now there is a huge amount of special instruments:

• Stationary antivirus software. It can scan your computer for “infections” on a schedule or run by an administrator. In case of suspicious actions of a particular program, it can notify the administrator, the user or automatically block it. Also, most antiviruses have the function of disinfecting and recovering damaged files;
• CloudAV. The best solution to fight viruses when workstations, PCs, etc. experiencing a lack of computing power. A light “Client” is installed on the device itself, which provides communication with the “cloud”, where all the analysis takes place;
• Introduction of DLP. These programs solve the problem of the main enterprise information security threat – data leakage. The method is complex and high-cost, but very effective;
• encryption (cryptography). Can work on system with one or two keys. The latter option is more reliable because it provides different keys for encryption and decryption;
• protection of wireless/wired and local networks according to the latest protocols;
• blocking or filtering traffic by brandmauer, firewall. This can be a network firewall or a host server. In this way, the corporate network will be separated from the global one, with the possibility of access to the Internet only within the limits of the established restrictions;
• use VPN. It will be the best solution for information security of an organization with an extensive system of branches, when there is a need for Internet access or remote connection to the local network;
• SIEM monitoring. It captures and saves all system logs for further analysis to detect unauthorized or harmful actions, both externally and internally;
• proxy application. This significantly speeds up the response of the most popular resources;
• email content filtering. Special filters view the contents of incoming/outgoing mail, cut off SPAM, virus-infected emails and block the sending of files/data with confidential information.

IT security protection of the enterprise, any organization that owns a website, includes counteracting DDoS attacks on the corporate portal. The attacking party seeks to overload the resource with requests, in order to drop it or refuse service. Depending on the methods of attack experts using  ACL lists and distribution methods, i.e. the creation of duplicate infosystems, the usage of special equipment. Much depends on the capabilities and services of your hosting.

Artificial is related to the activities of a particular person: a hacker attack, error or intentional actions of an official user that led to a critical situation.

On what are the organizational measures of information protection in the company based?

To choose measures to overcome cyber threats, you need clearly understand the characteristics of your company:

• the presence of branches, i.e. whether you need remote access and access to the global network for data transmission;
• the level of logistics and relevance of equipment (whether it is able to “pull” the latest software);
• whether all units need maximum protection, or only a few need protections;
• presence/absence of IT department and level of employees competence;
• you only need to ensure the information security of the PC in the organization, or you need to control the mobile devices of staff because through them could be also performed confidential data transfer.

Keep in mind that most IT departments in the field of information security operate according to proven, but standard and often obsolete schemes. This provokes hackers to attack your company because they are confident of success because they have “broken” such decisions more than once.

Hence, the logical conclusion: to ensure the IT security of the enterprise, eliminate risks and threats, it is required to involve third-party professionals who create their own unique information security systems. CyberSEALs has many exclusive products and solutions!