Top 5 DataCenter Security Trends

Below is a list of the top 5 trends we see in the small to medium business space today. Many organizations can benefit greatly from doing a few small, but simple tasks to improve their security posture.

1. Upgrading the legacy perimeter security platform. A variety of Next Generation firewall platforms have become available in the past few years. These new platforms have introduced a significant improvement in security capabilities. Features like Intrusion Detection, Intrusion Prevention and filtering are making networks more secure. These are the very basic steps to keep your organizations data secure.

2.  Intrusion Detection Systems. Also known as IDS, this feature allows you to watch the traffic flowing in and out of networks. A simple place to add this feature is on a next generation perimeter security device, such as a firewall. Using IDS in conjunction with other systems can help you to detect malicious behavior. It can also come in handy when trying to trace the steps of an attack.

3. Intrusion Prevention Systems. Better known as IPS, this feature when used in conjunction with IDS, can allow you to recognize known attack signatures and block them. This is the enforcement behind the IDS. An IPS eliminates the need for a human to react to a threat; the IPS can shut it down automatically based on policies.

4. URL filtering and Web filtering. This is one area that is very easy to implement, either on a web filter or next generation firewall. Filtering is a simple way to keep users from going to know malicious sites. Phishing and “Click bait” are very easy ways for attackers to gain access to user information.

5. Geographical blocking. Geo blocking is a great way for you to eliminate a lot of the “internet noise”. Regardless of whom you are or what data you have, somebody from another country will try to attack you. If you are not an international company and do not have employees traveling to different geographical theaters, blocking the IP ranges from these continents can greatly reduce the attacker population you have to deal with. We have lots of customers that might be financial institutions or healthcare providers that do not do business outside the US, so they block all traffic from overseas.

Brad Maher |Director of Technology