Securing Your Business Network

This article is going to explain how to secure your business network. There are a number of things every company should have implemented whether they are small, medium or large. Improving your network security and policies will help to prevent any problems that could occur now or in the future.

The first one is rather obvious, or at least I would hope it is. A good antivirus is essential, there are a number of software packages available for business users, however if you are a very small business (below 5 computers) you can probably use free antiviruses legally.

The second is another given, a good firewall to protect your business network from the outside world. This will prevent any bad packets accessing your network and help to prevent hackers from breaking in.

Peerblock is another great program you should have on your network. This program can be configured to block bad servers, known hackers and other various people from accessing your network. It works using pre set lists and blocks or allows all the IP addresses on each list. This program also helps keep your online and downloading habits protected.

Every user should be made to have a strong password. As well as this they should be made to change their passwords every few months. A good password policy is essential these days to help fight against brute force attacks and dictionary attacks, as a simple password would be cracked fast.

Site blocking is another option. Some businesses may choose to block specific websites such as Facebook, MySpace or YouTube, to try and improve worker efficiency and to prevent users going on bad websites and exposing the computers to malware.

User access rights must be properly set, this means that a new user doesn't have full access to the network as they are not yet trusted. By implementing this change, if a new users account gets breached the attacker will only have the same rights as the user they breached.

Although there are a number of things you can do to try and protect your network, unfortunately there is never anything yon do that will protect your data and network 100%. You will usually find, the thing that lets the whole system down will be the users. so it always essential to make sure all your business network users are fully trained and know the consequences for their actions.