Enterprise Network Security: An Easy Guide 101

Enterprise network security is the implementation of various tools, practices, and policies that organizations use to help secure their network infrastructure against unauthorized access and attacks. Companies are becoming increasingly reliant on digital systems, so there needs to be network security management in place. With the increase in cyber threats directed toward enterprises of all shapes and sizes, securing the network has become a number one concern for companies all over the globe.

Today, enterprise networks encompass everything from on-premises infrastructure to cloud services, remote work setups, and countless connected devices. This increased the necessity for security models that protect data and systems at any point along the network, either on-premises or in the cloud.

In this blog, we will discuss the main elements of enterprise network security, including critical components, top threats, and best practices. In this blog, we will look at how organizations can manage their defenses against today’s challenges and choose the right security solutions to protect their most important digital assets.

What is Enterprise Network Security

Enterprise network security is a combination of strategies, tools, and practices that are used to protect an enterprise network from unauthorized access, misuse, and cyber threats. This implies an entire suite of hardware and software solutions that you use to monitor, detect, prevent, and respond to security incidents all over the corporate network environment. Enterprise network security focuses on making the organization secure to support business operations but at the same time provides ease of access, which is necessary for legitimate users.

Why enterprise network security is critical

The threat to organizations is growing with far more sophisticated attacks from organized criminal groups, state-sponsored actors, and internal attacks. The daily attacks on businesses are relentless, with ransomware, phishing campaigns, and advanced persistent threats.

Organizations suffer greatly from the impact of security breaches. This may include data loss, downtime, recovery costs, and perhaps even ransom payments, which ultimately tally up to direct costs. In addition to direct costs, breaches result in lost business opportunities, decreased customer trust, stock value, and potential legal liability.

Due to regulatory and compliance requirements, many organizations need strong network security. There are regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) that have very strict security requirements.

Common threats to enterprise networks

Malware is still one of the most common threats affecting enterprise networks and businesses. They range from viruses, worms, trojans, and spyware intended to damage systems, acquire data, or make backdoors for attackers. Advanced techniques are used by modern malware nowadays, so detection becomes tough for traditional security tools.

Attackers send deceptive emails, messages, and websites to employees, luring them to disclose sensitive information or install malware. Attacks have become more tailored and likely to go unnoticed.

Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) are when an attacker compromises a network and stays in the network for weeks or months undetected. These are advanced threats aimed specifically at an organization to steal data or for espionage.

A DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack strives to overload network resources by sending traffic from a number of different traffic sources. Such attacks can cause disruption to business units and are also used as cover for other attacks.

Core Components of Enterprise Network Security

Enterprise network security needs multiple layers of security operating together. Each layer serves a distinct function in the broader security framework.

Network segmentation

Network segmentation separates a network into various zones with different security levels. It relies on VLANs, firewalls, and DMZs to delineate various segments of the network. Isolating resources by sensitivity and function can contain an attack within that boundary in the event that perimeter defenses are broken. Segmentation limits lateral motion, ensuring that even if an attacker breaches the network edge, they cannot get into critical systems.

Intrusion detection and prevention systems

Intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS) are network security measures that monitor for malicious activity and attacks. While IDS tools find and notify security teams of unusual behavior, IPS solutions find and actually block detected threats. These use signature-based detection to find known attack patterns and behavioral detection to find unusual behavior that deviates from normal. They offer vital insight into network activity and help organizations react rapidly to newly developing threats.

Next-generation firewalls

Next-generation firewalls are an evolution of traditional firewalls, adding features such as application awareness, user identity awareness, and integrated threat intelligence. Unlike traditional firewalls that simply act as checkers of ports and protocols, NGFWs perform application-level traffic inspection. Regardless of port, protocol, or evasion technique, they allow organizations to identify and control specific applications.

Secure web gateways

Secure web gateways filter malicious content and enforce acceptable use policies to protect organizations from web-based threats. These solutions analyze web traffic for threats, blocking access to malicious websites and preventing data leakage via web channels. SWGs download scans for malware and catch zero-day threats with several detection engines. They help companies manage cloud application use and secure remote users who access the internet.

Virtual private networks and zero-trust network access

VPNs provide encrypted pipes from remote users back to corporate networks. This prevents data in transit loss and manages access security for untrusted networks. Zero trust network access principles follow that every request for access is verified, regardless of where the request originated. Instead of authenticating to the entire network like traditional VPNs, ZTNA solutions authenticate users and devices in order to access specific applications. This method enhances security by eliminating any implicit trust, which ensures strict access requirements.

Enterprise Network Security Solutions

Organizations have to implement different security tools in order to create layered security for the network. These solutions collaborate to discover, deter, and act against security risks in the enterprise environment.

Security information and event management (SIEM)

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools aggregate and analyze security information from across the network to detect potential threats. They combine logs from different sources, correlate events, and trigger alerts on suspicious activities. Having an SIEM tools allows security teams to monitor attacks that they may not see when looking at individual systems. They offer valuable context, stitching together related events across the network landscape.

Endpoint detection and response (EDR)

Endpoint detection and response (EDR) are solutions that track suspicious activity on endpoints and offer tools for investigation and response against threats. Unlike traditional antivirus, they collect observable endpoint event data and allow rapid endpoint response to security incidents. EDR platforms provide a complete picture of an attack, shutting down widespread threats early in the attack process and allowing security teams to take immediate action.

Network access control (NAC)

NAC systems use policy enforcement to determine what devices are permitted at the network layer. Access is given only when devices comply with the security standards. These solutions have been designed to assist organizations in controlling and dealing with the rising tally of devices that link to corporate networks. NAC platforms have the capability to quarantine non-compliant devices until they meet a pre-defined level of security. They allow visibility on all connected devices and block unauthorized access.

Data loss prevention (DLP)

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) tools are used to stop sensitive data from leaving the organization over unauthorized channels. DLP solutions use data classification for sensitive information and help enforce specific policies according to data types. These compliance requirements address regulations around data protection and privacy that organizations must fulfill. These systems are capable of blocking file transfers, email attachments, or web uploads that contain sensitive data.

Cloud access security brokers (CASB)

To protect and monitor the use of cloud services, CASB acts as an intermediary between cloud service consumers and providers, enforcing enterprise security policies. These solutions give visibility into cloud applications and assist organizations in handling shadow IT. They encrypt sensitive data stored in cloud solutions and use access controls. They maintain uniformity of security policies over multiple clouds. With cloud adoption accelerating, these tools secure environments that go beyond traditional network perimeters.

Challenges in Enterprise Network Security

There are a number of challenges organizations must address to secure their enterprise environments. Understanding these frequently occurring issues also enables security teams to build more resilient security programs.

Visibility across distributed networks

Security gaps are introduced with limited visibility across distributed networks. Hybrid environments that span on-premises hardware, multiple public cloud platforms, and remote workers also create inefficiencies, making it difficult for security teams to monitor traffic. Threats can cause damage and remain undetected for long periods of time without total visibility. However, the absence of tools to collect and analyze data from every segment of the network is the most significant limitation in many organizations.

Managing complex security toolsets

When organizations deploy multiple security products without the right level of integration, it leads to tool sprawl. Particularly for organizations that have dozens of specialized tools from different vendors at their disposal, this often ends up creating management overheads and operational blind spots for security teams. These disjoined systems trigger alerts in isolation, with little or no context, making it difficult to get the whole story of security events.

Insider threats and human error

Technical security controls are easily bypassed by insider threats and human mistakes. Malicious authorized users can abuse their legitimate access to do a lot of damage. Most of the time, though, the attacks are committed by well-meaning employees making errors by falling for phishing attacks, misconfiguring systems, or sharing sensitive information in the wrong forums. Conventional security tools are designed to detect external threats but fail to identify insider threats.

Cybersecurity skills shortage

Organizations all over the world face a skills shortage of security professionals. The demand for qualified security experts is high, and hiring and keeping them is expensive. Most security teams are short-staffed, which reduces their capacity to monitor networks, respond to incidents, or roll out new security controls. It is getting more challenging for organizations to find specialist roles within emerging areas such as cloud security and threat hunting.

Security vs. productivity balance

Security is often a friction that annoys users and impacts the business process. When security restricts users from doing their work, the users seek workarounds that introduce new vulnerabilities. Security teams must balance the business need to minimize disruption while delivering strong protections. Having too many controls can delay innovation and slow the pace of business agility. Organizations need security strategies that secure mission-critical assets while allowing legitimate work to be done with minimal friction.

Best Practices for Enterprise Network Security

Let’s look at some of the best practices that organizations should follow for the complete effectiveness of their network security strategies.

Implement a zero-trust architecture

Zero trust architecture is based on the principle that no entity inside the network perimeter is automatically trustworthy. That means verification for every user and device trying to access resources, no matter where they are located. With zero-trust systems, identity is validated, device health is checked, and user access is restricted to only what is needed. The model imposes tight lateral movement controls across the network helping to isolate breaches.

Continuous monitoring and threat-hunting

Continuous monitoring gives complete visibility into network activities and any potential threat that may arise. To detect suspicious patterns, security teams need to aggregate and analyze data flowing through their network. These tools automatically identify known threat indicators in the environment. Organizations must define the baseline normal behaviors for their networks and look into anomalies.

Network segmentation and micro-segmentation

Networks can be split into various zones that have different security needs, and this is called network segmentation. In traditional segmentation, broad parts of the network are segmented using firewalls and VLANs. Micro-segmentation builds on this idea by creating extremely granular policies that govern communication between specific workloads and applications. This strategy works by minimizing lateral movement when perimeter defenses get compromised.

Regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing

Security testing helps in identifying vulnerabilities and allows companies to be secure from attackers. The automated tools used in vulnerability assessments scan the systems for known vulnerabilities, patch levels, and configuration errors. Penetration testing takes it one step further, as security professionals will search for ways to exploit these vulnerabilities as if its a real attack. Vulnerability scans need to be done frequently and penetration testing needs to be performed once a year or for every major change in the system.

Enforce least-privilege access

Least privilege access restricts users to the minimum amount of access necessary to perform their job functions. And this applies to every user, even the admins and executives. Organizations stop the impact of a breached account or insider threat by limiting unnecessary access permissions. Periodic access review should eliminate unused or excess permissions. Maintain permissions at scale using role-based access control by assigning standard access levels according to job functions.

How to Choose the Right Enterprise Network Security Solution?

Security teams must identify their unique organizational needs and environment to choose the best security solution. First, focus on assessing the current security posture and where protection appears to be lacking. Stakeholders should document current architecture, important assets, and threats.

Focus on how the solutions can tackle the security problems. Seek solutions that effectively cover the organization’s defenses without increasing the attack surface.  When selecting security solutions, consider both current and future needs. Select platforms that accommodate changes in business needs.

As more orgs go hybrid, cloud-ready solutions add flexibility. So, look for a solution that integrates well with others to build a unified security architecture. Consider the total cost of ownership, not just the purchase price. Ongoing expenses such as subscription fees, maintenance costs and hours needed for managing the team and logistics.

How SentinelOne can help

SentinelOne is a unified platform to solve many enterprise network security problems. The Singularity platform delivers endpoint protection, network visibility, and automated remediation of attacks. Together, they help organizations minimize tool sprawl and increase security efficacy. By relying less on signatures, their AI engines detect known and unknown threats. The platform automatically contains threats without human intervention in seconds with autonomous response capability.

SentinelOne’s Singularity™ XDR provides full visibility with the storyline, which links correlated events over endpoints & the network layer. It provides security teams with a map of the entire incident and a way to trace the origins of the incident. The API-first architecture allows for deep integration with existing security investments. With identity and device security capabilities, the platform enforces zero trust, ensuring the health of devices and validating user identity prior to allowing access to sensitive resources.

Conclusion

Due to the ever-evolving threat landscape, enterprise network security demands a multi-layered approach that covers every level of the IT environment. Organizations must engage in a strong security routine that includes network segmentation, continuous monitoring, access control, and regular security testing. Effective security solutions have visibility across a distributed environment and offer integration with existing solutions while keeping protection and business needs in sync.

With threats evolving rapidly, a proactive stance on security is necessary to secure critical business assets. SentinelOne delivers an AI-driven security platform that enables organizations to address the common security challenges faced today with a single controlled solution for AI-powered protection and autonomous response.