What is network security?


A network security architecture is composed of tools that protect the network itself and the applications that run over it. Effective network security strategies employ multiple lines of defense that are scalable and automated. Each defensive layer enforces a set of security policies determined by the administrator. 

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Why network security?

In today’s hyper-connected world, network security presents a greater challenge as more business applications move to private and public clouds. Moreover, the applications themselves now tend to be virtualized and distributed across many locations, some of which are outside the physical control of IT security teams. With the number of attacks on companies climbing ever higher, protecting network traffic and infrastructure is critical. 

Benefits of network security

Network security is key to an organization’s ability to deliver products and services to customers and employees. From online stores to enterprise applications to remote desktops, protecting apps and data on the network is essential to advancing the business, to say nothing of protecting an organization’s reputation. In addition, effective network security can improve network performance by eliminating downtime due to successful attacks.  

How does network security works?


Access Control

Threat Control

What are the key tools of network security?

A multi-layered approach to network security implements controls at numerous points within a network to provide comprehensive access control and threat control.  

  • Firewall : A firewall establishes a barrier between the trusted and the untrusted areas of a network. Thus, a firewall performs access control and macro-segmentation based on IP subnets. The same firewall may also perform more granular segmentation, known as micro-segmentation. 
  • Load Balancer :  A load balancer distributes load based on metrics. By implementing specific mitigation techniques, a load balancer can go beyond traditional load balancing to provide the capability to absorb certain attacks, such as a volumetric DDoS attack. 
  • IDS/IPS : The classic IDS/IPS is deployed behind a firewall and provides protocol analysis and signature matching on various parts of a data packet. Protocol analysis is a compliance check against the publicly declared specification of the protocol. Signature matching prevents known attacks such as an SQL injection.  
  • NTA/NDR : NTA/NDR looks directly at traffic (or traffic records such as NetFlow) and uses machine learning algorithms and statistical techniques to evaluate anomalies and determine if a threat is present. First, NTA/NDR tries to determine a baseline. With a baseline in place, it identifies anomalies such as traffic spikes or intermittent communication. 


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