It's critical that organisations have full network protection from malware threats and have adequate blocking strategies in place to be in complete control of their network security.
On this note, Infoblox in partnership with ITWeb, is conducting an online Network Security survey during the month of June to gain valuable insight into the network security strategies within the South African organisations.
"The main objective of this survey is to raise awareness that the security landscape is changing. Today DNS is the number one vector to attack enterprises and service providers and Infoblox would like to make our customers and the industry aware of this risk," says Rene Bosman, Manager at Infoblox Africa.
Bosman believes that a solid and robust security architecture is needed to avoid risk of data loss and business disruption.
"Security is a layered approach and architecture whereby customers need (and have implemented) layers like end point security, intrusion detection and firewalling." Bosman explains. "Securing the DNS traditionally has been ignored and the downfall could be that companies are getting exposed to serious risks like data exfiltration."
He also points out that failing to have such measures in place could result in hacktivism, espionage and stealing of company/personal data.
All layers of security are important
There are many issues that can contribute to the success or failure of a network security solution project, says Bosman.
"Success factors of network security include a dedicated security team that is (continuously) looking at all layers of their security architecture and more important understand their business and the risk of losing data to that business," Bosman explains.
He adds that this means security managers and architects need to consider all layers in their networks, from end point to firewalls and today DNS.
"Failure to do so will expose the company to serious risks potentially resulting in their customers walking away. Another reason for failure is "siloed" teams that are not looking at security from a holistic point of view and operate in silos."
Bosman says that the overall success of network security solutions lies in the fact that the customer or organisation and their customers and internal users are not exposed to these threats (data loss, personal data loss, espionage, etc).
He goes on to say, "Examples here include consumers of financial institutions doing online banking. If the connection provided is not secure, how can my bank guarantee me I am not exposed to loss of credit card and personal information? Likewise for Service Providers, if SP's are unable to provide a secure, fast and reliable connection, customers will easily move to another provider who can provide this level of security."
Bosman advises that DNS is a vital network component and without DNS all communication will stop, whether this is within an enterprise, a mobile data network from a service provider or a government organisation.
"We all rely on DNS being always available but most organisations have never thought about the risks of securing their DNS whilst it is wide open to the internet. While we are all moving our applications to cloud based facilities and within data centres, we rely every day on DNS to "recourse" out to these applications. Unfortunately, the "bad guys" out there also realised this and today are using DNS to penetrate your network and implement malicious bot nets or malware with the intention to "ex-filtrate" your data. Infoblox can help them to identify and block this," Bosman concludes.
Click here to complete the survey and you can win a Samsung DVD Home Theatre System
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