How An Ideal Firewall Migration Process Takes Place?

Firewall prevents the malicious and threat full data from entering a network system. This is really necessary these days because the vulnerabilities have increased to a huge extent these days. It has been observed that most of the time they enters a business network via the internet.

The internet traffic is sometimes full of a lot of threats and infected traffic. As soon as it enters the business network it starts infecting the whole network and destroys it completely. That’s why the need of the firewall management system becomes really important.

At times, you also need to do firewall migration process to update and upgrade your network security system. This process of migration is required to be handled with complete care and a proper procedure as follows.

Understanding:

The proper understanding of the business and its security requirements is really necessary because without understanding the process of migration is going to be of no worth. So make sure you understand this really well.

Assessment and Analysis:

The process of assessment of the already installed firewall system is really important. Through assessment and analysis, it will become possible to know the previous policy and this will help you analyze the new policy for the firewall setup.

Development:

This is the process in which the new security policy is developed for your network. This basically consists of firewall rules, API Policies, antivirus and content filtering.

Review:

In this step the complete new security policy of the firewall which has been developed is reviewed completely. The in depth review helps in understanding the complete working of the firewall network system and its effectiveness.

Test:

This basically is a proper and practical test of the system that has been designed and implemented. All the system is properly checked by surpassing the effected and safe data traffic through the firewall system.

Implementation:

After the successful testing of the firewall system, it is then implemented and migrated to its new destination, where it is required to be migrated. This is the last step of bringing in the right and a new solution for your network.

Manage:

Now it’s all up to managing the firewall migration system. Once it’s shifted and migrated to the supposed destination, the firewall is then managed properly to keep the infected and unsecured data packets away from the particular network.

Penetration Testing Strategies For Managed Security

Penetration testing is also known as pen testing. It is the practice of observing exposure and susceptibility in a network, web application or a computer that an invader (Hacker) may exploit. A secured pen test can be automatic using software’s or they can manually be performed.

Accomplished on either way, the main purpose of this process is to collect information. The information contains a collection regarding the target prior to the test and recognizes the possible entry points. It also recognizes those entry points that were performed as attempts. The test also report back all of the outcomes.

Objectives of Pen Test:

UAE is currently the fast growing business marketplace. The main focus of authorities is on secure infrastructure for every business around the region. Penetration testing Dubai is therefore the most favourable solution to control all of the security flaws in a network, a web application or other system.

Penetration Testing Strategies:

Different strategies are there which are used to perform an effective pen test. Significant approaches of such a testing contain:

Targeted testing:

In order to accomplish the organizational goal, both the IT team and pen test team must collaborate and participate together. The targeted testing approach is sometime called lights-turned-on approach. This is because every individual will able to observe the outcome of the test.

External testing:

All of the external peripherals of a company are tested in external pen testing. Including are those noticeable servers and devices such as domain name server and firewalls. The main objective of external testing is to identify all of the possible ways that an attacker can gain access to the network.

Internal testing:

Internal test imitate the organizational internal authorized user’s attack having advance access freedom. These tests are performed for the estimation of cause that an unsatisfied employee may cause.

For this reason, the entire reputed security services provider such as managed security services Qatar is trying their best to be accurate in these tests.

Blind testing:

In such a testing practice, a real attacker’s movements and techniques are pretended. These actions are pretended through limited information which is given to an individual who is going to perform the test.

Double blind testing:

Taking the blind testing a step further is the double blind testing. While performing such type of penetration test, just a single or two individuals know that test is in progress. Double blind testing is the most active test to observe the security, identify incidents and react with actions for these occurrences.

Managed SIEM - What Are The Advantages?

The response time in an event based with any size or nature of emergency is shrinking swiftly. Experts are constantly improving the standards of efficiency and the core aim is to kill a threat immediately when the symptoms are diagnosed. In many cases, specialist service providers in the said industry deal with such threats and remove them even before they are noticed by the business owners.

The world of security information and event management, therefore has moved in the further safer zones, although threats still exist and even they are improving with the passage of time. Business owners in such critical situations prefer to opt for technologies and solutions like managed SIEM.

The core reason behind this is the real time analysis facility that is closely focused on providing efficiency when it comes to broadcast security alerts and analyse them in real time.

These alerts are normally generated with the help of different applications and network hardware. This solution is available to entrepreneurs in the form of softwares, appliances or in the form of services that are managed.

These can be purchased by them from the security solutions providers. An added advantage associated with these products is that they are also utilized to maintain accurate log security data plus produce reports that may be used by the concerned people in order to improve the compliance levels.

All these solutions in the form of latest technological tools and trends are applied watchfully, ensuring that there are no gaps or loopholes that may have been missed out on or left unattended. This approach makes life easy for businesses that deal with sensitive data of clients and other stakeholders. They are aware that they are being taken care of by professional, therefore they avoid panic situations and let the professional deal with the matter for them.

Security incident response from expert practitioners in the world of information technology can prove to be an amazing difference. Entrepreneurs that are backed with such services can be the best people to ask how easy and hassle free life becomes for business and them simply because they don’t have to waste time in delays and stoppages.

Slow response may do the damage even before things are plan or initiated. That is why expert more often than not stress on readily available contingency plans rather than messing up the situation by acting at the eleventh hour.

How The SIEM Services Are Fulfilled By Any Consulting Firm?

Consultants have been providing their services in almost every field of the business. Before their arrival the businesses seemed to be incomplete and lacking the performance. The reason behind the lack of performance was the increase in the threats and vulnerabilities that a business network carried.

The network security and the accidents caused by the wrong ELV designing, both are the biggest threats to the existence of most of the businesses. That’s why, the ELV design consultant Qatar offers you high quality services in this regards to keep your business safe from many vulnerabilities.

Let’s talk about the SIEM, which is the important thing when we talk about the safety of the business network from different threats. Any firm offering SIEM services benefit in the following regards.

Responsibility:

When a firm is taking care of the SIEM related matters of your business, then it is taking the complete responsibility of all the network related issues. Thus, they make sure to keep your firm safe from the attack of any kind of vulnerabilities.

Cost Effective Model:

Just like many other fields of life, the cost also matters a great deal in SIEM. The firm taking care of this service for your business makes such a model which is cost effective and never becomes a burden on your pocket.

Skill Set:

The skill set that is necessarily required for the best results in network security is available with such firms. Thus, it makes them perform well in their niche.

Conclusion:

In this era of vulnerabilities and threats, it is really important for the businesses to use SIEM as a Service. This means that, this responsibility shall be handed over to some third party firm which can take care of it to help your business network to remain safe from different threats.

Cyber Security: Facts And Trends

Introduction:

The global IT industry has grown rapidly over the last 15 years. It is a bitter truth that this IT revolution has led to the growing trend of serious threats to sensitive data of businesses, consumers and government official information.  

Hackers (cyber criminals) have become more skilled, organized and are unable to trace. Many IT companies are working hard to find a solution to overcome information security issues. Here are some tips to help you in keeping your data secured from hackers.

Internet of things (IOT):

You will find smart devices everywhere, from phones to cars that are connected to internet. Presently, more devices are connected to internet than people. Experts are of the view that 35 billion devices are expected to be connected in 2018 and 50 billion in 2020.

Research also showed that almost 70% of IOT devices are unable to defend against the cyber-attacks. The IT security industry need to consider the fact that future cyber security UK will be managed automatically instead of human interference.

Cyber espionage:

Cyber espionage is basically the illegal use of computer networks to gain access to user’s personal data. Research showed that 20% of global firms rank cyber espionage as the most serious threat to their businesses.  

The report also revealed that one out of five U.S. companies has suffered major cyber-attack in the previous year. Tools for hacking have become common nowadays, whether they are used for hacking email ids or stealing user’s important data.

The problem is that hackers have become so advanced that it is difficult to capture them. They have hacked information of big technology giants Sony and Yahoo they are trying to go further. IT security experts believed that businesses will be more proactive in future.

Phishing:

Phishing is a kind of fraud email where hackers send email that asks you to enter your private information. This scam is done by using links that takes the user to their company’s website where they are asked to provide their sensitive information, by filling a form.

When hackers get access to person’s account, the email id includes a valid subject line and contact. This trick takes the user to ‘Google look alike’ login page. You can avoid such scams using ‘two-factor authentication’.

Conclusion:

Modern businesses need to be flexible along with the latest trends about information security. Installing strong defenses, timely update of the operating systems, enable us to prevent such attacks. Cyber security UK companies must provide awareness among people about this issue.

Information Security Consulting! An Important Need For Businesses

This era is called the “era of advanced information and technology”. With the passage of time, we come to know about latest new inventions and technologies which makes our daily routine life even for comfortable and convenient. Similarly, the availability of the internet, online cloud servers and many other things are great services which we have been facilitated with. Along all these facilities, there also comes some vulnerabilities, which creates issues and problems for us.

For a better solution against the modern day technological threats, we need to have a proper and valid solution. One of the best solution is to look for the services of the information security consulting. They definitely know how to deal a particular type of business firm? What its requirements are? And what does it need? Their consultation service and their solutions play a vital role to help you secure your business from the latest era threats and risks. There are certain ways in which such consulting firm results in to be really beneficial and effective for the cause of your particular firm.

Dedicated Team

The dedicated team looks after the business information security matters all the time. They prepare proper reports and provide you a better consultation service about how to go with certain things and how to become successful in your business niche.

Risk Assessment

They assess the risks associated with your business in a better way. Hence, they are able to give you some vital advices and plans to cope with any type of threats in a better way.

Procedures

By consulting with one of such firm, you would be able to get proper and effective procedures along better plans. By following these procedures, you would be able to make your business shine and grow among your competitors in a really short period of time.

Awareness

They also provide trainings to your employees and staff about how to remain safe from the different threats and risks. It is really important to create awareness among those staff members as well, which have nothing to do with the technical security issues. Doing so plays a bit more in the better security of a particular firm’s information.

In this era the information security consulting is an important need to remain safe from the different vulnerabilities. You can’t look after such security matters on your own. That’s why it is really important for you to go to a consultant who can help you out on such matters.

3 Tips To Make Firewall Migration Process Easier

To have a secure network without the risk of unauthorized access is the cornerstone of any organization today. Every business owner demand for having a secure access to its corporate data, critical security updates needs to be installed so that connecting to the data centre both for external and internal user can be secured. Thus there are many firewall systems that have been designed all intended to prevent unauthorized access and attacks from and to the private networks.

Available both in hardware & software form sometimes in a collection of both, firewalls prevent access of unauthorized internet users accessing private networks connected to the internet, especially intranets. Messages and communication entering or leaving the particular local network must pass through the firewall, if installed and connected. The firewall examines each block of communication and decides accordingly.

Migration of your current security policy to a new platform:

With so many distributed data centres across the world, nothing in technology is ever constant. Things are changing time by time so everything is updated and new features are included. And so transition from existing and traditional firewall to the next generation of firewall need to take place once technology offers new things. This migration can be simple or a lot more complicated, depending upon the skills one may have. These simple tips may assist one well in his/her firewall migration process.

Firewall and Security Visibility Map:

 During the process of migration from one generation to the next, it may require a proper plan for both current and future needs. All the aspects of the firewall must be documented and planned well before the process. For the purpose of extreme safety during the process, one must try to gather information by creating a visual & dynamic map of the firewall architecture and traffic. The whole technical connectivity of data must be highlighted as well.

Understand, Document & Prepare Policy Migration:

Once the firewall map is prepared & the rest of documentation is ready, next step is to keep looking under the cover. There isn’t just a single security appliance for the whole network. There must be multiple security vendors living under the same roof in modern data centres. Thus you need to document all the security policies, services and network algorithms for each firewall end-point

Business Impact and Migration Path:

Firewall migration has an impact, business-wide & this impact need to be the least minimal. A clear understanding of how the entire business model interacts with the firewall and security technologies, need for the migration to be effective. One must not forget any area associated with one’s business, and must observe every single department well.

A good approach would be to prepare a questionnaire or checklist with few core questions before initiating things and understanding the ways in which the opted applications may interact with various security policies. For example, do specific business units rely on some specific firewall traffic? How does the data centres are segmented by the security policies one may have made?

The process of firewall migration must be well planned to reduce the security migration complexity. Complete visibility of the security architecture, right tools to help one plan & map for the process is imperative for effective migration. Things in this capacity may be easier said than done, especially when one is on his own. A good approach would be to get in touch with professionals in this domain and acquire expert advice and help. This will enable one to stay on top of all the data and network security tasks.

Factors That Need To Be Considered For Efficient Control Room Design

Necessary monitoring:-

In today’s world the need to monitor the activities of all the people and important sensitive structures have become ever so important. This monitoring can be done and recorded from in a systematic way from a specially designed and organized space.

Ways to enhance performance:-

This monitoring space should be constructed and installed with equipment in a way that should result in maximum performance and nonstop monitoring. There are some principles and aspects that need to be followed to maximize the performance of this organized space.

Two major aspects:-

The specified space for monitoring should be suitable in terms of structure to survive any hazardous situation or natural disaster that doesn’t affect the performance of it.

Ergonomic efficiency:-

The arrangement of video display units, panels and other equipment combined with the overall layout of the monitoring space should be in a way that ensures ergonomic efficiency of the control room design in all circumstances and emergency situations.

Structure:-

Monitoring spaces are normally located away from the main company or plant in case of large plants. On the other hand monitoring spaces may be built within the premises of the plant or the panels for controlling are normally located in the small or medium plant.

No risk to personnel:-

The designing and structure of the monitoring space should be effective in a way that it should not pose any threat to the personnel inside. It should be suitable to maintain plant’s monitoring responsibilities. There should always be an emergency plan to counter any emergency that should totally end it or diminish it to acceptable or bearable limits.

List of probable mishaps:-

These few mishaps ca affect the operation of monitoring room

• Exothermic reactions
• release of toxic gases
• VCEs or vapor cloud explosion
• Pressure bursts
• All kinds of fires like pool fires, jet fires, fireball and flashes of fire
• BLEVEs or Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosions 

Other factors:-

Other significant factors that need to be looked into are 

Suitable temperature:-

The temperature and airflow of the monitoring space should be adjustable. For instance the temperature that is suitable for office work and should be maintained is between 18°C to 22.0°C. Temperatures may vary in different regions and climates. The airflow should be between o.11 to 0.15 m/s

Maintenance:-

• Following the perfect control room design, a sufficient amount of space should be provided, because if in any case inadvertent handling of equipment is out of question during the maintenance of it.
• Appropriate coding of equipment behind the panels should be done. This minimizes the human error.

Proactive Security Management To Mitigate Risks

The risks or threats to the organizational safety are always there, and these risks greatly increase if the company is having and active internet which carries a useful and considerable information. While there are many aspects that are relevant to the safety which can’t all be addressed by the present staff in the organization, it is therefore important to understand this need and respond accordingly. In this regard, and important step is to get the help of outsider experts, so that they may provide you with the flawless protection.

Especially, in the regions like Oman, where the business are using Internet and cloud storage, The best method to cater all your safety needs, is to seek help ISP to provide Managed security services Oman based needs in a professional manner. Some of the distinct and key features of the MSSP are discussed below: 

• Systematic: It is a systematic approach in concern with managing the organizational safety needs and requirements. 

• Monitoring: It is important the company should have a check and balance on the internal as well as the external activities that are going on, in and around the network. 

• Intrusion Detection: The MMSP makes sure that they will help in doing the monitoring around the clock, for any chances of intrusion within the system; therefore they help with the early intrusion detection. 

• Firewall: They help to administer the firewall in a manner, so as to enhance its effectiveness to provide safety to the current systems. 

• Patch Management: the MSSP helps in acquiring, testing and then installing the multiple codes or patches that are being used in the system or computer. They also help to acquire knowledge about the current functional patches and its functioning as well.

Vital Steps In Cyber Security Analysis

There are many organizations working on a medium or small scale where it is difficult to prioritize sensitive areas of the systems for prioritizations and thus the company and its systems suffer from “Security Paralysis” which is often due to the limited resources or lack of budget. While the importance of system’s safety can’t be denied, it is therefore important to understand the basic areas of protection and stepwise follow them in order to keep it protected and secure.

1. Identify Assets: The primary step is to collect and analysis the areas in which the organizations are dealing and out of those identify the assets that the company could be processing like the:

• Payment card numbers
• Human resource data
• Patient’s records
• Designs
• Security numbers, etc.

2. Location of Assets: Next identify the location where each of your assets may be present or kept like:
   • Servers
   • Workstations
   • Phones
   • Databases
   • Laptops
   • Portable or movable medias
   • PAD’s

3. Classify and Prioritize Assets: Once you have sorted out your assets and their locations, it is wise to have a list ready, where you would have ranked all the relevant assets in the order of prioritization, so that the relevant security threat and risk assessment can be given and carried out onto the areas most needing it. And in case of breaches, the evaluation of damage has done can be easy. For example here is a 1-5 scale list:
   1. Public Information: for example the contact knowledge, the concluded monetary reports, etc.
   2. Internet – NON-Secret data: it includes the phone lists, charts, polices, office rules and regulations data, etc. 
   3. Sensitive information: it includes the planning, strategies, non-disclosure agreements terms, etc. 
   4. Internal information: these are the layoff plans, internal information, etc. 
   5. Regulated Data or information: It includes the data like ‘Patient’s information, classified data or information etc.

4. Modeling Exercise: in order to cover the security threats and risk assessment use the all-time famous “STRIDE-methods” of Microsoft.

Spoofing of the Identity

Tampering with the Data

Repudiation of the Transactions

Information Disclosure

Denial of the Services

Elevation of the Privileges

5. Finalization and Planning: It is the last and final step once you have carried out all the above-mentioned steps. So that a cost effective safety method can be implemented.