A Six-Step Guide To Develop & Implement a Network Security Plan

Today, a network security plan to protect against cyber-attacks is a necessity. This is your strategy for defining the techniques and approaches used for protecting your network from unauthorized users. While the maintenance and governance of network protection changes from one company to another, the basics of implementation remain the same.

Steps to Implement Your Network Security Plan

There is often a wide hiatus between developing a strategy and implementing the same. Your plans of upgrading network security should not get stuck in typical execution challenges. Here are six steps to build an effective network security plan for your company and implement the same successfully.

1. Understand the business model

The first thing while developing a network security plan is knowing what you are trying to secure. You must be aware of the essentials of your company, where they are stored and how your business makes money. The executive leadership of your company will possess this information along with the goals for your organization as the director board sets them.

2. Carry out a threat assessment 

After you have understood your company’s business model, you must know the systems, assets, and resources currently working in the network. This assessment is usually conducted by a third party and can take a few weeks, depending on the size of your network. The teams at this juncture will require members from InfoSec, Server, Database, and Network teams. After the threat assessment is evaluated, the accessor will provide a detailed report mentioning the vulnerable places and recommendations for remediation.

See More: 5 Ways to Secure and Manage Your 5G Network

3. Create IT security procedures and policies 

The results obtained from threat assessment may be utilized for creating or expanding the current systems and policies. For instance, the company might have a separate policy for mobile devices, passwords, social media, a clean desk policy, and VPNs. After the content of your policy is thoroughly reviewed and processed, your executive leadership can give their final approval for the distribution of the same into the company infrastructure.

4. Develop a security-first culture

For developing a robust security-first culture in the company, you need to have regular security awareness training. Although the average employee might not recall the exact words used in the policy, security awareness training is essential for internalization. You can have periodic phishing campaigns to remind the staff members about the security policies and how to tackle threats. You can identify the people ignoring the security policies and have a corporate hotline to report all the compliance violations.

5. Have a defined incident response 

One of the crucial components of network security is incident response. Some threat perpetrators have the target of disrupting the company operations. These people continuously search for ways to infiltrate your network by installing ransomware, phishing, and other social engineering methods. Apart from this threat, there is also the possibility of an insider threat. The good news is that you can get the technology for countering these attacks. Some of the solutions you can use are network segmentation, firewalls, security awareness programs, and endpoint malware protection. 

6. Implement the security control

While it is great for your company to have professionally written and solid policies stating what needs to be done, you need controls and tools for implementing the environment for supporting the policy statements. You can use some of the many security control frameworks available to establish security controls. These frameworks give directions for securing the firewalls, implementing safe practices and other necessary security initiatives.

See More: Why Cybersecurity’s Latest Buzzword, Zero Trust Needs a Simple Approach in the Hybrid World

Plan IT Forward

Network security planning gives you a roadmap for your company to operate securely and safely. The creation of this strategy needs you to have a complete understanding of the business and executive leadership support. Remember that the plan must be enforceable, deliberate, understandable, and educational for employees to practice.

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