Netsecuris Blog Security Blog 3-13-2013

Protecting IT resources (systems, data, and software) has steadily become more difficult. Due to the pervasive use of email, USB thumb drives, and mobile devices, the network perimeter has become less defined and secured. Without the proper mitigating controls, these types of devices bypass the traditional network controls such as firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, and sometimes even anti-virus software. Attackers today are using malware and attacks techniques that bypass the rules and signatures in those controls; further complicating the ability to secure IT resources. The signatures that those tools use to protect IT resources are useless against the unknown malware and attack techniques utilized by the attacker.Two of the tips to maintaining cyber security today are:Employing Behavioral analysis techniques on network flow and packets that don't depend on signatures to perform their job of protecting IT resources. Constant monitoring of network activity, inside and out, for anomalies. With all the automated cyber security controls in use today, we have forgotten how to use the most important tool of all; our human brain. We must stop solely depending on what the automated controls are telling us and use our own computer, the human brain, to analyze what the machine is telling us. As data rates and flow have increased, there are way too many false positives generated by signatures.