Best Practices for Network Security

30.09.2022

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Best Practices for Network Security

The ultimate guide to securing your industrial network using the best network security practices

Cybersecurity and network security issues are becoming a daily struggle for industrial organizations who have to deal with more and more security issues. Recent security trends, cybersecurity and network security statistics have revealed a huge increase in security incidents, hacked and corrupted data from network sources that are becoming more common in the workplace, such as mobile and IoT devices connected into one network which quite often lack proper security.

The main goal of any industrial company is to increase and maximize its profits. The key to achieving this goal is to reduce operating costs and increase production efficiency which quite often comes at a cost of security. This requires making informed decisions, which in turn depends on transferring a wealth of data from and between smart network devices and machines that communicate effectively within a network. It is obvious that network security must be in place.

However, unfortunately, recent network security research suggests that most organizations do not care enough about their network security, have unprotected data on the network, unprotected network itself, and poor cybersecurity practices that leave them and their network vulnerable to data breaches and security violations. To successfully protect network and combat malicious intent, it is imperative that organizations strengthen their network security, make cybersecurity awareness, prevention and best security practices a part of their corporate culture.

In this article dedicated to network security, we take a closer look at some best practices of security and what it takes to secure your industrial network and the devices connected to the network.

 

Increased vulnerability of network to cyber-attacks

Connecting network and other devices in an automated network controlled by programmable logic controllers (PLCs), a distributed control system (DCS) or a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system is nothing new in the industrial world. However, these operational network systems have traditionally been isolated from the more vulnerable enterprise networks and did not require much network security. Because of this separation from bigger network, the risk of cyber-attacks on industrial networks has been low, and security has not been a primary concern for system operators on the network.

Times are changing, security challenges are changing, and network is expanding. With IoT practices connecting industrial and enterprise networks to ensure seamless and continuous data flow between all network devices, implementing cybersecurity measures and best practices to secure the entire network is now paramount.

Every device connected to network, if not protected well, weakens your security and increases your network's vulnerability to cyber-attacks. A single hole in the network fence, such as an outdated legacy device or an unprotected switch, is all it takes for a hacker with malicious intent to break through your security, penetrate your network and siphon off your valuable data – or even take control of the entire process.

How to implement network security? There are three important factors of cybersecurity.

We know that designing, implementing and enhancing the security of your networks can be a challenging security task because there are multiple aspects of network security to consider.

From the security basics, there are three important factors of security to consider when building your cybersecurity infrastructure with protected network:

• Network security
• Device security
• Data monitoring and management

 

Network security best practices

Despite the differences in security priorities and techniques used to protect networks, industrial control systems versus enterprise IT systems, several industry associations have developed standards and security guidelines for connecting or converging ICS with IT systems.

Three pillars or best practices for securing industrial networks include:

• Deploy Defence in Depth (DiD) protection for industrial networks
• Enable network security settings in your industrial networks
• General and network security management through education, rules and monitoring

Based on these three pillars, the following best practices of security are recommended as the first step in strengthening security and supporting an industrial cybersecurity control system.

 

Cybersecurity Statistics

Damage related to cybercrime and network breaches is estimated to reach $10,5 trillion annually by 2025, according to Cybersecurity Ventures. To give you a little insight into the current state of overall security and of network in particular, we have collected five key statistics on data and network breaches, hacking, industry-specific statistics, spending and costs.

The "Big Five"

• Global cybersecurity spending applying best practices will reach $187 billion in 2023. (Gartner)
• 68% of business leaders believe their cybersecurity risks are increasing, network security must be strengthened and best practices must be applied. (Verizon)
• 41% of customers would stop buying from a company that was the victim of a network or security breach or ransomware attack. (Fintechnews)
• 86% of network security breaches were financially motivated and 25% were motivated by espionage. (Verizon)
• 52% of security breaches involved hacking, 28% involved malware, and 32-33% involved phishing or social engineering. (Verizon)