Securing your guest network is vital to its performance capabilities, user satisfaction and overall health and security of your company. As newer, more harmful threats continue to emerge, security is bound to become more of a priority in 2015 than ever before. Having a defined approach towards guest wireless network security can make all the difference in the face of these threats.
Here Are a Few Tips to Help You Secure Your Guest Network
1. Focus On Rapid Response
While prevention is still better than cure, it’s inevitable that your guest wireless network could fall prey to a malicious event or attack. And while it may be difficult to keep calm and combat the attack, it’s important that your IT security team is trained to respond rapidly to breaches or threats, without panic. Plan for potential events by putting a sound incident response plan in place.
Rehearsing response protocols is a good way to ensure your IT team is prepared to respond well in a worst case scenario. Consider covering topics during a drill such as investigating and solving the underlying cause of the attack, and recovering evidence of it.
2. Stay Informed
In an age driven by information, there’s really no excuse to remain uninformed. Security reports published by industry leaders, such as Cisco or Gartner, often detail trends and attacks and can help you stay ahead of the game by arming you with the knowledge to recognise potential threats or holes in your current network security.
3. Monitor Your Network Closely
Monitoring your guest wireless network and the devices making use of it is critical to ensuring its continued security. The sooner a threat is detected, the sooner a response plan can be implemented to mitigate the threat effectively. Using controls, such as an identity services engine (ISE) is a good way to delve into how your wireless network is being used, and in which context, as well as assist in policy enforcement. Data gathered by such controls can be shared across your network’s security solutions, and provide a basis for analysis that can provide assistance in predicting and combatting future threats.
4. Improve Endpoint Management
Examining the devices on your network during the monitoring process and identifying indicators of compromise in terms of network security is essential for ensuring your IT security team can rapidly respond in keeping with your response protocols. Since it’s inevitable that user error and lack of judgement could compromise your network, the best defence is a good offence.
Experts are predicting security will continue to top the chief focal points for IT professionals in 2015, and the importance of protecting your wireless network is not to be understated. An excellent approach to adopt is one of continuous reassessment regarding your network's security, so that as new threats arise you arewell ahead of the game in terms of spotting them, or planning in the enventuality of them actually occurring.
