The importance of a network security audit

The importance of a network security audit

With our continuing reliance on working online and the cloud, your business has to become more vigilant with how it protects its network. As such your network security needs, at the very least an annual check-up. Network security audits help you identify the biggest risks and weak points of your network, they can even tell you what changes to make so that those risks don’t happen again in the future.

Why do you need a network security audit?

Your business needs to have a reliable IT infrastructure that keeps up with the ever-changing landscape of how technology is used in today’s world. You don't want your company's growth inhibited by security vulnerabilities introduced when you add new hardware or software, so make sure you take care of it now and set yourself up for success later.

Your business should be equipped to handle everything from new devices as they are added onto its existing network—whether those additions happen gradually over time, or all at once when moving into an entirely different office location. Your network security audit will help your business keep pace with the latest technological advances while still maintaining robust security protocols no matter what kind of device is added to your internal grid.

What is a network security audit?

A network security audit is where an outside company investigates your businesses cybersecurity policies and identify any weak points or systems within your network. Some of the steps included in the network security audit are:

• Identification

Your network is a vital component of your organization. The first step in an audit should be to identify all assets and potential threats for security purposes so that any issues can be addressed before anything happening or even discovered at a later date.

• Security Policy Review

This is where your auditor will review your businesses security policies and procedures to see if they meet the standards required to effectively protect your hardware and data. For example, they would check who has access to your network? Do they really need that kind of access or are there other ways for them to do their job without it?

• Security Architecture Review

This is performed to give you a thorough understanding of your cybersecurity measures, an architecture review will examine the setup and technology in place. This builds off device and network identification to provide you with a more detailed analysis than before.

• Risk Assessment

This is where your network security auditor will use a variety of assessments to identify threats, analyze controls to find the biggest threats. They will then prioritize fixes from the biggest threat that is easiest to remedy to the smallest threat that is hardest to fix!

• Firewall Review

With your firewall, the auditor should evaluate your network's topology and rule base to see if it is up-to-date with today’s cybersecurity standards. They'll also want to make sure that remote access policies are set appropriately for your company as well as evaluating how you maintain management processes or procedures of the devices on your network.

• Testing

Once the network security audit has been completed and the policies and [processes have been updated and improved it’s time to test whether they work. The auditor will attempt to break into your network to see if the network security audit was a success.

Netlogyx provides completely personalised IT support packages based on your specific needs and objectives, which means you only pay for what you really need.