Want to increase overall security of your small to mid-size business
network without spending much time or money? These three inexpensive
ideas will help bring more security and less hassle to your environment.
1. Migrate users away from Internet Explorer
A great deal of compromise that companies experience is the result of
the browser choice, and let's face it, Internet Explorer has issues. If
you cant switch from IE completely, consider changing to Deepnet
Explorer (http://www.deepnetexplorer.com), which still utilizes the IE
rendering engine, but wraps it in a much safer interface.
2. Implement Egress Filtering for all unneeded ports
It's likely that you have a firewall or router at the perimeter. Use
this device to block outbound connections that are likely to be malware,
spyware or otherwise malicious traffic. You must still allow outbound
critical services such as the web, mail and others, but you certainly
dont need all 65,535 ports allowed outbound to the Internet.
3. Map your network
Upwards of 75% of all the organizations we perform assessments of have
no organized map of their network environments. Make sure you know your
external and internal IP spaces, your domain structures and have a clear
understanding of existing trust relationships. Take it one step further
and actually use Visio or something similar to draw a real network map.
