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NETWORK SECURITY
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By Ian Kilpatrick , VP Cyber Security for Nuvias ( formerly Wick Hill )
www . nuvias . com
Securing your business in the age of the cloud and BYOD – how do you protect your perimeter when you ’ ve blown it to pieces ?
These days we ’ re subject to near constant headlines detailing the latest big data breach or hacking scandal . Many of us probably think we have a pretty good handle on the different types of security risks that can threaten our businesses , but the reality may be a little different .
The introduction of new technologies , the growth of cloud computing and changing employee working practices have all opened the door to a raft of new security vulnerabilities – often without us realising it .
The security perimeter that was once in place no longer exists ; bring your own device ( BYOD ), remote working and working across multiple sites , combined with an increasing reliance on cloud-based applications such as Office 365 and Salesforce , and public cloud services like Amazon AWS or Microsoft Azure , have contributed to a de-centralised environment where company data and applications can be freely accessed from almost any device , on any network .
Without knowing it , many organisations have repeatedly punched holes into their once-secure perimeter potentially leaving themselves not only vulnerable , but fully open to attack . However , because these changes have happened over time , in some cases several years , many firms have missed , or have under-prioritised the potential risks they face . This in some instances has led to complacency regarding legacy security systems – if something has always worked , and was secure in the past then why mess with it ? But of course , this doesn ’ t take into account the new wave of attacks coming from outside the weakened perimeter .
Firewall technology One of a number of areas that this applies to is firewall technology , which has had to evolve to counter this next
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