Identify Security Gaps

Simply put, Identify Security Gaps in your Infrastructure and Security Posture. Doing so will make your job of protecting and securing the overall Infrastructure much easier if properly managed. All your Servers should be up to date and under a Support Contracts. Physical Hardware requires support just as much as software requires support believe it or not. With new emerging technologies you have new zero day type logical errors especially when you are troubleshooting interconnectivity and interoperability. For this reason making absolutely sure you are maintaining current Vendor Support is crucial. Other Security Gaps may include improper implementation of Firewalls, Content Filters, and Network Intrusion Prevention and Detection Systems. Network Hardware may be at or near End of Life so make sure to maintain proper refresh and redundancy so while upgrading and replacements take place your production networks don’t go down. Simple Solutions are Smart Solutions and the more you automate such Solutions, the better all parties will be in the long run. Definitely make sure your End User Population is trained yearly so they can assist the Organization in maintaining a good security posture. All End User Computing Devices and Workstations should have up to date Anti-Virus, Full Disk Encryption, and Host Intrusion Prevention. Network and Server Equipment should be physically and logically segmented off from the End User Populations to prevent any intentional or accidental tampering. Make sure Multifactor Authentication is setup and configured on Servers and other internal resources requiring User Authentication. Many One Time Pin solutions for MFA exist on the market so choose what works best for your Organization. Pre-Boot Authentication can improve your security posture at the end user level but it becomes a catch twenty two when a user forgets their Pre-Boot Password. This means Service Desk will receive calls specifically related to Pre-Boot Authentication issues which also runs the potential risk of bricking a computer, which is also known as rendering a computer useless. Your workstations should on a 3 year remediation plan to make sure the hardware meets current performance and security standards. When Operating Systems reach their End of Life date that means the Vender has stopped Supporting the Operating System and they stopped Patching Vulnerabilities. Physical Hardware goes bad all the time especially on laptops so refreshing Workstations on a Regular Cycle is crucial improving your security posture.

Implement Safeguards via Group Policy that prevent Users from Exfiltrating Data. An End User should not be able to grab Thumb Drive, stick it in their Work Computer, then copy and paste company data to said Removable Media. Reading and Writing should be disable via Group Policy to easily prevent this from an Administrative level. This should be true for all Removable Media. Can Users freely send emails to Foreign Emails? Foreign Entities are Outside of USA Jurisdiction so make sure to prevent this form of exfiltration at the Firewall Level. Seek out Security Gaps and Holes in your Network and Infrastructure then patch them like your Organization’s life depends on it.