Six steps to strong network security

As more attacks penetrate perimeter defenses, these six steps can help ensure your organization's network and applications remain secure.

1. Recognize the limits of the perimeter. Although perimeter security technologies such as firewalls and intrusion-detection systems (IDS) are important, they are just one part of an overall security solution. As more organizations look to open up their networks to business partners and customers, the perimeter becomes more porous and application-level security needs to play a greater role.
   
2. Build internal moats. Smart organizations identify their most critical and vulnerable resources and then deploy perimeter-like security devices, such as firewalls and IDSs, around them. This provides an added layer of defense and ensures that in the event of a perimeter breach, critical assets still are protected.
   
3. Protect against attacks from within. Realize that your internal network is no longer a trusted zone and act accordingly. Technologies such as Zone Alarm's Integrity, which checks PCs to ensure they have the proper virus signatures and patch levels in place before providing access to the network, help ensure internal vulnerabilities are mitigated.
   
4. Deploy application-specific security wares. Firewall vendors, including Check Point, F5 and Top Layer are rolling out intrusion-prevention systems that sit between perimeter defenses and internal servers. These devices perform application-specific deep packet inspection on traffic that the perimeter firewall lets through. They are especially effective at stopping application-specific attacks such as domain-level attacks that focus on DNS vulnerabilities or Web attacks that exploit known HTTP and FTP holes.
   
5. Improve identity management. If you can't get to a service, you can't compromise it. New technologies, such as TNT's Identity, look to ease internal and external identity management by integrating with directory services, such as Microsoft's Active Directory, and checking identity at the packet level. Ensuring that only authorized users and applications are granted access goes a long way toward shoring up application security.
   
6. Integrate security into application development. If applications have no security holes, they can't be breached, no matter how insidious the attack. Vulnerability scanners from Spiware and Sanctum can help ensure that applications are hole-free before deployment. Also examine shrink-wrapped products for proper coding practices.

[This was included in a very good article with examples.]