The IT space has evolved several times over the past two decades, and in that time, things have become more digital. Traditional IT revolved around hardware-based solutions such as servers, printers and copiers, while modern IT is rooted in cloud-based solutions, applications and software.
Let’s take a deeper dive into the modern IT tech stack, how organizations can address network security and cybersecurity, and what the future of these industries might look like.
The Core Components
Your IT system will include a business-grade network stack with both firewall switching for anyone on premises and wireless switching for staff without hardwired setups. Backup is another key element (ideally an airgap backup solution), but organizations also need backup services for their productivity tool suite (i.e., Microsoft Office or Google Workspace). That is a separate function known as cloud-to-cloud backup.
Backup processes are put in place to protect organizational data, which starts to lead into the network security and cybersecurity side of your business. Endpoint protection is crucial, and in the world of modern IT, it goes beyond an antivirus.
At Impact, the way we address endpoint protection is through a powerful multi-prong approach that utilizes next-gen antivirus, persistence detection and response as well as DNS protection services.
Beyond Network Security: Protecting the People
It’s just as crucial to handle the human element of your company. Employee awareness and security training are major parts of our program, as is a strong mobile device management strategy for end-user devices such as laptops, tablets, smartphones and whatever other smart tech your staff is using.
Organizations have varying practices in this regard. Some employees might be issued a company laptop and smartphone for work. Sales reps, on the other hand, are often expected to use their personal devices. In a situation such as that, it’s critical that you’re able to pull business information off the device without affecting their personal data.
The Role Cybersecurity Plays
Thinking about cybersecurity separately from IT is important because it allows you to create layered security or defense in depth strategies, and these almost always start with the end-user. This is why employee awareness and security training have such a strong emphasis in our programs. As sophisticated as the technology and tools get, employee manipulation is the most common cause of a cybersecurity breach.
Defense in depth strategies outfit your network with as many detection points as possible, and one of the best places to start is with multi-factor authentication (MFA).
A strong password policy and good MFA tool can improve your security posture exponentially. That’s not to say they’re impregnable, but these fundamental security measures stop a lot of attacks. However, they need full buy-in and implementation to be effective. If a business leader asks me to implement MFA for everyone in the organization except themselves, it’s a non-starter of a conversation.
The layered security approach also takes vulnerability management into consideration. Vulnerability management is an offshoot of patch management that takes a more comprehensive look at your entire network.
Rather than stopping at the endpoint operating system, vulnerability management looks at everything that lives on your network, such as vending machines, thermostats or any other network-enabled smart technology. This is an integral part of a layered security strategy because this smart tech often makes for an easy entry point into the network, especially if the firmware is never actively updated.
One of the challenges with vulnerability management, though, is just how many vulnerabilities realistically live on a network. For example, take a company with 1,000 users on the network. That’s going to create nearly 1 billion vulnerabilities, and it’s difficult to sift through that entire library, prioritize them and address them appropriately.
You can see this crucial intersection where the right technology, talent and process create an effective strategy for vulnerability management. As the Internet of Things (IoT) and operational technology continue to expand, vulnerability management is only going to become more important to an organization’s overall security posture.
Security information and event management (SIEM) is another critical tool. This is log aggregation with integrated AI that can elevate specific events to a cybersecurity analyst for investigation if enough conditions are met.
It’s just not possible for a human being to look through the sheer mass of data produced by every single device that’s on a network. Having a good SIEM with strong rules management and a well-trained AI is what allows cybersecurity professionals to be effective.
Staying on the Cutting Edge
Another pillar of modern IT and network security is continual education and staying on top of the most recent threats. This can be done through research, additional certifications and even simulated cyberattacks performed by white-hat hackers.
At Impact, with our partner DOT Security, we run a lot of “Purple Team” exercises in which we pin a red team (penetration testers) against a blue team (network defenders) and analyze the results. We look at the different techniques used by the penetration team, then build solutions and defense protocols to address any glaring network weaknesses or vulnerabilities.
The Future of IT & Network Security
Staying relevant in IT and cybersecurity demands continual education and constant process evaluation. We offer our staff an hour every day for professional development so we can stay on top of the latest trends in the space and look at where these industries are headed.
Cloud services, for instance, have been popular for 15 years. That means the next movement in IT won’t be about getting on the cloud, it will be about optimizing your suite of cloud services to avoid redundancy and solutions that don’t mesh well together. Figuring out how to optimize on the cloud will be the next major step we see a lot of organizations take in the years to come.
Similarly, on the security side of things, the big target for technology leaders is zero trust. The foundation of zero trust is in explicit user access to specific systems. However, the challenge is creating compromise between zero trust security systems and networks that use operational technology, which function best across an open network.
Finding the right balance and implementing a strategy that works for your organization won’t be easy. It takes an understanding of your goals and necessary processes and then aligning security practices with those goals in the way that makes the most sense.
Because these industries are so technical, IT and cybersecurity strategies are crucial for modern organizations looking to stay competitive as they directly impact operations and the bottom line. After all, these strategies are about more than making your business operational—they’re about protecting and enhancing all the hard work that you, your staff and colleagues invest day in and day out.
