Identifying the Threats to your Network

Written by Chris Thornton

To remain competitive, every business must reflect on its service offerings and products. Shackleton is no different.

IT security is a key talking point and a real concern for business. With an ever-increasing range of business applications being implemented, the overall attack surface of a business increases and security vulnerabilities may be introduced.

Defending Against External Threats - Identifying the Threats to your Network

Minimising the risks to clients’ IT systems is one of our top priorities. With the rise in malicious activity worldwide we have placed significant importance on reviewing our whole IT Security offering to ensure our clients have a multi-layered defence against any external threats.

This past year has seen us improve a number of areas in our service offering

- - Email Filtering
  - Web Filtering
  - Managed Antivirus Solution
  - Firewall Monitoring

Real Time Visualisation & Improved Response

Business networks are constantly being probed for weaknesses. From vulnerable applications to weak username and password combinations, the methods used by attackers are becoming more and more sophisticated. Proactively blocking these threats is a must, but understanding the trends behind them is also key.

This belief in understanding emerging threat trends has resulted in us implementing a new solution which records and identifies “brute force attacks” on clients’ servers. This solution allows us real time visualisation and improved response to active threats.

A Better Understanding of Cyber Attacks

Sean, our Intern, a final-year Ethical hacking student from Abertay University, has been working hard to enhance the visibility of targeted attacks. Now, when an attack occurs, we can dig deeper to gain a much better understanding of what is actually happening, allowing us to develop new ways of preventing these attacks.

We are implementing this solution for existing and new clients, with a view to addressing and understanding a number of key points.

- - Which of our clients are being targeted by brute force attacks?
  - Which applications or services are most commonly attacked?
  - Which new applications and services are being attacked?
  - What are the most commonly used usernames?
  - Where these attacks are coming from?

Increasing Knowledge & Understanding

With an increased knowledge and understanding of these areas, we can ensure that our own internal processes and procedures continuously improve and the advice we provide is accurate, current and of benefit to our clients.

A solution of this nature is key to our development as a business, the expansion of our service offering and, equally important, to the overall security of our clients’ networks and businesses.

We are only just scratching the surface with this solution and will be investing time and effort to improve this, along with our other service offerings, on an ongoing basis. No one can afford to standstill when it comes to cyber security and our clients rely on us to develop our offering as the threat landscape changes.

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