The changing dynamics of IT with its big data, mobile technologies, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and the Internet of Things have put an ever-increasing stress on the network as the threat landscape continues to broaden and advance at a disturbing speed. Networks teams are under tremendous pressure to resolve issues at a fast pace, but their visibility into their network is fading as technology becomes more and more complex. In the past, multiple network security products were deployed, each focusing on controlling a single threat like viruses, firewall issues and more.

A comprehensive network security solution can not only improve the security and performance of the network but also makes it easy to manage while making the network dynamic, resilient and agile. In this article, we look at 5 features that a network security solution must have for it to be effective and efficient.

Read more: 5 Ways UTM can help you secure your business network

1. Firewall and Security Features

The primary necessity of a network security solution is an up-to-date gateway antivirus that scans all incoming and outgoing network traffic for anomalies and take appropriate action. A strong firewall could bolster your network security by allowing or blocking inward and outward traffic as per defined rules. An Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) can continuously scan the network traffic for any threats and thwart them.

2. Secure Remote Connectivity

A secure connection from an endpoint to the company’s network for its remote users is very important and a virtual private network (VPN) does just that. It also helps build site-to-site connections to ensure protected and seamless connectivity. Typically, Secure Sockets Layer or IPsec is used to verify the communication between the endpoint and the network.

3. Mail protection and URL Filtering

Email gateways, if unprotected, could allow intruders to use social engineering tactics to deceive recipients and steal data for financial gains. The security solution should be capable of blocking inbound attacks and control outgoing messages to prevent this threat. It should also provide the facility to control your employee’s internet usage, prevent web-based threats, and block connectivity to malicious websites and secure your gateway to the web, be it on-site or in the cloud.

4. Strong Networking Features

With smartphones, laptops, and other devices connecting to the network, capacity load balancing is an important aspect. Today’s networks are growing in complexity and your security solution should be able to control this complexity. No matter how old or new the infrastructure components are if it’s connected to the network, you should see it and control it.

5. Effective, easy administration and dynamic reporting

Your network security solution must have a simple yet comprehensive and unified interface which gives visibility and ability to manage the threats as they are discovered. It should be able to monitor servers and run diagnostic tools as per the need. A strong access control can ensure that the access to various servers as well as the Internet are regulated as per company policies.

Seqrite’s UTM is one powerful product that combines all these feature and more into one tool. It ensures,

• All traffic through the firewall is tracked and logged and pre-defined business rules are applied to block all threats and non-business traffic. This improves productivity and ensures security. The antivirus built into it scans all inbound and outbound traffic for malware at the gateway level. The IPS system can detect and prevent attacks from a wide range of DoS and DDoS attacks before they infiltrate the network.
• It validates and encrypts every IP packet of a communication using Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) and NAT traversal. VPN compression, Multiple Subnet Support, and DNS Setting for PPTP Server as well as SSL VPN, Remote Access VPN, Site-to-Site VPN, dead peer detection are other features of this tool ensure secure remote connectivity.
• It includes mail antivirus and anti-spam as well as keyword blocking for emails and HTTP(S) traffic fortifying your email communication. Website category and custom web lists based filtering are also provided.
• It boasts of a revamped ISP load balance and failover feature including policy-based failover routing and automatic divert of data traffic from inactive ISP to active ISPs. IPv6, VLAN, USB Internet support for 3G/4G and NTP support, configurable LAN/WAN/DMZ ports, and Layer 2 bridging and link aggregation are also provided.
• A user-friendly web-based logging and reporting console gives a complete view of the network. Configurable scheduling of diagnostic tools and monitoring CPU/RAM/Disk usage with timely reports and alerts through SMS or email is part of this tool. Stronger access control with enhanced user/group bandwidth and quota management is provided.

Seqrite UTM is a one-stop network security solution for your enterprise ensuring round-the-clock security of your network.

As an IT security partner for your business, Seqrite provides comprehensive security from advanced cyber threats. To know more