Cybersecurity is a constantly evolving field and there are several approaches used to protect information and infrastructure. Overall, these can be identified as strategies for either network intrusion prevention or detection. While both work well in tandem, both can also be used individually and be highly effective. Let’s take a closer look at each to understand how to improve defenses against a cyberattack:

Prevention


Preparation is key to prevention – you must first know what you want protected from outside threats, come up with a way to protect it, and communicate the proper procedures that must take place to your internal audience. Historically, this has been achieved with complex firewall rules and a highly trained technical staff. This approach consists of three steps including identification, authentication, and authorization.

  • Identification is when an entity is trying to gain access to your information and is then recognized as a specific label. These entities could be labeled as employee, client, or some other moniker. Sometimes, the label refers to an endpoint, rather than a specific user.
  • Authentication is when a user’s identity can be confirmed. They will often be asked to provide a password, PIN, or even a fingerprint. Sometimes, users are identified using cryptographic keys, or cryptographic certificates.
  • Authorization is when a user is allowed to pass through the defenses, while keeping the untrusted sources out.

Detection


Monitoring and responding are the methods of detection. As soon as a breach is recognized, fail-safes and alarms can help to stop the bleeding before it’s too late. Some systems may notify a designated human of the intrusion while others act immediately. Modern systems sometimes use sophisticated machine learning techniques to attempt to recognize and adapt to a threat. But if your system cannot do anything about the breach, you must have a plan in place to eliminate the threat yourself.

Identifying a Critical Problem


While great advances have been made in securing data at rest, much of today’s data in transit is still not properly encrypted. Resting data (e.g., data on a hard drive) is often protected with access restrictions and encryption, but the moment that data moves to a new location, the transportation method of that data must be encrypted as well. Historically, firewalls ensure that data is sent between authorized sources, which hopefully means that unauthorized intruders on the network cannot view data. However, a single incorrect rule can render that supposed protection powerless. Human error or software exploits increasingly mean firewalls can be circumvented.

Focus More on Security to Prevent Intrusion


While many products offer detection solutions, few provide strong protection solutions on the hardware level. Hardware security can make sure that unauthorized access is prevented and intercepted data is completely incomprehensible. That’s why Q-Net’s hardware device, the Q-Box, is critical to a successful cybersecurity solution. It encrypts data as it moves across a network by grabbing it in Layer 4 (TCP/UDP), encrypting every single packet with a new AES 256 key, and using Galois Counter Mode to authenticate that the sender and receiver are who they say they are. This means that the Q-Box delivers strong benefits to authentication and authorization. Setting up the Q-Box (the identification step), is simple and straightforward, and does not require constant patching, maintenance, or a highly trained IT staff.

The Q-Box Explained


Through the Q-Box, QNS secures all network traffic that flows through it. Unlike dedicated protocols (e.g., HTTPS or TLS) the Q-Box targets all traffic, not just web traffic or emails. Furthermore, the Q-Box also renders endpoints totally “invisible-to-outside-threats,” and is an immutable hardware device that prevents accessing it or changing it in any way (it’s a silicon chip, not some software running on a router). Q-Net delivers end-to-end encryption devices that encrypt all data with no patches or updates ever required. It would take a quantum computer (thousands of times bigger than ones that exist today) billions upon billions of years to break our encryption.

A Tip from Q-Net Security


It is a necessary assumption that intruders can get into the network even if they shouldn’t, and you should assume they may look at all of the network’s moving data whenever they want. That’s why it makes perfect sense to secure critical endpoints and their data in flight. It is impossible for anyone to make sense of the data that they may collect or compromise through the endpoint’s operations.

Contact us today at [email protected] for a free consultation. We’ll be happy to send you a demo kit for evaluation.