Five Steps to Controlling Network Access

One common security mistake is to treat the network and applications as separate entities that never interact. You may have separate people maintaining them, separate security policies, separate procedures and so on. Hardening Windows servers will go a long way toward protecting the integrity of the data on those servers, but you must also harden the network infrastructure itself. Start by taking the following five steps.

1. Implement access control lists (ACLs)

If someone can get inside your network, they can gain access to your Windows systems. You need to implement strict ACLs on your network equipment and grant access only to those users that require it. For example, do users in Houston ever need access to systems in New York? If not, chances are the traffic passing between those systems isn’t essential to the business….

[Continue reading Five Steps to Controlling Network Access]