What is Network Security Monitoring?

Business today is increasingly reliant on the technology it adopts. Through the storing of information and sensitive data, to the actual running of systems, to the connectivity to all employees and customers, technology has a stranglehold on today’s business world. Since it’s such a huge part of the day to day, month to month operations of business, you’ll want to make sure that every aspect of your infrastructure is protected and carefully monitored. Through network security monitoring services, provided by a trusted Managed Services Provider (MSP), you will be able to accomplish this. So what exactly is network security monitoring?

How can it help you feel confident your systems and information will be thoroughly protected?

We’ll dive into these questions and more in this blog.

What is Network Security Monitoring?

Network security monitoring is a service provided by MSPs that allows them to keep a watchful eye over your network (both traffic and devices). Your MSP will be looking for any security threats, network vulnerabilities, suspicious activity, etc. By having a constant watch over your network, it allows for preemptive action to prevent anything disastrous from happening.

With intruders always adapting ways to infiltrate your network, it’s important to have this service incorporated into your business. They will inevitably find a way to break through any security measures. So when this happens, having an MSP monitoring your network is going to provide an extra level of security and proactiveness to keeping your business up and running at all times.

Benefits and uses

Besides the obvious of having your network constantly monitored, network security monitoring services provides you and your business with a variety of other benefits. The fact is, security threats don’t take a break. Even when you and your employees are out of the office, the threats to your network are still working.

Because of this fact, the following benefits and uses are ideal for fully protecting your infrastructure.

Network monitoring services will:

• Detect threats and/or breaches that would otherwise go undetected
• Help recognize and protect against new, unknown threats
• Identify and track suspicious activity
• Give you a big picture point of view of all your business’s security measures
• Help with compliance issues, detecting data breaches of sensitive information
• Streamline compliance reporting
• Find solutions to identified threats
• Give you access to 24/7 technical support from a team of experts

The benefits you get from the many uses of network security monitoring are second to none. It will assuredly give you, as a business owner, peace of mind that your livelihood is properly protected.

Network security monitoring in action

There are a number of examples we could point to, advocating for network security monitoring services. One that comes to mind for us at Valeo Networks is how we took a potentially damaging phishing scam threat and stopped it in its tracks.

Example #1

When a client’s employee opened a seemingly normal service email and clicked an attachment, this triggered a ransomware attack. The software we had in place was able to stop it before it became damaging to their network. Instead of allowing the attack to penetrate the system, our software created a text file on the desktop that we were able to immediately go in and simply delete, eliminating the threat altogether.

Example #2

Another example we can personally point to is one that had to do with our 24/7 monitoring services. In this particular case, the customers ran a company based around online sales. Their shipments needed to be able to go out daily for them to continue bringing in revenue. This also meant that their business would be vulnerable around the clock, as connectivity would need to be present at all times for their customers.

We got notified that one of their servers had gone offline late at night. After the notification, we were able to dispatch an employee and get them back up and running right away. They were able to make their shipments the next day without a hitch.

Challenges to successful network monitoring

Challenges to a successful implementation of network security monitoring are increasing as our networks become larger and more complex. This means that there is just more that we need to monitor as well as more intricate ways to monitor.

With the growing complexity of networks these days come other challenges as well.

• Lack of Network Visibility:

Network visibility means that you have the ability to properly collect data on all switches, routers, and other devices within your network. These key metrics play an important role in properly monitoring your network. Having this visibility will give you the capability to learn about performance issues, giving you direct insight to the backend of your network.

• Establishing Baselines for Your Network Performance

You need to be able to gather enough information to establish a baseline performance for all of your key metrics. With baselines in place, you can see exactly when your performance levels dip below where they should be at, keeping you ahead of the game and proactive in solutions.

• Properly Configuring Devices

Proper configuration of all network devices means you have seamless integrations within your systems. Without this, you will be negatively affecting your network performance, so it’s imperative that we have this issue covered.

• Network Scaling

As a business owner, chances are you are looking towards the future. The future means scaling and growing your business, which in turn means scaling and growing your network. Any changes or adaptations you plan for within your network needs to take into account the goals you have for the future of your business.

All of these challenges are things that you will be able to discuss and work through with your MSP. Trust that the team of experts will put you in a place to succeed and stay protected.

What to keep in mind when building your network security monitoring capabilities

The important thing to remember about cybersecurity in general is that not one single component will keep you properly protected. It takes a combination of measures to accomplish this. That being said, network security monitoring is a huge part of this that cannot be understated.

You’ll want to integrate other forms of security and technology with your network monitoring services. This includes things like threat intelligence, SIEM platforms, system and security analytics, and most importantly, understanding your network.

How can Valeo Networks help you?

If you’re ready to really dive into the protection of your network and all of your business technology, Valeo Networks is ready to be your partner. We offer our partners a full range of cybersecurity solutions including 24/7 network monitoring. Our team of experts pride themselves on the relationships built with our customers and want to ensure every aspect of your business is protected to the fullest. To learn more about our network monitoring services, as well as all of our other offerings of managed IT services, you can request a free assessment and IT roadmap over at our website.