Companies information, including the most sensitive one, is stored on digital supports.
Data protection and data privacy, then, represent an essential aspect of companies management.
In order to reinforce their IT infrastructure security, firms and private citizens must apply some technological and behavioural strategies.
In terms of technological measures, IT security applies a “concentric circles” approach:
- Firewall and filters are applied to web browsing and mail servers (proxy) to prevent external access and to identify contents from the local network, providing perimeter security.
- Antivirus and anti-malware applications are installed on every device, but only if they are constantly updated they are able to protect workstations and devices from the most common threats (which daily come from devices in the external and internal network). Today traditional antivirus comes in two layers: EPP (Endpoint Protection Platform) solutions, which block known threats and suspicious behaviour before they succeed, and EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) systems, which record the activity of every device, detect attacks in progress and make it possible to isolate the workstation and reconstruct what happened.
Data must also be protected from unpredictable or malicious events, such as cancellation or theft.
Backups, which are data copies on local or remote archives, are the countermeasure to the first possibility. Softwares for easy management of backups are available.
Sophisticated data leak prevention systems can identify, track and prevent unauthorized data access and are applied in order to protect the archives from theft.
It is important that every user agrees to the company’s internal IT regulations. Employees and collaborators must be trained to the correct use of devices and to respect security procedures in order to avoid risk exposure for their company.
Vulnerability assessment and penetration testing
Security measures have to be checked over time. That is why we run security assessments of networks and applications, always within a scope agreed with the client and authorised by them in writing.
- Vulnerability assessment (VA): a systematic review of servers, workstations, network devices and exposed services, to find known vulnerabilities, misconfigurations and outdated software.
- Network penetration testing (PT): a controlled simulation of an attack on the infrastructure, from outside and inside the company network, to see how far someone exploiting the vulnerabilities found could get.
- Application penetration testing: testing of websites, web applications and APIs, with a focus on authentication, session management, access control and the handling of user input.
Every assessment ends with a report listing the vulnerabilities found, ranked by severity, with the recommended actions to fix them.