Network security has become a significant challenge for various organizations; most of the firms have experienced a lot of illegal activities that consequently result in the loss of data. Such loses of critical data, in turn, lead to leakage of corporate strategies, which could hamper the affected organization’s competitiveness in the industry. Cyber-crime is one of the significant problems that hit most of the firms’ networks(Peltier, 2016). The cyber-criminals access information about a company without authorization and this act always breaches data confidentiality.  Another concern is information access by the employees.Therefore, the network systems of an organization should be secure to minimize unauthorized attempts to acquire information because some employees can attempt private access to leak confidential data.

Steps for Determining Organizational Needs

Generally, as a network consultant, I would set-up the active steps to discover the network devices so that the organization’s network security can be enhanced. The initial phase is to access the Prime Performance Manager, which involves logging in as a System Administrator. Once there is access to the Network menu, I would discover the seeds, SNMP parameters, as well as other parameters. Thirdly, for better security management, I would run the discovery from a new seed file (Peltier, 2016). After completion, the Prime Manager Performance saves seed entries. The fourth step is to load a device from the saved seed file, and select the preferred seed file to be the Preferred Startup.

The fifth step is to discover a network from the Network Discovery toolbar. However, the time for completing discovery depends on the number of the available devices, a latency of the system, type of the tools and the amount of the enabled reports. The final step is to view the devices, discovered by the Prime Manager Performance. By default, the found devices are sorted by severity of the alarm. However, for confirmation that all devices are detected, Prime Manager Performance server is commanded to ping to the devices. Also, the PPM is configured with the appropriate SNMP community name.

Countermeasures to Put in Place

Providing a secure network is a multiple-time event, and the system should be continually reviewed, updated, as well as communicated. Therefore, there should be well-established measures to prevent, detect and respond to the security breaches (White et al., 2017). Nevertheless, the raised concerns are fulfilled through verified countermeasures for the network security breach. As a network, I would provide various mechanisms to maintain network security. These countermeasures are as follows;

Application of a layered defense; the network manager should apply several complementary approaches to the enforcement at specific points in the network to remove any single network security failure. Also, the information technology managers incorporate network personneland integrate process an organization’s network security planning. The security policies, policy for network enforcement and security awareness should be efficient and effective to make a stronger security plan (Whiteet al., 2017). It is critical to the network users to understand and adhere to the formulated security policies.

Continued definition of network security zones alongside user roles can improve security. It can be achieved by the use of a firewall, filter as well as control capabilities for access such as strong passwords to reduce system cracking attacks by eliminating least privileged concept to access network zones.  The operating systems should be hardened against attacks by disabling all unused services, timely application of patches and continuous system software checks and updates. Moreover, network management information should be protected by virtual LANs.

References

Peltier, T. R. (2016). Information Security Policies, Procedures, and Standards: guidelines for effective information security management. Auerbach Publications.

White, G. B., Fisch, E. A., & Pooch, U. W. (2017). Computer system and network security. CRC press.

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