Networking Monitoring News – July 2016

Symantec and Norton Antivirus

If you are running Symantec and Norton Antivirus you will need to patch your systems immediately as all products contain multiple vulnerabilities. Exploitation of these products could allow hackers to take complete control of your systems. A total of 24 products are affected across all platforms.

Symantec has released patches and hotfixes which should be deployed as quickly as possible. The ease of attack and the popularity of Symantec products will make this a very popular target.

Authentication

If you are looking to secure critical assets within your organization, consider implementing two factor authentication. You can use a hardware token or a mobile app such a Google Authenticator.

Attackers

“The adage is true that the security systems have to win every time, the attacker only has to win once.” — Dustin Dykes.

The low hanging fruit for attackers are your users. Attackers will focus on them until we get more proactive in monitoring our networks and take control. User education is needed as well, they are the target and need to know what to look out for to better protect themselves and the company.

Getting Secure

It is impossible to be 100% secure. Following a few simple steps can help make a difference.

1. Educate Employees
   • Arm them with knowledge on what to look out for.
2. Prevention
   • Invest in prevention methods.
3. Detection
   • Monitor your network.
4. Recovery
   • Better backup software, better network segmentation and data loss prevention tools all help IT recover faster with less productivity loss.