6 Common Flaws that Can Emerge in a Network Security Strategy Over Time

by Bricata on May 28, 2019

An enterprise network can give the sense it’s alive.

It grows and evolves with time as new components are added. At the same time, these new components add complexity, increase risk and reduce visibility even as businesses are more reliant than ever on their networks.

All this change can sometimes mean the original network security strategy isn’t a fit anymore and fundamental flaws will naturally emerge. So, what are the fundamental flaws that might make an existing network security strategy ineffective? Below are six of the common flaws we see in our day-to-day work.

1) Volume exceeds capabilities.

Speed, throughput or volume on the network is surpassing the capacity of the current security solution to effectively monitor for threats.

2) Need for greater data granularity.

Security doesn’t have the granularity of data it needs to trace activities from endpoint to endpoint through your network. This is seen a lot when organizations begin to implement network threat hunting initiatives. For example, DNS logs aren’t granular enough or visibility is difficult between endpoints when transactions go onto the network and NetFlow isn’t cutting it.

3) Inconsistent enforcement of security policies.

The consistency of security policy enforcement can be compromised when many different technologies are employed. For example, two different firewalls on the same network will enforce seemingly identical policies differently. This problem multiplies as new security products are added to a network over time.

4) The existing tools become a burden to manage.

Tools require maintenance and upgrades. If you are running multiple tools in multiple locations, upgrading these and managing the policies and configurations can outweigh the value being derived from the solutions.

5) The existing strategy lacks tunability.

Network uses vary greatly from organization-to-organization, so their needs are often unique. A strategy that only supports global threat intelligence feeds and does not permit custom-built rules or policies can prompt replacements when security organizations mature.

6) A lack of APIs and the ability to exchange data.

Many older tools are closed systems and don’t adhere to open standards or provide APIs for sharing their data. This prevents the security team from sharing data they’ve collected in one tool with another. For example, the team might be collecting traffic flow with one tool but are unable to share that data with another tool that does a better job of analyzing the data.

Integration is a growing challenge and the integration of cybersecurity tools is becoming an enterprise requirement. It was among the top 10 network security challenges on a recent industry network security survey.

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Networks grow and evolve over time in response to business needs. This can create new flaws that reduce network visibility and raise risks, which requires modifications to the network security strategy.

Note: Bricata is proven to provide unparalleled network visibility. If you’d like to see Bricata in action for yourself, please contact us for a live demonstration.

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