Security requires daily vigilance. As part of a proactive enterprise IT security strategy, you need to know what is happening in your network, how, where, by whom, and when. These day-to-day network statistics hold important security data—but often aren’t used to make IT security decisions.
A daily network operations review can provide security gatekeepers deep insights to what is happening (and what shouldn’t be happening) in the network:
- What data is moving through your network? Seeing what applications are accessed by what devices provides a good traffic pattern picture. Sudden changes to overall patterns can show malicious infiltration that has breached security.
- Where is traffic traveling on your network? Knowing normal traffic dataflows patterns highlights sudden changes in origins and destinations. New or unexpected dataflows could be a sign of malicious intent.
- How much bandwidth is getting used? Understanding normal bandwidth usage throughout the day unmasks unexplained changes. Sudden increases during “slow” hours or from generally low-use sources could mean a breach.
- Who is accessing what applications? Knowing which users normally access which areas of the network Detecting a sudden change in the access profile of “UserA” could be a sign of a compromised login.
- When is access requested? Recording when “UserA” typically shows network activity is crucial to understanding your network. Sudden patterns that don’t match UserA’s general work hours could be a sign of a compromised login.
Getting this level of network visibility across the entire network can be challenging—especially as more and more applications, data, and users sit outside legacy “castle-and-moat” architectures. A SASE security posture can help provide you with the metrics you need to make good decisions on policies, postures, and initiatives.