foreword
Advanced Cybersecurity from
the Inside Out
Fortinet is a global leader and
innovator, providing an integrated
platform of high-performance,
cybersecurity solutions that span
from the datacenter to the cloud —
serving small, medium and enterprise
organizations around the globe.
Strengthened by the industry’s
highest level of real-time threat
intelligence and recognized with
unparalleled third party certifications,
Fortinet solves the most important
security challenges of more than
210,000 organizations. Trust Fortinet to
take care of security so you can take
care of business.
Learn more at fortinet.com
Sponsored by: 2
Network security challenges are evolving faster than ever as a result of
new technologies and application complexity. In addition, many old issues
continue to plague organizations, from simple password security to keeping
software up-to-date.
This collection of 24 essays covers a broad array of topics grouped into five
major areas, ranging from the necessity of planning your network security
up front to the new challenges that social engineering and other advanced,
persistent threats bring. A major theme throughout many of them is the
loss of the perimeter and the effectiveness of traditional defenses. Bring
Your Own Device (BYOD) and cloud-based services open many holes in an
organization’s network that require a rethinking of security to protect the
data, not just the methods of access.
Fortinet’s Cyber Security platform can address most of the problems
outlined in the essays in this e-book. Our ASIC-powered FortiGate firewalls
deliver the industry’s fastest Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) performance
and are the foundation of an end-to-end security solution that spans your
users, network, data centers, and the cloud. For the problems we can’t solve
directly, we offer tools such as enforcing business policies on password
changes and vulnerability scanners for your applications to help you
catch weaknesses.
We hope you find these essays as interesting and thought provoking as
we do and that they can help you improve your network and application
security defenses.

introduction
For all the attention data security has received in recent years and all the technical advances in risk
detection now available to protect network infrastructures, you might imagine that data are safer than
ever before. Unfortunately, the number of recent, frighteningly large data breaches contradicts that
notion. In the past 18 months alone, we have seen breaches at Adobe, eBay, JPMorgan Chase, Target,
Home Depot, Community Health Services, and the US Government that together compromised more
than 500 million records. Will the world ever be a safe place for the data so vital to businesses
and individuals?
With the generous support of Fortinet, we have created this e-book to help you better understand the
security challenges that business—and midsized businesses in particular—face today. This e-book is a
compilation of responses to the following question:
A range of industry analysts, consultants, and hands-on security experts provided responses
to this question. They offered fascinating insights into the security challenges we face today—
security issues made even more challenging because of the changing character of infrastructure
and its loss of network perimeter, rapidly evolving application environment, lack of security
awareness among users, and the increasing complexity of security solutions. Attacks and data
theft have also become a big business underwritten by sophisticated, well-funded entities.
Security and vigilance are a never-ending battle, but I trust you will find the many perspectives
provided by those who are on the front lines useful as you work to secure your own
business infrastructures.
What are the greatest challenges you face in securing
your network and application infrastructure?
Sponsored by: 3
All the best,
David Rogelberg
Publisher © 2015 Mighty Guides, Inc. I 62 Nassau Drive I Great Neck, NY 11021 I 516-360-2622 I www.mightyguides.com
Mighty Guides make you stronger.
These authoritative and diverse
guides provide a full view of a topic.
They help you explore, compare,
and contrast a variety of viewpoints
so that you can determine what will
work best for you. Reading a Mighty
Guide is kind of like having your own
team of experts. Each heartfelt and
sincere piece of advice in this guide
sits right next to the contributor’s
name, biography, and links so that
you can learn more about their work.
This background information gives
you the proper context for each
expert’s independent perspective.
Credible advice from top experts
helps you make strong decisions.
Strong decisions make you mighty.

Protecting the Core of Your Network
4
Alex Papadopulos
Striata Inc..............................................6
John Maddison
Fortinet, Inc.........................................8
Robert Shullich
AmTrust Financial
Services.................................................10
Dave Waterson
SentryBay.............................................13
Linda Cureton
NASA......................................................15
Sponsored by:

Managing Vendor Security Is Critical to Our Business
In providing electronic billing services to clients as well
as sending and receiving emails associated with billing
and payments, we deal with our clients’ customer data.
Ensuring the security of that data is an essential aspect of our
businesses. Our two greatest security concerns are managing
hosting vendors whose services we use and managing
inadvertent or accidental breaches by staff.
As far as vendor management goes, this is important because
we don’t physically manage our own data and application
servers. Instead, we rely on third-party hosting providers for our hardware and network
infrastructure. Every business is a potential target, and the more data it processes, the bigger a
target it is. We do not handle actual payments, so we don’t have credit card data or information
that would enable funds transfer, but there is always the possibility that somebody could use our
data in a fraudulent billing scheme, so we must be vigilant. At the end of the day, however, the
responsibility for any losses that affect our clients is ours.
Alex
Papadopulos
Alex Papadopulos is the head of
operations for Striata America
and currently heads up all
technical operations for North,
Central, and South America. He
is responsible for all areas of
technical and project operations,
including project management,
support, development, and project
implementation. Alex has more
than 12 years of experience in the IT
field, primarily focused on electronic
billing presentment, billing, and
supply chain management.
Head of Operations,
Striata Inc.
6
Ourtwogreatestsecurityconcernsare
managinghostingvendorswhoseserviceswe
useandmanaginginadvertentoraccidental
breachesbystaff.
Look for vendors that
are totally open with you
about everything and who
are flexible in addressing
action items that need to be
addressed.
One big concern is people
taking inadvertent or
accidental actions that
introduce risks to the
operation.
Key Lessons
1
2
Twitter I Website I Blog
b
Sponsored by:
Download the full eBook:

To manage expectations and foster confidence in our ability to deliver on security promises,
we perform a full security evaluation of our vendors, determining whether they follow best
security practices, how they secure their data, and how they secure their facilities.
We have detailed security policies that specify everything from how we manage our
internal systems to security requirements and expectations of our vendors. We build these
expectations into our SLAs, and we visit the physical locations of vendor data centers to see for
ourselves how well the vendors protect their facilities. We often bring clients on these visits to
demonstrate to them that the data they are entrusting to us are secure. We look for vendors
that use an approach similar to ours. We define what we want and need from a vendor, and
then perform annual reviews of the controls and policies.
Our other big concern is people taking inadvertent actions that introduce risks to the
operation. We track every action taken. Then, red flags alert us if employees or customers
take an action without understanding its potential consequences, such as clicking a phishing
email or providing a credential that can then be used to gain unauthorized entry to a system
or process.
Protecting against such accidental situations requires continuous education. For example,
we send fake phishing emails to staff; anyone who clicks them is not reprimanded, but the
episode becomes an opportunity to educate them on the risk and the proper way to handle
suspicious communications. Continuous training and education are incredibly important.
To secure against human error, policies must be well defined, in place, and updated regularly.
New staff must be trained on security policies before being given access to any systems. Staff
must be regularly updated if a policy changes and re-trained at least annually. Finally, always
test staff as a way to identify weaknesses, strengthen training, and improve policies.
Managing Vendor Security Is Critical to Our Business
7
Wehavedetailed
securitypolicies
thatspecify
everythingfrom
howwemanage
ourinternal
systemstosecurity
requirementsand
expectationsof
ourvendors.
Sponsored by:

Securing Vital Data Is the Greatest Challenge
The greatest vulnerability for many businesses, especially
midsized companies, is data vital to daily operations. We
worked with a machine shop that used computer-controlled
machines to create parts. Periodically, the shop would
connect to the Internet to update its machines; somewhere
along the way, the company picked up malware that
remained dormant in its system. After a time, when the
shop went onto the Internet again, the malware received an
instruction and immediately encrypted all the data the shop’s
very expensive machinery needed to operate. Soon after, the company received a ransom email
asking for $50,000 in exchange for decrypting the data. The business had little choice. A week
with idle machines would have bankrupted it, so it paid the ransom, the data was decrypted, and
it was up and running again.
Most businesses today depend on data, whether it is unique intellectual property or simply data
that enable them to operate. Losing that data would literally put them out of business. So, how do
you protect that vital asset? You must protect the network, which also includes people who use the
network and all the devices connected to it. This is becoming an increasingly difficult task.
John
Maddison
John Maddison has more than
20 years experience in the
telecommunication, IT Infrastructure
and security industries. Previously he
held positions as General Manager
Data Center division and Senior Vice
President Core Technology at Trend
Micro. Before that John was Senior
Director of Product Management at
Lucent Technologies. He has lived
and worked in Europe, Asia and the
United States. John graduated with
a Bachelor of Telecommunications
Engineering degree from Plymouth
University, United Kingdom.
Vice President, Marketing,
Fortinet, Inc.
8
Mostbusinessestodaydependondata,whetherit
isuniqueintellectualpropertyorsimplydatathat
enablethemtooperate.
The real problem for small
and large businesses alike
is not having the resources
they need to implement
security they should have
for the level of protection
they require.
You must protect the
network, which also
includes people who use the
network and all the devices
connected to it.
Key Lessons
1
2
Website I Blog
b
Sponsored by:

As businesses build infrastructures, they are extending beyond their core systems to data
centers, cloud services, and mobile devices; managing connectivity to the Internet; and making
sure their core network provides all the services their users need. Performance is a key factor.
Users expect high performance from their dispersed network infrastructure. With all this going
on, the network boundary becomes larger and more porous, which makes it more vulnerable.
One approach is for companies to think about their infrastructure as being made up of an
internal network and an external network. They can apply their own security solutions to their
internal network. Securing the external network involves applying policies and procedures
and relying on SLAs with service providers, but there are limits to what they can do with that,
which means that a certain level of risk will always be associated with their external network.
It comes down to levels of trust in different parts of the network.
One strategy we are seeing is companies securing their internal network from within. They
do this by segmenting their core network, breaking it down based on users or applications
or traffic or other criteria. Then, they apply trust levels to each segment. They can implement
different levels of protection between different segments based on the trust level between
those two segments. Anything passing from one segment to another must pass that segment’s
trust-level security protections. In this way, if a threat breaches one segment, the chances of it
spreading across the internal network are much less.
The real problem for small and large businesses alike is not having the resources they
need to implement security they should have for the level of protection they require. They
often do not discover this until after they have experienced a breach. Finding the right
balance among cost, levels of security, and data protection is not easy. Businesses need a
trusted partner that has qualified and certified staff. The business should build a personal
relationship with that trusted partner.
Securing Vital Data Is the Greatest Challenge
9
Onestrategy
weareseeing
iscompanies
securingtheir
internalnetwork
fromwithin.
Sponsored by:

The Disappearance of the Perimeter Is the Greatest Security Challenge
Enterprise computing today is made up of a mixture of in-
house systems; cloud-based services; a diverse collection
of mobile devices that employees use to access data from
anywhere; and even consumer-grade cloud-based services,
such as file sharing, that the enterprise may not know its
employees are using. It is difficult in this environment to have
an accurate idea of what your assets are and who is using
or should be allowed to use them. Many organizations lack
inventories of assets, including employees, software, hardware, and data centers. The reality is, you
can’t protect what you don’t know you have.
This lack of complete situational awareness is a result of the evaporation of the legacy concept
of the perimeter. We have punched holes in that perimeter to allow employees access to internal
networks for work-at-home scenarios, to provide mobile salespeople the ability to more effectively
service new and current customers while traveling, and to outsource operations of our networks
to third parties. The data all these people access with their smartphones and tablets must be
protected, but in this environment, it is often difficult to know where that data is.
Robert
Shullich
Robert Shullich is an enterprise
security architect at AmTrust
Financial Services. He has worked in
the financial services sector for more
than 30 years, having held senior-
level roles in information risk and
information security. In his current
role, he assesses information risk for
IT projects and proposes additional
controls or design changes that will
reduce the risk to the project. He has
also taught cyber-risk management
at the graduate level.
Enterprise Security
Architect,
AmTrust Financial Services
10
Itisdifficultinthisenvironmenttohavean
accurateideaofwhatyourassetsareandwhois
usingorshouldbeallowedtousethem.
Many organizations lack
inventories of assets. The
reality is, you can’t protect
what you don’t know you
have.
This lack of complete
situational awareness is a
result of the evaporation of
the legacy concept of the
perimeter.
Key Lessons
1
2
Twitter I Website
Sponsored by:

Consider, for example, a typical third-party cloud service provider that is delivering a Software
as a Service business application that depends on your critical business data. As part of your
SLA, you may require the third-party vendor to ensure certain levels of risk abatement and
threat protection. However, it is likely that the vendor is relying on a fourth-party cloud service
provider to store your data. So, where is your data really, and how do you assess the risks to
your data if it is difficult to know exactly where it is physically located.
Another problematic area for some companies is employees’ use of low-cost file-sharing
services without the knowledge of security people. This is typically not a malicious act: it is
simply a case of employees trying to do their jobs as efficiently as possible. Nevertheless,
it exposes proprietary data to risk, and if the practice is unknown to those who manage
corporate security, it represents a risk they cannot see or defend against.
To address these security challenges, organizations need to start with accurate asset
inventories. Whether an asset is purchased, leased, or acquired as a service, it must be tracked
for its entire life cycle. An entire life cycle begins with acquisition or creation, carries through
maintenance, and ends with destruction. Assets include hardware, software, data, and even
people. Assets should be classified so that the organization knows what they are and how
much protection each asset requires. Organizations need to integrate all business processes
with asset acquisition so that expenses and purchases can be tracked. Loopholes in expense
tracking allow employees to purchase cloud instances on a credit card and build applications that bypass IT governance processes.
Above all, organizations need clear written policies and procedures on the handling of assets and an effective communications and
training program (security awareness) to reinforce adherence to those policies.
The reality here is that most businesses are not in the business of fighting malicious hackers. They are in the business of doing
their business. They have a security department or person who does the best job possible to address the highest-risk issues so the
business can minimize risk to its revenue-generating operations. But they are up against professional data thieves who operate 24x7
to figure out how to steal that data. The security person needs to get it right every hour of every day; the data thieves need to get it
right only once.
The Disappearance of the Perimeter Is the Greatest Security Challenge
11
Thesecurity
personneedsto
getitrightevery
hourofeveryday;
thedatathieves
needtogetitright
onlyonce.
Sponsored by:

Closer to the Heart
Organizations used to focus security on the enterprise network
perimeter. Organizations built virtual walls—firewalls and
demilitarized zones—at the periphery to stop people from
getting inside. Unfortunately, the network was
breached anyway.
Then, the industry shifted focus to endpoints - PC equipment
and mobile devices. Antivirus applications became our shields
of choice. Sadly, we now know that antivirus software grows
less effective daily.
My view is that we need to shift the defenses closer to the enterprise core—down to the granular
level of data, where several big challenges await:
• Personal information. Personally identifiable information (PII) is an enormous enterprise
problem—the Sony Pictures Entertainment and Target Store hacks demonstrate just how
enormous. Many enterprises hold the PII data of millions of people within their IT core.
Dave
Waterson
Founder and chief executive of
SentryBay Limited, Dave Waterson is
an information security technologist
and inventor of patented technology
in the anti–key logging and anti-
phishing areas. Based in London,
United Kingdom, Dave has guided
the company from startup to
become a recognized leader in
its sector of information security
software development, with security
solutions for PC, mobile, the cloud,
and the Internet of Things. He has a
master’s degree in economics and is
a registered CISSP.
CEO,
SentryBay
13
Irecentlywroteablogpostinwhichafictitious
IoT-enabledgaragedoorbecomespartofan
attackbotnet.
The focus of enterprise
network security needs to
shift closer to the enterprise
core—to data.
Beyond technical solutions,
procedures and rapid
response teams need to be put
in place.
Key Lessons
1
2
b
Sponsored by:

• Cloud computing. There are actually two challenges here. First, the cloud technically
extends the enterprise network beyond direct enterprise control. Second is the sheer
volume of data. Cloud computing offers far greater storage and process volume than
companies have ever had. Security issues arise from both.
• The Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT is not a big factor yet, but every company is
examining it. In factories and retail, data-producing sensors will be attached to almost
everything. The IoT will control office energy settings and meeting room management.
Attack surfaces will multiply exponentially. I recently wrote a blog post in which a fictitious
IoT-enabled garage door becomes part of an attack botnet. That might give you some idea
of the scale of this impending danger.
So, how do we meet these challenges?
First, we keep protecting the perimeter. Web application firewalls, intrusion-detection and
prevention services, honeypots, and all the rest remain crucial. These are the sentries at the
gate that can radio into headquarters when something is amiss.
Next, figure out what data you have. A surprisingly large number of enterprises do not know
this. After that, track data flows throughout the organization. Where and how are data coming in? Where do they sit around
unencrypted? What are the attack vectors at each phase of data flow?
Finally, carefully assess what types of data need to be secured. Some data, frankly, needs little security—they just are not that
sensitive. Knowing which data types are where will allow you to target security investment where it has the greatest payoff.
If it sounds as if a big data solution is where this is heading, you are right. Big data technologies (Apache Hadoop, in-memory
computing [IMC], Scala, Spark, etc.) offer the measurements, machine learning, and early warnings that can show you if and where
security breaches exist. Securing data at entry is also important. Beyond the purely technical solutions, you need to establish
procedures and assemble a well-trained, rehearsed, and practiced response team that can spring into action immediately.
I think companies today realize that it is not a matter of whether they will get breached but when. The secret in securing the
enterprise network is to focus at the level of data.
Closer to the Heart
14
Ithinkcompanies
todayrealizethat
itisnotamatterof
whethertheywill
getbreachedbut
when.
Sponsored by:

True Security Requires Understanding and a Layered Security Approach
Protecting data and understanding the risks data faces
are two of our greatest weaknesses. We have focused on
protecting the perimeter and put so many resources into
doing so that we have, perhaps, neglected the data itself,
especially when you look at insider and advanced persistence
threats. Protecting the perimeter doesn’t necessarily afford
you the protection you need: I think that our strategy needs
to focus on protecting data.
This is not to say that you shouldn’t protect the network, but I don’t think that our defense matches
our risks very well. One way to protect against insider threats is two-factor authentication (2FA),
which uses what you know and what you have. The issue preventing adoption of 2FA might be the
cost associated with it and the fact that legacy applications aren’t always able to use such methods.
Another way is the protected data approach—basically taking the stance of “trusting no one.” Trust
is verified: if you are who you say you are, prove it. When this approach has been applied and users
have been verified, they can go anywhere and access anything on the network.
One example of how inside threats can compromise an organization is the breach that happened
at the Office of Public Information several years ago.
Linda
Cureton
Linda Cureton is CEO of Muse
Technologies and former CIO of
NASA, with more than 34 years of
service in IT management and at
the U.S. federal cabinet level. She
holds a B.S. degree in mathematics
from Howard University and an M.S.
degree and a post-master’s advanced
certificate in applied mathematics
from Johns Hopkins University. A
strategic innovator, thought leader,
prolific blogger, and pathfinder for
federal CIOs using social media,
Linda has received many awards and
is a bestselling author.
Former CIO,
NASA
15
Idon’tthinkthatourdefensematchesourrisks
verywell.
Understand the threats
that are specific to your
organization, and don’t
forget to look at the threats
that may come from within.
Design your security program
based on the unique needs
of your organization rather
than trying to find a one-size-
fits-all solution.
Key Lessons
1
2
b
Sponsored by:

A person who was not authorized to access certain documents not only did but managed to
take many off premises. In that example, we relied too much on passwords to secure things.
We often think the solution is to change or strengthen passwords, but this issue is much
larger than a password problem. Organizations need to understand that these threats go
much deeper.
Understanding the threat and the risk factors help guide you to better defense approaches. A
good way to better understand those risks is for organizations to think about them from the
beginning. We spend a lot of time and resources on checking the box next to risk analysis, but
we don’t really dig in to figure out what the true risks are. We need to do a good, old-fashioned
“What are our risks?” assessment. Those risks vary from organization to organization.
We also spend a lot of time and resources understanding compliance, and doing so can get
in the way of finding the right kind of protection. We are pressured to comply with a laundry
list of things that may or may not apply to our situation or organization. It would be better if
we spent that time on risk assessment. If we understood our risks, we could then prioritize the
laundry list, pick the most critical risks, and find the right solutions to mitigate them.
As it is, we have a tendency to look for a single solution that fits everyone, but the scenario
just doesn’t apply. There are a lot of security solutions out there, so many that it’s becoming
a problem. How do you choose the right solution? Some think all you have to do is have a
firewall, but really, you’ve got to have a firewall, intrusion protection, good authentication
mechanisms, good network topology—the list goes on—so that when a breach occurs you’re
able to recover better.
There is no magic bullet that addresses every security risk. True security requires a layered
defense of several solutions, put together to give you the right kind of protection for your
specific organization. No single tool will keep your network and data safe.
True Security Requires Understanding and a Layered Security Approach
16
Truesecurity
requiresalayered
defenseofseveral
solutions,put
togethertogive
youtherightkind
ofprotection
foryourspecific
organization.
Sponsored by:

Protecting the Core of Your Network

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Protecting the Core of Your Network

Similar to Protecting the Core of Your Network (20)

More from Mighty Guides, Inc.

More from Mighty Guides, Inc. (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Protecting the Core of Your Network