Best Practices for Network Security is the Topic Essay

Best Practices for Network Security is the Topic - Essay Example In the absence of security policy, the availability of network for individuals and organizations can be compromised. It is important for users of networks to develop a sound security strategy, which involves paying close attention to the reality of internet speed, changes in technology and other realities of the technology world. Users need to know how and what to ensure network security (Convery, 2004). Individuals and organizations ought to take security management, planning, the design of procedures, and policy development in order to protect themselves from compromised security. Due to rapid technological advancements, network security is faced with new challenges frequently and this can significantly compromise the privacy and security of users. Therefore, it is important for organizations and individuals to meet the challenges of network and computer security by adopting best practices (Pauzet, 2011). In order to have an understanding of network security, this paper will discus s the best practices for network security. The first best practice for network security is the creation of usage policy statements. It is important for organizations and other users to create usage policy statements outlining the roles and responsibilities of users with respect to security. The starting point should by the establishment of a general policy that covers all data and network systems within the company (Juels and Oprea, 2013). Such a policy should outline the general user community with the security policy understanding, its aims, and guidelines to improve their security practices, as well as the definitions of their responsibilities to security. Along with the creation of usage policy statements, a company should create a partner acceptable use statement providing partners with an understanding of the information that they have, the conduct of the company’s employees, and the expected disposition of the information available to them. It is important for the comp any to describe explicitly any particular acts that have been noted as security attacks and the punitive actions that will be meted in an event of detection of security attack (Pearce, Zeadally, and Hunt, 2013). The final aspect in this regard is the establishment of an administrator acceptable use statement in explaining the rules and procedures for privilege review, policy enforcement, and user account administration. In an event that a company has particular policies regarding the handling of data or user passwords, it should present those policies clearly (Dey et al, 2012). The second best practice for network security is delivering corporate security training and awareness. Since it is the responsibility of all employees to ensure network security is achieved, it is important that they should be educated about the acceptable and responsible usage of networks and other corporate resources. There is need to train them on network security including aspects of password policies. Th ey should be invited to training sessions on network security after a certain duration of time (Liska, 2003). During these sessions, employees should receive training about the do and don’ts of various network and computer usage that may compromise network security. For example, they can be taught about what they should do or not do in instant messaging.