Corporate Security: Practices and Technologies Used in the Industry

The issues of information security are now of concern to many heads of corporate IT departments. Interestingly, 7-10 years ago, zealots of total security were condescendingly called "conspiracy theorists." But now, every business owner is concerned about this. Today's threats are much more complex and much more serious than we are ready to imagine.

Global companies have survived large-scale cyberattacks by powerful malware like BlackEnergy, TeleBots, CryptoLocker, and others in the last five years. Such malware attacks critical infrastructure enterprises — the energy sector, financial organizations, transport, software, and pharmaceutical companies. That is why corporations actively implement some practices that protect from cyberattacks and ordinary information leakage. And we are ready to tell you more about them!

Identity And Access Management

Identity & Access Management (IAM) technologies provide all of the company's applications with a single identity management service, which greatly simplifies users' lives and increases security.

The correct operation of this technology goes like this:

1. Each user has an account to which the authority is assigned.
2. Each user must be identified and authenticated, similar to going through security in a business center.
3. Instead of a passport, employees need a login and password to enter. And instead of a pass, a session will be created, and a security token will be issued.
4. The application will have to verify that the security token presented is not expired, not revoked, and the specified rights correspond to the requested access.

The IAM unifies the management of identity, authentication, and user access control so everyone will receive only the data that is required by the position.

Biometric Identification

Biometric identification is a system that allows the IT department to:

• Get a biometric sample of a specific person;
• Deduce biometric features from the received data;
• Compare biometric features with those contained in control templates;
• Determine the degree of similarity.

Biometric systems can be divided into two classes, namely:

1. Mono-biometric systems — a single biometric modality, algorithm, or sensor (for example, face ID, dactyloscopy, or voice recognition).
2. Multi-biometric systems — multiple biometric modalities and/or sensitive sensors and/or algorithms (for example, face ID + handwriting recognition or dactyloscopy + hand thermography).

Biometric tools generate detailed reports about who entered and exited a building at a certain time. The systems can also send notifications to a smartphone or e-mail if one of the employees leaves the doors open or doesn't leave their account after work.

Tracking Systems

It is difficult to imagine a company without internal and external video surveillance. This tracking system allows you to:

• Improve the efficiency of security systems (if cameras are placed at all entrances and exits);
• Monitor the activity of employees (if cameras are placed in offices and other work areas).

Modern CCTV cameras have become more functional and create excellent video quality even in the dark. Additionally, technological advances have made camcorders more compact. It is the perfect solution for business owners who want their security equipment to be subtle.

Information Security Policy

Before starting a new business, its owner should consider creating a general security policy. It includes a set of documented security guidelines, rules, procedures, and practices that govern the management, protection, and distribution of valuable information.

All employees are required to undergo training, where they are told standard rules of conduct. For example:

• Do not use personal devices to connect to the corporate network;
• Do not download any applications on corporate computers;
• Do not share your identifiers with third parties, etc.

As people say, forewarned is forearmed, so it is best to inform employees in advance what actions are strictly prohibited in the workplace.

Technological Complex

Four main areas represent the modern software market for protection against various types of external threats.

1. Antivirus programs work both by the signature principle (detection of malicious code) and the heuristic analyzer. It means that code detection is based on several specified indicators and conclusions about the application's danger level.
2. Corporate firewalls are often used in conjunction with network intrusion detection, which controls information flow in a computer network.
3. Personal firewalls analyze traffic on a specific PC.
4. Advanced programs of the Host Intrusion Prevention class use a system of proactive PC protection against any types of threats. It is based on the analysis of the behavior of information system components.

All these areas effectively fight certain types of threats and represent a single complex of reliable protection against various intrusion types.

Conclusion

To draw the conclusion, one can say that the enterprise security system is the first thing to think about for business owners. It is best to do this at the very early stages of creating a company. It is always easier to plan a security system than to implement it in a working enterprise, breaking the established procedures.

Some companies use minimal security measures — for example, external video surveillance and admission with badges only. However, in this case, the security department will face data theft sooner or later. That is why it is worth thinking about creating a full-fledged protective complex and using several advanced corporate security technologies, which we listed in the article.