How can you integrate network security monitoring?

Network security monitoring (NSM) is the process of collecting, analyzing, and responding to network data to detect and prevent cyberattacks. NSM can help you improve your network visibility, identify threats, and reduce risks. But how can you integrate NSM into your network security strategy? Here are some steps to consider.

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1 Assess your network

Before you implement NSM, you need to understand your network architecture, assets, and traffic patterns. You should also identify your security goals, requirements, and challenges. This will help you determine what data sources, tools, and methods you need for NSM. You can use network mapping, scanning, and auditing tools to perform a network assessment.

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Vishwanath K V

Cybersecurity Professional [ Network Security | Threat Detection & Response | SIEM | Cloud Security | Generative AI , Endpoint Security - Malware Defense]
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There is always a deployment phase before going live and its the phase where you collect the network traffic, access the traffic, understand the risk score, tune your network accordingly. It's the learning phase of your environment before you make some important decision about the network traffic make the most of it. Ensuring that you are allowing only the traffic of your interest and by not using ANY ANY rule and overwhelming your devices.

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2 Choose your data sources

NSM relies on various data sources to provide a comprehensive view of your network activity, such as network packets, flows, and logs. Network packets are the raw data that travel across your network, containing detailed information about the source, destination, protocol, and content of each communication. Network flows are aggregated records of network packets with common attributes like IP addresses, ports, and timestamps. They provide a summary of traffic volume and patterns. Network logs record events and actions that occur on network devices like routers, firewalls, servers, and applications. They provide contextual information about the status, performance, and configuration of your network components. To use these data sources for NSM, you need packet capture tools for network packets, flow analysis tools for network flows, and log management tools for network logs.

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Vishwanath K V

Cybersecurity Professional [ Network Security | Threat Detection & Response | SIEM | Cloud Security | Generative AI , Endpoint Security - Malware Defense]
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It's easy to have all the data sources in places but its important to understand what type of data adds value to the customer and what type of data is being collected does it meet all security guidelines. It's also important to know how the data is collected and for how long the data is retained. Simple errors such has not configuring the right syslog not enabling right ports, not having right health check monitoring in place could overwhelm these devices easily. What data is collect and how its collected varies from Industries to Industries. Data collected at banking sector would not be the same as data collected at retail sector.

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3 Select your NSM tools

NSM tools are software applications that help you perform NSM tasks, such as data collection, analysis, visualization, alerting, and response. There are various types of NSM tools depending on their functions and features. Network analysis tools can examine and interpret network data to identify anomalies, patterns, and trends. These tools can also provide reports and dashboards to help visualize and understand network activity. Examples of network analysis tools are Wireshark, Nmap, and Snort. Network detection tools can detect potential threats or attacks on the network using signatures, heuristics, and machine learning. Examples of network detection tools include Suricata, Bro/Zeek, and Splunk. Network response tools can help respond to and mitigate network incidents by isolating, blocking, or remediating affected devices or segments. These tools can also automate or orchestrate response actions. Examples of network response tools include Firewall, IPS/IDS, and SOAR.

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4 Implement your NSM solution

Once you have chosen your data sources and NSM tools, you need to implement your NSM solution on your network. This requires installing, configuring, and integrating components to ensure they are working together effectively. It is essential to test and validate the solution to make sure it meets your security objectives and expectations. When implementing your NSM solution, you should take into account the network topology, data storage, and data privacy. You should consider how your network is structured and segmented, where to place the components to optimize data collection, how much and how long you need to store data for NSM purposes, as well as the security and availability of data storage options. Additionally, you should be aware of the legal and ethical implications of collecting and analyzing network data, as well as the compliance and regulatory requirements of your industry and jurisdiction.

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5 Monitor and improve your NSM solution

Once you have implemented your NSM solution, you should monitor and improve it regularly to guarantee its effectiveness and efficiency. Additionally, you should review and update your NSM policies and procedures to reflect changes in the network environment and threat landscape. To monitor and improve your NSM solution, consider activities such as verifying the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of network data; measuring the performance, reliability, and usability of NSM tools; managing and prioritizing alerts; responding to incidents; and learning from NSM experiences. Furthermore, keep up with the latest trends in network security and NSM.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Vishwanath K V

Cybersecurity Professional [ Network Security | Threat Detection & Response | SIEM | Cloud Security | Generative AI , Endpoint Security - Malware Defense]
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Integrating Network Security Monitoring is a important and interesting phase. Once you have integrated NSM you need to understand that not all the alerts that are triggered are genuine. For example: There are situation or scenarios where you upgrade your devices or change your network architecture you can expect flood of alerts but do you need to action them ?? Ofcourse not when you know there's an ongoing maintenance activity. So its important to disable monitoring when you have such activities in place and enable them after its complete.

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How can you integrate network security monitoring?

1

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3

4

5

6

1 Assess your network

2 Choose your data sources

3 Select your NSM tools

4 Implement your NSM solution

5 Monitor and improve your NSM solution

6 Here’s what else to consider

Network Security

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How can you integrate network security monitoring?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Assess your network

2 Choose your data sources

3 Select your NSM tools

4 Implement your NSM solution

5 Monitor and improve your NSM solution

6 Here’s what else to consider

Network Security

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