IT Security and anti-malware technology

When it comes to IT security, most businesses face the same challenges. Many organizations, including Microsoft, have a Risk Management and Compliance staff in charge of dealing with all system hazards. The tasks of this team at Microsoft include defining, monitoring, and correcting the risk posture of all Microsoft Managed Solutions (MMS) settings. The IT Security tools we will analyze are the result of original ideas combined with two years of expertise operating several Microsoft and third-party products.

When choosing security technology, it was critical to choose one that covered the three basic control types: detective, preventative, and corrective. The technology that also provides auditing and reporting was was needed. The security tools identified were as follows, anti-malware, network anomaly detection and desired configuration management. By taking advantage of these technologies, an IT security team can attain a reasonable balance between cost and efficiency.
This essay will describe the ideal function of each of the three technologies, pointing out some illustrations of their runtime usage.

The anti-malware technology

Malware resistance is important because it helps protect the computer against unexpected threats concealed either in malicious code form or other user actions. Currently, they are two types of software used to protect against malware; these are the antivirus and anti-spyware e.g. Windows Defender. These two softwares prevent, detect and correct diverse types of infection. An effective anti-malware solution requires to both monitor the system from time to time, and occasionally scan it. It should report both identified and unknown malware based on their typical risky behaviours.

Apart from the function mentioned above, anti-malware solutions also provide other services like looking out for legitimate looking emails, URL or electronic fax where this malware is passed as a file. Since preventing the system from malware infections, the system has a mechanism that automatically stops or prevents operations as well as carefully scanning user data to eliminate macro viruses that are hiding in user documents and have not yet caused any infection to the system. The system can be rendered ineffective without consistent updates. To stay in front of the latest threats, it is paramount to keep the system’s signature and removal systems up to date. However, prevention measure can't come at the expense of performance. If performance deteriorates, productivity will also be affected.

Network Anomaly Detection (NAD)

NAD observes common pathways, watches for important signs of suspicious behaviour then reports the information for remediation. A firewall is also included in this category. Wary behaviour can attract traffic or data that matches a particular pattern being sent through e-mail. Large organisation's networks will inevitably encounter an occasional malware incident despite the best efforts of IT management. The tool provides a timely system warning that can help expedite remediation. The NAD has tools that help protect data in regions concerned with regulatory compliance and data leaks. These tools include data monitoring capabilities and its ability to detect and stop sensitive information from being leaked. A good NAD should be able to adjust to the most recent set of threats, and sensitive data forms or else its usefulness will diminish. The NAD system should also catch plenty about the authentic irregularities to reduce the amount of false positive being stated.

Following some tuning, the system should be aware of and monitor for typical traffic usage patterns. This is essential because a change in the usage pattern may reveal new types of malware and other threats. In the overall NAD system, networking equipment plays a significant role; the solutions must process data from routers, switches and firewalls. The correlation engine then handles the NAD alerts. An interesting thing here is that the network anomaly detectors to be built into the host anti-malware software cast a net of preventive measures where all the computers included help watch for and theoretically stop attacks before they spread.

Desired Configuration Management

The major challenge that most IT departments face is keeping system configured appropriately. Keeping the system set has a lot of importance like, it eases management, ensures compliance, and locks down various forms of intrusion and promoting productivity. Many of these factors add to security. An efficient DCM system should perform a wide range of activities including configuring systems, analysing and reporting how close the configurations are to the ideal. The solution should also scan the network automatically to ensure that new regime is installed as required. A complete DCM solution must A DCM setup is a crucial part of a good network access protection (NAP) mechanism. This mechanism is important in that; the system can quickly verify that all connected systems are configured accordingly and block unknown or new systems until validated. Furthermore, DCM can search for weaknesses of configuration so that appropriate action can be taken on time

Conclusion

Anti-malware is essential since it helps to safeguard the systems against multiple daily threats. Network anomaly detection can do more than just detect host invasions and discover data leakage; it can now help to prevent next publicised network breach. Lastly, Desired Configuration Management will soon be a mainstay for monitoring and maintaining configurations. It is prudent that you have at least one for each of these three categories since no single vendor offers a single holistic solution that addresses each of the three areas. It is then important to select a product that will suit your specific needs.

Reference

Hsuan, W. T. (2016). Network Anomaly Detection.New York: McGraw-Hill Press.

John, B. (2016). “Four security technologies Every IT organisation must Have.” TechNet. Microsoft

Meyer, H. (2007). Microsoft establishes security zones. Computers and Security, 16(3): 215

Peter, H. (2004). Emerging Technologies.Practical Internet Security, 453-455.