How is security management done in large businesses?

Security management is very much required, in fact essential, if you are doing a large scale business or responsible for the security. In this article we discuss about some steps that can be considered for increasing the security (and you might have issues with some of the steps, or perform some additional steps):
- There might be a lot of unwanted people from whom you wish to keep your network and database safe. For this purpose a strong network guard must be used with an equally strong firewall and proxy.
- Here the basic anti – virus software would not work. You have to go for strong antivirus packages. There are separate internet security software packages also.
- Stronger passwords can be used for authentication purpose and it should be changed on a bi – weekly or a weekly basis if a wireless connection is being used. The password must be robust and follow the protocols to prevent the password from being guessed.
- A network analyzer can be created for the purpose of monitoring the network. It can be used as and when required.
- There are certain physical security precautions that can be exercised for the employees.
a) Physical security management techniques can be implemented such as the closed circuit television for the zones that are restricted with security viewing these videos.
b) The perimeter of the company can be marked by security fencing backed up closed circuit television cameras.
c) The security rooms and the server rooms are fire – sensitive and so they should be equipped with fire extinguishers.
d) Physical security can be maximized with the security guards who have been given specific protocols to follow.
Some of the above points hold good for large govt. institutions and schools too. School networks can put up a firewall and proxy that is adjustable for restricting outsiders from accessing the database. Schools too need to use strong internet security software packages, also because students tend me to be the most curious and prone to using software that may have viruses or worms. Librarians, administrators, and teachers should constantly supervise the network to provide guarantee protection against security threats. An internet usage policy that is easy to understand, accept and enforce for differentiating between the personally owned and school owned devices. for the institutes that provide higher education must implement the FERPA compliance. Large govt. agencies should also use stronger firewalls and proxy for keeping the intruders at bay. Strong encryption must be done for safe–guarding the communication. The wireless connection must be authorized in whitelist. Others should be blocked. All of the networking hardware must be deployed in secure zones. A private network should be created up on which all the hosts should reside after which they won’t be visible to the outsiders. Security management procedures that are used by various organizations include risk analysis, risk assessment, classification of information, and categorization of assets, and rating the vulnerabilities of the system. These measures are followed for the implementation of the effective controls. The principles of the risk management are followed for managing the security threats. The types of the security threats can be classified in to two broad categories namely the external security threats and the internal security threats.
Avoiding the possibility of creating any opportunity for attackers is the best thing to do in the first place. The effectiveness of the controls that are used for controlling these threats is assessed. The consequences of the risks are also assessed. The risks have to be prioritized as per the impact they can have on the security system. 

Security management practices followed in home and small businesses

As there are different kinds of networks and different scales, there are different types of security management for them. In this article we shall talk about how security management is done in the home and small businesses. Given that the complexity is lower in these cases, only basic security is required for a small office or at home. When you compare this with higher scales, where a lot of effort and maintenance is required for the large businesses and large institutions. In the home and small businesses, regularly used hardware and software is used (and not the sophisticated ones when compared to the sophisticated hardware and software that is used for the prevention of spamming, hacking and other kinds of malicious attacks in larger installations). Here we list some basic points for security management at home and small office:
- A basic firewall can be installed or even a unified threat management system can be used.
- A basic antivirus software will do the task if you are working in the windows environment (as long as regular data patches and software updates are installed).
- Other software that can be installed for security include anti – spyware programs. A number of anti – virus and anti – spyware software are available in the market.
- If you are using a wireless connection, you must take care to secure your system with a robust password. A number of security methods are supported by the wireless devices, so try to use the strongest of those methods such as the AES, WPA2. A wide range of devices are supported by the TKIP. But they can only be used in the cases where there is no compliance with the AES.
- While using wireless networks, the default SSID name of the network must be changed. Another security measure that can be taken is to disable the SSID broadcast as this is not required for the home use. This can be easily bypassed by the use of modern technology and if the attacker has some knowledge regarding how the wireless traffic can be detected.
- You can enable the MAC address filtering for keeping track of all the MAC devices that are on that network connected to your router. Even though strictly this is not a security feature, it does can be used for limiting and monitoring the DHCP address pool for the attackers by both AP association and exclusion. However, it does make for more settings to be done by the home or small business, which can start to become complex.
- Static IP addresses can be assigned to the devices connected to the network. This is done for complementing the other security features and to make the AP less desirable to the attackers.
- The ICMP ping on the router must be disabled.
- You can even review the logs of the router and the firewall for the identification of any abnormal traffic or connection if any is there.
- Passwords must be set for all the accounts (and not common passwords such as pass1234, etc; make these hard to guess with a combination of upper and lower case letters, number and special characters). You can set these up randomly - for example, one of my passwords is 5Gtf$&^hsTF23%3G. Such random passwords cannot be guessed and more sophisticated techniques would need to be used to break such passwords (and don't use the same passwords for multiple services).
- If you are using a windows operating system, you can create multiple accounts for the family members to limit all the activities.
- Children of the family must be given lessons about the information security.

Security management is about identifying the important assets of the user that of course includes the information assets and checking whether the policies protecting these assets are implemented properly. It is also about protecting these assets from loss. It identifies the critical assets and focuses on protecting them first. The potential threats to the system are assessed. Then measures are taken for eliminating or minimizing these threats. The security risks are managed by the virtue of the risk management principles. It involves identification of the risks, assessment of the effectiveness of the control strategies, determination of the consequences. The risks are identified by means of the impact they can have. The identified risks are classified and appropriate response is selected for each.