Secure corporate network

In many respects, security risks are getting bigger as many businesses and companies use online trading methods with customers and partners to minimize related costs.

Concerns about vulnerabilities

In other words, business-to-business transactions have never been considered safe, even faxed. There are even many businesses, mainly small ones, that exchange sensitive information with partners through unsecured e-mail, or make transactions on unsafe websites, despite the Additional security features for e-mail and browsing sometimes don't go through difficult and expensive.

Risks from B2B transactions (enterprise-to-business transactions) are often related to confidentiality including the security of credit card information and other data before the eyes of "outside" from outside. Identifying process is also another concern; It is especially important because from this process, enterprises know who they are online. It is then the legal responsibility of the person directly performing the transaction if sensitive data is stolen.

Complex solution

Good network security can boost productivity and reduce production costs. By integrating and classifying security for networks, businesses can deploy network-based activities, such as B2B transactions, wireless connectivity, and IP transport with minimal risk. The core element of network security is deploying the latest security solutions and strict IT security policies. Some security solutions related to B2B transactions include:

- Virtual private network (VPN) : There are about 65% of businesses out of 3,000 organizations in the world using VPN networks. This network conducts data encryption over the public Internet, allowing remote users (partners, customers .) to securely access to the corporate network. By linking firewall elements, intrusion detection tools, identity rules, and security tools . VPN can provide a secure, scalable and cost-effective security solution.

- Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) : SSL protocol establishes a temporary point-to-point connection, ensuring privacy in a public Internet environment. Used quite commonly in B2B transactions, SSL encrypts data when transmitted over the Internet but does not protect the complete record of the transaction.

- Digital Certificates : Similar to electronic identity cards, electronic certificates confirm the legality of digital signatures. In order to do this, it is necessary to have a public key architecture (PKI), which, according to experts, is difficult to implement in enterprise scale.

- XML ​​key management specification (XKMS) : Extensible markup language (XML) is a software tool that helps applications communicate easily with each other. XKMS is an XML-based security specification that enables businesses to rely on partners using PKI keys.

Risk reduction

Some of the following measures can help businesses reduce financial risks when conducting B2B transactions:

- Hire security experts : Most businesses do not have a specialist in security. The solution that is often chosen is experimental, which means that at the same time, the person in charge of security has to do many other things, causing them to neglect and not have enough time to well protect the network .

- Security check : Request partners and product suppliers to conduct internal security audits. This helps to detect the gaps and shortcomings of security practices of businesses so that they can set up preventive and preventive measures. Enterprises can use the Benchmark tool to audit security. For example, CIS provides free Benchmark tools to assess the security of operating systems and software tools.

- Texting security policies : Most small companies do not set up security policies on paper.This fact often happens to large enterprises, especially related to certain industries.These industries often document security policies and force employees to strictly enforce them.

Published articles : Part I - Network security and things to know

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