Network Security Solutions 101: Simple Measures to Take

Introduction

The network is the lifeblood of IT and your entire organization. In this interconnected world, without it your business stops.

From the edge to the core and the cloud beyond, your network must support infrastructure, endpoints, devices, customers, and users—onsite and remotely in numbers and variety like never before. With the proliferation of devices such as IoT, OT, and ICS resources the heat from hackers is on in particular at the perimeter. In this Network security solutions blog, we will provide actionable insight into what network security measures your organization can implement to deliver optimal performance while protecting against security threats.

Network Security Solutions: The Lay of the Land

The threat landscape for networking is grim. Regardless of the size or type of organization, the challenges are daunting. Here’s a sample of the current state with supporting research:

• SMBs – Often overlooked in the past by threat actors, these smaller entities in the past often “flew under the radar” of the bad guys. Those days are over. In today’s environment, two phrases summarize the reality: High Impact, Low Preparedness. Research¹ here supports significant concern:
  • 1 in 3experienced a cyberattack last year
  • 1 in 5 would go bankrupt from a $10K incident
  • 71% say their defenses aren’t strong enough
  • 60% recognize they are targets but (still) underestimate risk
  • 74% manage cybersecurity entirely in-house with minimal training
• Large Enterprises – Having been a prime target of hackers for years, you’d think things could not get worse. Surprisingly, new research suggests that unfortunately things are going south. Even with (typically) more resources and staff to combat the threats, the complexity of deployed assets are such that they are at best just keeping their heads above water. Some relevant research² highlights for large enterprises:
  • Most breaches involve vulnerability exploitation and third-party compromise, which have doubled year-over-year from 15 to 30%
  • Exploitation of vulnerabilities as an initial access step for a data breach grew by 34%
  • Increased breach timelines fell to 48 minutes (fastest breakout: 51 seconds)
  • Fortinet revealed 42% YoY spike in stolen credentials
  • 97 billion exploitation attempts
• Government – Entities of all sizes, but specifically smaller organizations such as local municipalities are hard pressed and are strategic targets. Key reasons are the access to a wealth of valuable citizens and key stakeholder’s data as well as potential intelligence/control of critical infrastructure resources from water treatment facilities to emergency services. Two highlights³ of exposure:
  • Governments are the third-most targeted sector by nation state actors, with trends in ransomware, identity attacks, and hybrid warfare tactics, projecting $9.5 trillion global cybercrime costs by 2025
  • U.S. is pushing tougher cybersecurity standards for federal agencies and contractors, mandating secure software development, cloud key/token protection, and CISA oversight-driven by escalating threats, particularly from China and Russia

The AI Wild Card

AI is now the go-to tool for hackers, quickly changing the threat landscape by increasing the speed, potential risk, and complexity of attacks. This appears most applicable to nation state threat actors, who are leveraging the process to perform “reconnaissance”, develop convincing phishing lures, and then dynamically adapt malware to evade detection by network security measures implemented by the good guys.

According to the aforementioned research², 79% of attacks are now malware-free, often using legitimate tools and AI-guided behavioral techniques to evade network security solutions.

The implications could be game changing. Traditional signature-based defenses may not be as effective as in the past. Even seasoned pros may struggle to identify AI-generated phishing or impersonation attempts. Defenders must respond with their own enhanced security network solutions and network security measures that also exploit AI technologies.

The Top Four Network Security Measures

Given the bleak cybersecurity statistics and landscape laid out so far, what are the top four measures you can take right now to secure your network?

1. Implement Zero Trust Access Controls – With the advent of AI driven threats, perimeter-based security is quickly becoming obsolete. Attackers frequently gain access via compromised credentials or phishing, often at the edge. Therefore, you must assume breaches can happen and restrict lateral movement. Begin here with:
   • Enforce least privilege access to apps and systems
   • Use multi-factor authentication (MFA) everywhere, especially at remote access points
   • Adopt identity-based segmentation using tools like ZTNA
2. Continuously Discover and Classify Assets – What you do not know (or see or are aware of) can really hurt you if it’s on the network. This applies to assets under your organization’s control from the core to the edge, but it’s recommended the focus be the perimeter. Prioritize:
   • Automated discovery tools that connect directly at the point of concern, whether the edge, core, or anyplace in-between
   • Maintain a real-time asset inventory, especially for IoT and other unmanaged devices
   • Tag assets by risk and criticality for better response and monitoring
3. Patch and Update Firmware and Software Promptly – The evidence is conclusive. Unpatched edge devices (e.g., firewalls, routers, switches, IoT nodes) are major entry points for attackers. Many breaches exploit vulnerabilities that are months or even years old! Start by:
   • Establishing patch management processes or SLAs for all devices (always with the focus on the edge)
   • Prioritizing updates for public-facing systems and those without compensating controls
   • Automating firmware updates where feasible and track patch compliance
4. Segment the Network by Role and Risk Level then Test – Everyone knows that flat networks are a non-starter, but not enough IT teams perform ongoing testing to validate proper segmentation. Network segmentation limits blast radius and provides containment but ONLY if they correctly configured.

The Prioritized Top Five Security Network Solutions

To aid in your efforts to implement network security measures, here is a list of five broad categories of solutions you should consider in order of priority. Specific tools recommendations will depend on your organization’s distinct needs, but there are many reputable vendors that can help here. Think of these as tiered or layered defenses that build on and complement each other.

1. Extended Detection and Response (XDR) – With the ability to integrate data from across endpoints, network, and cloud, the tools can detect and respond to advanced, often AI-enhanced, threats. Expensive, but offers unified visibility and rapid response to attacks.
2. Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) – Replaces legacy VPNs with identity-aware access controls, enforcing least privilege at the edge and beyond. In today’s environment, ZTNA is becoming essential to securing remote workers, IoT, and third-party access.
3. Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) – By bringing together continuous monitoring across public, private, and hybrid cloud environments, CSPMs root out misconfigurations that span these environments. This addresses a top attack vector in multi-cloud and SaaS-driven networks.
4. Network Detection and Response (NDR) – Provides behavioral analysis of traffic for anomaly detection in real time, especially useful for malware-free or AI-based threats that are rapidly emerging.
5. Identity Threat Detection & Response (ITDR) – Rather than concentrating directly on the network resources, ITDR offerings focus on securing credentials, tokens, and identity systems which are key targets in modern attacks.

Get Insights into What Lives on Your Network

With the AI driven threats on top of all the existing legacy attack vectors, organizations must shift toward an adaptive, intelligence-driven security posture to counter the tsunami of cyber threats. This blog was written to summarize the key measures and tools required to thwart these forces and protect your network resources.

First, it offered context, in the form of multiple recent industry statistics and reports on the urgency of acting sooner rather than later. In general, SMBs need pragmatic, layered defenses; enterprises require agility and unified visibility; and governments face expanding regulations and high-stakes nation-state battles.

Then we drilled into the top four key network security measures and the five-supporting prioritized security network solutions. One overarching theme that merits repeating, the network edge has unique challenges and risk exposure that must be addressed, independent of organization size or type.

With its unique “See the Edge, from the Edge” perspective, NetAlly CyberScope® can help with all four measures. It can also aid ZTNA and NDR solutions at the perimeter. To see how, review the blog Elimination of Edge Network Vulnerabilities – Mission Impossible? for details.

¹ VikingCloud’s 2025 SMB Threat Landscape Report: Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses, Big Cybersecurity Risks
² 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report | Verizon, 2025 Global Threat Report | Latest Cybersecurity Trends & Insights | CrowdStrike, Fortinet 2025 Global Threat Landscape Report
³ Governments Face Unprecedented Cyber Threats: AI Emerges as the Ultimate Defense to Cybercrime – CEE Multi-Country News Center, As China hacking threat builds, Biden to order tougher cybersecurity standards | Reuters