This heightened state of security vulnerability evolved out of the fast pace with which the Indian economy is growing with respect to the other parts of the world. This is paving the way for an indiscriminate use of network and mobile applications for official and unofficial purposes. Lack of awareness about security issues acts as a catalyst to this state of vulnerability.

The scenario at the service providers end is a bit different. Owing to the explosive growth of the Internet, service providers have increased the capacity of core and aggregation points in order to meet the growing demand, but at the expense of security parameters. Security parameter of a service provider who carries over tens of gigabytes of traffic is entirely different from that of the other who carries less.

Service providers now face the challenge of enforcing appropriate security measures in accordance to their increased requirement. They also face the challenge of getting visibility into the information content of the traffic carried through the giant pipes. Another crucial aspect is making sure that the solution deployed is scalable enough to meet the capacity enhancement requirements of the future too.

CIOL: What are the points that enterprises must keep in mind to secure network?

RG: No security product can substitute for the level of protection that can be generated by security awareness. Spread security awareness among the users through regular interactions.

It is as important to look at trends as it is to look at discreet security incidents. Trends are important to find out if your network is being targeted or, if it is being exploited over time. Such targeted plans could cause more damage than discreet events.

Make sure that you really evaluated the solution in your environment. Performance can depend on deployment and real life traffic conditions. All that glitters might not be gold.

Buy, and don’t forget that security solutions need regular monitoring, management, control and upgrade.