What is network security Monitoring? A complete guide

Network security monitoring is crucial to safeguarding digital platforms, especially in the era of increasing security threats. In the digital world, we have been using the cloud to store our confidential data, register our details, and manage various activities such as filling out forms, submitting applications, or engaging with product purchasing platforms like e-commerce sites. While digital platforms offer numerous advantages, one major concern remains: security breaches.

Security breaches have become common in every organization. These breaches are often carried out for various purposes, including financial gain, espionage, activism, or simply the challenge and thrill of hacking.

To combat these challenges, network security monitoring is automated to oversee network devices, traffic, vulnerabilities, threats, and suspicious activities. Now, every organization utilizes network security monitoring to detect cybersecurity breaches quickly.

In this blog, we shall discuss network security monitoring and explore popular network security monitoring tools. Additionally, we will delve into the advantages of this technology, key differences between network monitoring and security monitoring, and other related insights.

What is Network Security Monitoring (NSM)?

Network Security Monitoring (NSM) is an automated system that monitors network devices, traffic, vulnerabilities, threats, and suspicious activities. Moreover, it helps in intrusion detection, offering a proactive approach to cybersecurity by analyzing network traffic, system logs, and security events to dissect anomalies and mitigate potential threats.

What are the Crucial Features of NSM

Prevention Eventually Fails:

NSM helps recognize zero-day exploits and social engineering. Moreover, it accentuates continuous monitoring and vigilance.

Threat-Centric Defense:

NSM focuses on understanding the purpose and strategies of attackers, thus leading to the implementation of strategic responses to cyber threats.

Strategic Data Collection:

Now, Modern NSM systems utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect real-time network behavior, determine deviations, and adapt as traffic patterns evolve.

Continuous Feedback Loop:

NSM functions on a circular feedback model that enhances detection abilities by integrating insights from previous attack incidents into ongoing monitoring processes.

Wide Applicability:

NSM technologies support cloud infrastructure monitoring, performance, and many more.

Benefits of Network Security Monitoring

Real-Time Threat Detection: Determines threats like malware, unauthorized access, and suspicious activities promptly.

Enhanced Incident Response: Reduce the impact of security breaches and protect sensitive data.

Compliance Assurance: Meets regulatory requirements by documenting security events and incidents. 

Data Protection: Identify vulnerabilities and detect unauthorized attempts to protect intellectual property.

Performance Insights: Enhances network performance by optimizing infrastructure and addressing bottlenecks.

Detection of Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs):  identify and mitigate security risks or malicious activity to protect an organization's digital assets.

Software for Network Security Monitoring

To protect organizations from security breaches, Network security monitoring software is a practical implementation to analyze vulnerabilities and warn of potential security issues.

Cybersecurity alerts allow you to protect your organization from network intrusions and subsequent disasters quickly. So, what is the benefit of using this software?

• It provides real-time detection of security threats, enabling immediate action to mitigate risks. It also enhances incident response by identifying and responding to security incidents more effectively.
• The software offers improved visibility into network activity, aiding in identifying and investigating potential security issues.
• It helps organizations comply with security and privacy regulations and protects against data breaches, ultimately reducing the risk of financial and reputational damage.
• It allows for proactive security measures by identifying vulnerabilities and weaknesses in the network.
• You can also use this software to automate security alerts and reports.
• Additionally, you can utilize visual representations such as charts and graphs offered by network security monitoring solutions to identify malicious actions and address cybersecurity concerns precisely.

The Difference Between Network Monitoring and Network Security Monitoring

Network and security monitoring are two distinct but related practices crucial for maintaining a network's security and performance. Three main metrics of network monitoring measures are:

1.Network Uptime: This metric measures the percentage of time that a network is operational and available for use. It is a critical indicator of network reliability and is typically expressed as a percentage of uptime over a specific period, such as 99.9% uptime.

2.Bandwidth Utilization: Network Monitoring focuses on metrics like uptime, bandwidth utilization, and latency to ensure performance. It helps identify network congestion, peak usage periods, and potential bottlenecks impacting network performance. NSM analyzes network payloads, client-server communications, and traffic flow, focusing on detecting malicious activities and responding to cyber threats.

3.Latency: Latency refers to the time it takes for data to travel from its source to its destination across the network. It is a key performance metric for assessing network responsiveness and can impact the user experience for real-time applications such as video conferencing or online gaming.

When a network monitoring tool notices any availability, performance, or configuration issues, it can notify you by email or a short messaging service (SMS). To troubleshoot and fix issues, a network administrator must know their network's topology, configurations, performance, and security.

On the other hand, a network security monitoring system protects against potential weaknesses and attacks.

Network security monitoring differs from generic network monitoring by analyzing many factors, such as:

• Network payload
• Network protocols
• Client-server communications
• Traffic patterns
• Encrypted traffic sessions
• Traffic flow

The primary goal of network security monitoring is to detect and respond to potential cybersecurity threats within an organization's network infrastructure. This proactive approach involves continuously monitoring and analyzing network traffic, system logs, and security events to identify anomalous patterns or signs of malicious activity. By promptly detecting and responding to security incidents, network security monitoring aims to mitigate the impact of breaches, protect sensitive information, and ensure the integrity and availability of an organization's digital assets. This ongoing vigilance is essential for maintaining a robust cybersecurity posture in the face of evolving threats.

For instance, attaining a high data transfer rate is unattainable if a malicious actor inundates the network with malicious software that exploits network setups, exposing your network to vulnerabilities. Due to these reasons, it is customary for network administrators to collaborate closely with security teams to carry out multiple responsibilities and analyze results in an organized way.

Advantages of Network Security Monitoring

• Network security monitoring helps detect threats like malware, unauthorized access attempts, and suspicious activities. This proactive approach enables organizations to respond quickly and mitigate potential security breaches before they escalate.
• By continuously monitoring network traffic and security events, organizations can effectively respond to security incidents, minimizing the impact of breaches and preventing further damage to the network and sensitive data.
• Network security monitoring helps organizations meet compliance and regulatory requirements by providing visibility and documentation of security incidents and events.
• It helps safeguard sensitive data and intellectual property by identifying and addressing potential security vulnerabilities and unauthorized access attempts.
• While primarily focused on security, network security monitoring provides insights into network performance, helping organizations optimize their network infrastructure and resources.
• By identifying and addressing security threats in real time, network security monitoring reduces the risk of data breaches, financial losses, and reputational damage to the organization.
• Advanced persistent threats (APTs) often involve subtle and prolonged activities. Network security monitoring aids in detecting such sophisticated threats, preventing long-term compromises.
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Simplify Security Testing

NSM tools allow you to conduct network tests with customized settings, making it easier to evaluate the robustness of your defenses. They enable proactive identification of zero-day threats and subtle activities like bandwidth hijacking and botnets. You can modify the settings in the menu using a suitable network security monitoring application. Once you have adjusted the settings according to your preferences, you can utilize the application to conduct a network test and ascertain its level of foolproofness.

Discover new threats

Given the ever-evolving nature of the cybersecurity ecosystem, it is imperative to own an intelligent tool that does not depend on recognized threats. You can consistently identify and address potentially malicious actions by implementing a robust network security monitoring solution. Network monitoring tools can aid in the detection of novel threats, such as "zero-day" assaults, which would otherwise be challenging to identify without them, by uncovering non-specific patterns.

Detect subtle threats more easily:

Certain assaults can be easily identified within the network, but others are more difficult to detect. As an illustration, an overt ransomware attack can immobilize the entire personal computer by displaying a ransom message. However, detecting bandwidth hijacking and botnets is an even more challenge.

A robust network security monitoring system enables vigilant surveillance of anomalous activities, such as bandwidth hijacking and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) assaults.

Protecting Your Data with Parallels RAS

As we know, digital has become an indispensable part of our daily lives, but at the same time, it also has a few drawbacks. Moreover, many top companies globally rely on digitalization and simultaneously face cybersecurity attacks.

Adopting reliable and secure mandates the organization to protect its system and network. Parallels® Remote Application Server (RAS) is an all-in-one, secure-by-design desktop virtualization solution that streamlines access to corporate resources while promoting organization productivity.

Parallels RAS ensures secure remote access and desktop virtualization with technologies like:

1. TLS, FIPS 140-2 protocols

2. Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

The two above technologies utilized for data security, help consolidate IT resource management, improving and enhancing productivity and cybersecurity. Moreover, Parallels RAS is a desktop virtualization solution that consolidates the management of IT resources. Employees are provided secure access to the datacenter over encrypted connections using Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 protocols.

The most significant features offered by Parallels RAS are secure remote access through data segregation, kiosk mode, smart-card authentication, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and clipboard redirection.

Now, finally, we shall delve into a comprehensive understanding of: what are the network security monitoring tools?

Network security monitoring tools?

Wireshark:

• Open-source packet analyzer for real-time network traffic inspection.

Snort:

• Open-source IDS/IPS with rule-based detection for network security.

Suricata:

• High-performance open-source IDS/IPS supporting multi-threading.

Nagios:

• Open-source monitoring system for comprehensive network device and service monitoring.

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor:

• Commercial solution providing real-time network mapping and performance analysis.

Splunk:

• Versatile platform for collecting and analyzing network data with robust log management and SIEM capabilities.

Security Onion:

• Open-source Linux distribution integrating multiple security monitoring tools.

Zeek (formerly Bro):

• Network analysis framework for capturing, analyzing, and interpreting network data.

Cisco Stealthwatch:

• Commercial solution from Cisco focusing on network visibility and threat detection.

IBM QRadar:

• SIEM solution integrating log management, threat detection, and incident response capabilities.

In conclusion, network security monitoring is a proactive and indispensable component of a robust cybersecurity strategy, offering multifaceted advantages in safeguarding digital assets and maintaining the resilience of organizational networks. By integrating real-time monitoring, proactive threat detection and Artificial Intelligence-driven analysis, Network Security Monitoring (NSM) aids every big organization to protect its digital assets. So, investing in advanced NSM tools and practices is crucial to staying resilient to evolving cyber threats.