Clean Internet – What and Why?
Published on : Saturday 15-08-2020
On 5th August 2020, USA government has announced the Expansion of the Clean Network to Safeguard America’s Assets. They are moving towards Clean Carrier, Clean Store, Clean Apps, Clean Cloud and Clean Cable. It would have been surprised many, but they might have identified need of it.
In this article, I am going to discuss about raising terminology with name “Clean Internet” which every industry should adopt.
Whatever is having IP address, or is connected through internet needs some kind of Cybersecurity, as it can be weak link to initiate cyber-attack by hacker. For most of organizations the challenge is finding the balance between driving innovation and keeping organization data safe.
Really, those days are history now, when most of software delivery teams were writing code, new releases of software would take few months to develop and test. Today new software is released every hour. Things are moving agile way. Just like that, every other day there is new cyber threat taking birth in every industry. CIO and CISO are required to keep their knowledge up to mark every day. At least they need to try it in maximum possible way.
We all should agree that cybercriminals are doing lots of innovation, it’s not easy to generate new cyber threats for sure. This new pace of innovation poses lots of problems for security teams. They need to keep on implementing a strategy that supports continuous security, and they can stay alert for potential software vulnerabilities. The key is to ensure security is constantly evolving. Worldwide cybersecurity professionals are also concerned about budget and personnel as well.
Cyber threats for India for example, according to latest news published there has been 37% increase in cyberattacks in India in Q1 2020: Report. This news talks about the Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) report showed that its products detected and blocked 52,820,874 local cyber threats in India between January to March this year. The data also shows that India now ranks 27th globally in the number of web-threats detected by the company in Q1 2020 as compared to when it ranked on the 32nd position globally in Q4 2019.
Almost all domains of organization are more or less exposed to internet. It means all organizations needs to be Cyber Secured. If your organization feel like no incident has happened till today related to cyber breach - it might be not the case. You might be unaware of cyber criminals attacking and accessing your organization data or key assets, today also. It is just the case, that you are not aware of it. There is need for cyber security assessment for your organization for sure.
To answer “WHY” part, let’s understand top 8 areas of concerns faced by every Small & Medium Enterprise (SME)
Here are those concerns faced especially by SME segment, and few of these can be applicable to big industries as well.
- There is no formal training provided to employees and stakeholders on security principals.
- Access management is not managed properly.
- Web security is limited
- Organization data and enterprise network is not safe guarded properly.
- Possible insecure wi-fi connections
- Network firewalls are not up to mark
- Backup Process and Disaster Recover is not planned properly
- Data loss prevention tools implementation is lagging
What is “Clean Internet”?
“Clean Internet” is combination of “Internet Leased Line (ILL)” and “Web Security”.
Let's check what are these terms.
What is an Internet Leased Line?
An Internet Leased Line is not the same as the regular internet connection. Internet is just one of its features. It is actually a dedicated internet access line that handles both data and voice.
We all knew a pipe can carry many different things like water, oil, air etc. Same way, an internet leased line be used to carry many different types of voice, video and data traffic. It can carry internet traffic including web pages, emails, and video streaming. Also, it can carry information such as phone calls, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), corporate Virtual Private Network (VPN), Wide Area Network (WAN) or Local Area Network (LAN) traffic. It is useful in complex MPLS networks.
Leased lines are generally used to -
- Link PCs and servers in different locations
- Link corporate offices to the internet
- Share IT resources and carry data between sites
- Carry voice and video calls
- Enable remote connections to head office PC
- Connect local area networks, or several corporate offices together
What is Web Security?
Web security contains multiple features such as web scanning, threat prevention and content security solution to defend threats over all ports and protocols (even direct-to-IP connections).
To summerize, most of cyber threats can be avoided by adopting Clean Internet.
Shekhar Ashok Pawar is CEO of GrassDew IT Solutions Pvt Ltd which is primarily focused on Cybersecurity Assessment & Audits, IT Consulting, Customised Software Development and Software Products. With more than 15 years of international experience, he is CISA, CEH, CHFI, MCP, Blockchain Developer, Dip Cyber Laws, CMMi Level 5 ATM & ISO 27001 LA. He is also certified H/W & S/W expert for Mobile Phones, Computers and CCTV cameras. He did Executive Management (SJMSOM, IIT-Bombay), after Engineering in Electronics & Telecommunications, Mumbai. He is also certified for "Digital Signal Processor & Applications" by Analog Devices - DSP Learning Center, IIT Madras.
He is lead contributor to GrassDewPanther @ LinkedIn which is focused on sharing global cyber threats and related news. Shekhar's recent book “Air Team Theory: Understanding 10 Types of Team Mates and Best Practices to Succeed” was published in January 2020 and is a hot-seller on Amazon.