Latin America. Threats and the consequent protection of critical infrastructures is a problem that dates back to ancient times, and respond to various causes, both accidental and intentional. We can talk about different types of catastrophes from attacks and / or wars to those caused by nature. In recent years, a component that significantly increases the risk to the security of critical infrastructures has been added to the list: computer networks. Due to the use of these, new types of attacks have emerged: cybercrime, cyberwars, cyberterrorism, etc.
Critical infrastructures rely heavily on technology for their operation. SoftGuard is no exception. This allows great advances and greatly improves the quality of life of people, but on the other hand exposes them to new threats, as already said, the "cyber" threats.
Given this scenario, it is very important that users know what we call critical infrastructures and cybersecurity, the importance they have for the operation of their company and the availability of a service that must be operational 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In addition, recognize the risks to which they are exposed and the ways in which it is necessary to protect them and thus guarantee the quality of said service.
As we already know, the SoftGuard platform can be deployed in different types of environments: physical servers, virtual servers and cloud servers. As well, the installation scheme can be performed on a single server, distributed servers, cluster, etc.
In each case, the design of contingency plan, backup and high availability must be designed as appropriate.
The critical infrastructure not only includes the environment where we will implement the SoftGuard solution, but also all that component that is necessary to be able to offer a stable, scalable and secure service. This includes services such as: communications, connectivity and energy.
To another extent, in order to maintain the protection and operation of our critical infrastructure, it is important to define a commensurate security policy. This means that a technical manager must be put in charge of the design of said policy as well as the implementation, monitoring and maintenance of it. You have to keep in mind a risk assessment, detect and know the possible dangers or threats to which we are exposed. This is essential to be able to act accordingly and design a corresponding plan to contain this. At the same time it is necessary to give a usage policy, you have to document the rules that you expect to be complied with (strong password policies, no opening of dubious files, updates and security patches, etc.). It is of the utmost importance to have an action plan in case of an emergency or failure in our infrastructure and it is essential that your employees are made aware.
From SoftGuard, we know very well what are good practices that must be taken into account in the face of dangerous situations, among them would be: protecting yourself from viruses and spyware, the importance in installing an antivirus on the servers, as well as on all computers within the work intranet. It is necessary to keep the antivirus updated. You must have updated the operating system. Avoid installing outdated operating system versions. Work with the most up-to-date version possible and even download all security patches provided by WindowsUpdate.
Not only configure the firewall of the operating system but also have connectivity equipment where filters and security rules can be configured to enter the network.
Use an anti-spam in email (in order to avoid common attacks such as pishing and ransomware). This is one of the most sensitive points and is related to the issue of 'awareness to our employees'. It is proven that the highest percentage of ransomware infection on a network is by opening links in suspicious emails. manage secure browsing through SSL digital certificates. The SoftGuard platform supports the implementation of these certificates. It is essential to use your monitoring platform under the HTTPS transfer protocol.
Make controls in login or access doors to avoid brute force attacks (for example: captcha). And last but not least avoid unsafe remote access. Ideally work with VPN-like tools.
