Know who’s coming into your network and keep hackers out. Includes tips for monitoring traffic and segmenting your network. ******************************************** Transcript: Know who’s coming in. Keep the bad guys out. Limit where people can go. These same principles that help safeguard your office can strengthen network security as well. You’ll find tips from monitoring traffic and segmenting your networks in the Start With Security video series and resources at business.ftc.gov. With network segmentation, companies use properly-configured firewalls to protect computers in one area of the network from attacks elsewhere. A major fashion retailer failed to take these measures, and what happened next led to the compromise of 1.4 million credit and debit cards, plus nearly 100,000 checking accounts. Because the retailer allowed computers from one in-store network to connect to computers on other in-store and corporate networks, hackers went through computers in one store to break into computers in other stores, and ultimately, into the main corporate network. The FTC brought a case alleging that the company had not sufficiently limited the ability of computers to connect across networks. Remember, not, every computer in your company needs to communicate with all the others. Establish policies to limit access where appropriate and equip computers properly-configured firewalls to shut out unauthorized users. It’s also important to detect suspicious activity quickly. Several businesses have been the subject of FTC cases for insufficient intrusion detection. In one FTC case involving a credit card processing company, criminals installed common hacking programs on the network that systematically collected magnetic stripe data for credit and debit cards and transmitted this data out of the network. The company did not use appropriate measures to detect unauthorized access to its network, and the magnetic stripe information was used to create counterfeit cards that criminals used to ring up several million dollars in fraudulent charges. Protect your company with traffic monitoring tools and regularly review system logs for suspicious activity. That way, you won’t be in the dark when a data breach happens. For more useful tips about network segmentation and monitoring and building a culture of data security in your business, visit FTC.gov/startwithsecurity. ******************************************** Learn more about this subject on the FTC’s website: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/start-security-guide-business Comment Moderation Policy: We welcome your comments and thoughts about the information on this page. If you do have something to say, please be courteous and respectful to other commenters. We won’t routinely review or edit any comments before they are posted, but we will delete any comments that: 1) contain spam or are off-topic 2) use vulgar language or offensive terms that target specific groups or contain personal attacks 3) are sales pitches, promotions, urls or links to commercial sites 4) spread clearly misleading or false information or 5) include personal information, like home addresses