Security Suggestions for Wired and Wireless LANs with HP

As we continue to follow the Unified access layer for wired and wireless LAN with HP blog series, we thought we would share a few points from their latest entry. Part 17 of the series discusses access layer security as well as preventing against some hidden threats that sometimes get lost amongst all the data running through your networks.

In looking at network and access layer security HP offers suggestions for required components or features that you should first consider:

• Strong firewalls at the edge
• Anti-virus software on your PC
• Intrusion detection systems
• Intrusion prevention systems
• Authentication best practices for user access

Additionally, they mention looking into the security features that are built into the switches that you are currently utilizing or shopping for. Things like network authorization and the ability to set up VLANs in order to segment the network are great features in switches at the access layer. They also mention features such as, “ICMP throttling, virus throttling, DHCP protection, Dynamic IP lockdown, and multiple authentication methods like IEEE 802.1x, and Web & Mac-based authentication.” Assumedly all features that HP offers.

Hidden threats that HP writes about have to deal with malware going undetected because it is sitting on a syslog server. That malware is sitting amongst all the other system messages running on the network, and with thousands of messages a day being logged into the syslog server it is easy to miss a few threats here and there. HP obviously has a solution to this problem and you can click here to read the full blog post and find out how HP is helping to secure your wired and wireless LANs.