Layer 2: Systems security

As organizations digitalize their processes, IT professionals are tasked with delivering a seamless work experience in and out of the office, supporting all lines of business, and ensuring systems and data are protected.

Now, many customers require a work environment that is completely online. From communication to file storage, applications to user identities, and security, servers, and email — everything in the work environment must be accessible remotely and securely in the cloud.

The company’s data and systems now operate within a borderless world of work. As employees access the network and applications from any location or device, attack surfaces multiply while threats, such as ransomware, are on the rise. Even the smallest crack in a network’s defenses can bring serious consequences for the business.

Ricoh offers a robust portfolio of IT services and solutions that enable seamless and secured digitalization across all areas of your business. Let’s explore the options.

Perimeter security

In today’s workplace, where users frequently work remotely and systems and data often aren’t located within the physical office space, the boundaries that once defined what was inside and outside of the network have been blurred, introducing new vulnerabilities, and making security management more complex.

Firewalls

Firewalls are designed to protect your network’s infrastructure and improve site-to-site connectivity. Today’s most advanced firewalls provide enhanced capabilities that allow real-time protection against malware, vulnerabilities, and network attacks. Intelligent analysis allows for deep application context, combining human and machine learning to apply rules specifically to allow or deny traffic.

Identity and authentication management

Using only a password to authenticate users leaves organizations vulnerable to external threats. If a password is weak, brute force attacks can crack it within seconds; and, if it’s exposed elsewhere, you’re essentially handing cyber criminals the keys to your network. Introducing additional layers of authentication (multi-factor authentication or MFA) makes access more difficult for attackers. Password authenticators verify the user’s identity by comparing entered credentials against records in an authentication server. If a match is found, the system will grant access.

When data is shared across disparate technology solutions, it’s very difficult to track the identity of users. That’s why many organizations bring the entire work environment into a single cloud-based environment where identities, apps, files, and devices are all managed centrally. Microsoft Azure Active Directory is a leading platform that offers deeper levels of authentication and access control. For example, the ability to limit access to a specific region and enhanced user authorization features can create more secure workplaces.

Penetration testing

How secure is your data? The only way you can know for sure is to test your current security by trying to get in from the outside, the way a hacker would. Testing like this reveals where your network is strong — and where you require deeper security protection.

Penetration testing and assessments will uncover weaknesses in your networks, applications, and security controls. It can also confirm the effectiveness of the various security policies, procedures, and technologies.

Testing should focus on malware analysis, reverse engineering, cryptography, exploit development, offensive and defensive security, and should provide clear, actionable insights with next steps for effective remediation.

Network security

As organizations continually shift to hybrid work and allow users to regularly log into the network from outside the office or on unsecured devices, the need for securing access within the network has increased. Increased digitalization of processes means a larger volume of data in rest, motion, or use, exposing organizations to risk. That’s where vulnerability assessments come in.

A vulnerability assessment is comprised of two components:

• Vulnerability scanning and reporting
• Analysis and remediation planning

Ricoh security engineers scan externally facing assets for vulnerabilities such as missing patches, outdated software versions, open ports, and operating system services.

From there, we report the findings and develop a remediation plan tailored to the customer. Vulnerability assessments can be conducted on a recurring basis or as a point-in-time service

Endpoint protection

Endpoints are today’s most common entry points for malware, ransomware, and social engineering. If a cybercriminal gains access to one of your endpoints, they can potentially find ways to burrow further into the network to access sensitive data or launch large attacks.

It’s not enough to buy antivirus software and simply set it and forget it. Robust endpoint security allows you to protect your systems anytime employees access the network using devices such as smartphones, laptops, or tablets.

We can also provide the staff, time, and knowledge to assist with the creation and deployment of print device security policies, standards, and settings across a customer’s entire fleets, including both Ricoh and other vendors’ devices.

Anti-virus software

Anti-virus software falls into three primary categories: signature-based, behavior-based, and machine learning.

• Signature-based: The signature method compares the code of a suspicious file to a database of known malware signatures. If there’s a match, the file is immediately flagged and blocked, contained, or deleted.
• Behavior-based: This software analyzes the behaviors of a file (such as rapid encryption), which enables it to discover new malware it hasn’t seen before. Because cyber criminals are constantly evolving and developing new strains of malware, this provides much stronger protection than signature-based solutions.
• AI-based: Machine learning-based software is the latest and most robust type of anti-virus protection, applying algorithms and datasets to detect malicious patterns in malware on individual devices and across large networks.

Web filtering

Providing protective security and content filtering minimizes risks and maximizes safety as a critical component of defense. Filtering is commonplace for email, tools often referred to as anti-spam, email security, or email filtering. While providing email protection is important, it is only half the filtering solution.

Managed web filtering is designed to block malicious domains that may include harmful content such as ransomware, malware, viruses, and data phishing. Optionally, specified content types may be blocked based on individual business needs to prevent access to domains that may contain adult, gambling, crypto mining, dating, or other prohibited content.

Mobile device management

Mobile device management applications such as Microsoft Intune can be leveraged to deploy application management when securing apps on a user’s mobile device limiting data migration. It can be leveraged when securing an entire mobile device, also protecting against malware and enabling complete removal of company data in the event of a threat or employee departure.

Expert cybersecurity management

Being prepared starts with embedding intelligent cybersecurity services and solutions into your core business processes and ensuring rigorous management by IT cybersecurity experts.

Continuously evolving threats require uncompromising and focused management of systems, devices, and environments. IT teams are under more pressure than ever to maintain operations, enable lines of business, and deliver user support. Outsourcing your cyber protection to a dedicated team of experts will free up your IT department to focus on core capabilities without their attention being diverted. A distracted, overwhelmed IT team invariably leads to gaps in security, with potentially disastrous outcomes.

Ricoh’s expert-driven cybersecurity services and solutions can help you build a more resilient IT infrastructure, understand and manage your vulnerabilities, and enable you to grow with confidence.

Source:  RICOH USA