You know that good design can help you create a stylish website.  You know that using WordPress themes works well for designing websites in any industry. You know that this open source software provides dynamic content management. And you know that any WordPress theme can be easily customized to suit any client’s needs. But do you know how important it is to protect all your hard work with the right network security?

Ignorance in the online world can be dangerous. This is because there’s more to a website than just a pretty face. It also needs solid programming and security behind it.

As a designer, it’s actually important for you to know about network security. You don’t have to be an expert at it, of course, but you need to have some familiarity with it.

Why is it important for you to know about network security? It’s crucial for the following two reasons:

First, if you are designing a website for someone, you are usually their gateway to the new high tech world. Your clients often see you as a trusted adviser.

Second, if you are designing a website for yourself, you need to know how to keep it safe.

What Is Network Security?

This brief overview will help you understand the basics of network security, and why, in this case, ignorance is not bliss, but frustration, aggravation, and loss. Ignorance of how to protect your clients or your own work is a risk. You either risk your reputation or your new business venture.

Unless you are working for a large company, you will be dealing with small to medium-sized businesses. This means that you cannot rely on an IT department to protect your website from increasingly sophisticated Internet-based threats. Instead, you must first understand why you need network protection and then shop accordingly for the right network security system.

Network security is anything you do to protect your network and data to ensure that your network is always usable, reliable, and safe. This security system should be able to target a diverse range of threats coming in from the Internet by either stopping them from entering in the first place, or if they do enter, stopping them from spreading through your network.

Threats to Your Network

There is an almost inexhaustible list of threats to your network. Your network might be attacked by Trojan horses, viruses, worms, spyware, and adware. It might be susceptible to identity theft or data interception and theft. And it might be vulnerable to denial of service attacks, hacker attacks, and zero day attacks.

How Network Security Works

Here’s an analogy to give you a picture of how network security works:

Imagine that you have to defend a city from an army on horseback. You build a wall around your city. However, you also build another wall behind this wall. Still, you don’t stop there; you continue to build a series of inner walls. While no single wall is enough to defend the city, multiple walls will protect it because when one falls another one behind it will still be left standing.

Since there are so many different threats possible to your network, you need multiple levels of security. When one level of security is breached, another still stands.

Security is achieved through both hardware and software. While hardware will not change much, the software must constantly updated to stay ahead of emerging threats.

Network security consists of many components– like an anti-virus, an anti-spyware, a firewall, an Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), and a Virtual Private Network (VPN).  The antivirus blocks viruses, the anti-spyware blocks bots that monitor your Internet browsing, the firewall blocks unauthorized network access, the IPS blocks zero hour attacks, and for VPN safety the VPN allows for secure remote access. Together, these components minimize the need for network maintenance while constantly improving security.

How Network Security Benefits A Business

Network security should not be considered an unnecessary cost. It is essential to the growth of a business. It protects against a disruption to the business and keeps employees on task and productive. It helps a company comply with mandatory regulations to protect customers’ information. It reduces the risk of being sued for insufficient protection against data theft. And it enhances the reputation of a business, which, in the final analysis, might be its most important asset.

Takeaway

Now that you understand why network security is so important, you can advise your customers or use it yourself. The software you buy to protect your network should have a high detection rate, provide in-depth analysis of danger to the network, and provide a rapid response to any perceived threats.