Nowadays QA companies that test the security level of local networks offer an integrated approach. In this article, we’ll take a look at one effective tool that help detect and combat malicious hacks that can violate the integrity of the web network and become a catalyst for the theft of valuable web resources, funds, and confidential information.
Peculiarities of Security Testing of Local Networks
The global network has become something commonplace and has got into various organisations. Even if a company has only a couple of local computers, they are still connected anyway. And that’s not to mention firms with dozens and even hundreds of PCs. All they connect to the Internet. Its use has been an extremely necessary thing for the stable maintenance of the company’s activity. And, at the same time, the risk that someone may break into the local network through malware is extremely high. This means that the local environment must have first-class protection for proper safety.
No doubt, it’s quite a complex and unpleasant thing to analyse the current reliability of a network or some web environment. This happens because some bugs in the configuration of the security system can occur not only due to a system administrator’s failure but also due to obvious defects in the antivirus software itself. The approach to the testing and configuring of antivirus programs should be used with a full understanding of the process of their work, as well as the relevance of the level of modern protection mechanisms.
Local Network Security: What Types of Protection Exist
Nowadays quality assurance companies that test the security level of local networks should offer an integrated approach. Ideally, testing should be performed with the following tools and solutions:
- Shadow Security Scanner allows testing the network for vulnerabilities. Also, it provides a technical explanation of the methods existing to eliminate them.
- Shadow Database Scanner – testing the servers of connected databases;
- Shadow Web Analyzer – a special scanner for Microsoft IIS;
- Shadow Online Security Scanner – software to access all the features of a network scanner via the Internet (used when providing services for large and global companies).
Next, let’s talk about the scanner from the types of testing described above.
Basic Rules for Configuring a Web Security Scanner
Along with online scanners, network scanners run based on Windows OS and Linux system products, as well as some network devices.
If we consider the work of a network security scanner, we should begin the review of this tool with the process of setting up a working configuration. So, a user must set the network address of the server, everything else is configured automatically. According to the technical documentation, only 64MB is enough for the scanner to work correctly.
Yes, the configuration of this scanner is not difficult but the content of the technical specification needs improvement (we can use only a small built-in manual).
Let’s move to the testing process itself. First, you should start with the software configuration. Considering the importance of tests, a user can set high, medium, and low priority for it, set events, and get a notification when these events occur. Users can also choose popular variations of network penetration, which they must protect from first of all. The list of variations for hacking or instant penetration is very long – this program contains about two thousand opportunities of this type. Each variation of a potential hack contains a brief description and measures that you should definitely take to prevent hacking.
This scanner allows you to test the most diverse services such as the following popular examples: POP3, IMAP, CGI, DNS, NetBIOS, Ident, HTTP, and SMTP. Additionally, the SSS scanner can provide the ability to scan CGI scripts via proxy. One of the most common variations of network hacking is the ability to guess passwords. This scanner has only a short list of frequently occurring words that are used as a password, but you can also create your own list and, if necessary, connect it as a file with external use.
Conclusion
All the features of the scanner that have been described above are a set of effective actions and technical manipulations aimed at detecting and combating malicious hacks that can violate the integrity of the web network and become a catalyst for the theft of valuable web resources, funds, and confidential information.
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