Addressing Software Vulnerabilities in Your Network

Today, network software vulnerabilities are constantly evolving as attackers search for new ways to hunt down weaknesses and flaws in order to access a business’s network.

To protect against these near-constant security threats, most enterprises rely on a mix of legacy processes, systems, and products.

The problem with this approach? Most networks include thousands of infrastructure devices, from multiple vendors to clouds to physical devices. In fact, every single year, the number of internet-connected devices available expands by 15 to 20%, a trend that is unlikely to slow down given the criticality of these devices.

For most enterprises, the sheer breadth of a modern network makes it nearly impossible for legacy processes to keep up with evolving threats and fully protect a network.

So, what’s the solution to truly reduce software vulnerability?

Welcome to the world of network automation.

The Dangers of Software Vulnerabilities

Before understanding the solution to software vulnerability reduction, it’s important to understand the underlying contributors to this all-too-common problem.

To start, there’s the issue of out-of-date software. Unfortunately, most devices in production today are running out-of-date software. In fact, Cisco, the largest network vendor, reports that 80% of customer-managed equipment is out-of-date. This is understandable, considering the high operational costs incurred when upgrading equipment at scale. Not to mention, software upgrades typically involve long deployment timelines, long maintenance windows, and exhausted engineers.

Also, organizations often avoid software upgrades in an effort to minimize downtime. While the loss in productivity associated with upgrades can seem astronomical, this approach is counterproductive to maintaining network security, due to the high risks of running obsolete code.

There’s also the issue of the regular publication of software vulnerabilities. While these product updates are intended to help consumers, this information also inadvertently provides attackers with a playbook on an enterprise’s software vulnerabilities.

Altogether, outdated software, malicious software, and misconfigured firewalls or operating systems can drag down reliability and, ultimately, result in a very expensive outage.

For modern organizations relying on a network, this kind of outage can be extremely damaging. Eliminating software vulnerabilities is critical, given the complexity, scale, and rapid evolution of modern networks.

Mitigating Software Vulnerabilities with Network Automation

With cyberattacks expected to rise sharply in coming years, it’s absolutely critical for enterprises to harden their security standards now.

One of the best ways to do this is by ensuring new software releases are running on hardware that’s providing a stable, secure, and efficient network, unsusceptible to software vulnerabilities. This is best accomplished through network automation.

Network automation is the process of using software to automate network management and security, to provide the most robust security posture possible while leveraging the most preferred software versions.

With network automation, software and security updates are executed automatically and quickly, which allows for hundreds of devices to be upgraded daily, without lengthy deployment timelines.

Leveraging network automation for upgrade initiatives significantly reduces the required effort by an order of magnitude, all the while ensuring that every precaution is taken to protect the network.

By automating the qualification, execution, and verification process, network automation ensures enterprises have the most up-to-date software and a reliable, efficient network hardened to attack.

Addressing Software Vulnerabilities with Network to Code

While network automation is the best pathway to creating the safest, most reliable network possible, not all automation solutions are created equal.

Network to Code is the go-to network automation solution provider, committed to improving the security and reliability of your network while also reducing costs and speeding up delivery times.

Our Fast Track Solutions (FTS) take network automation to a whole new level. These are tried-and-true automation solutions, rooted in a NetDevOps and data-driven approach to network automation, and they have been deployed into a multitude of production environments.

Fast Track Solutions address the most common challenges facing network organizations today, including the ever-pressing need to harden software vulnerabilities through network operations and security and compliance. In combating software vulnerabilities, Network to Code has two Fast Track Solutions ready to tackle the most difficult network challenges.

Network Operations

Network to Code’s Network Operations solutions use a workflow-based approach to ensure technical and business processes are flawlessly executed each and every time. With Network Operations, your network engineering teams are freed up from the most common (and repetitive) requests and inquiries, through the power of automation.

NTC’s Fast Track Solutions in Network Operations include:

• Automated Incident Resolution — Use automation to solve and close the most common incident tickets.
• OS Upgrade — Perform network device OS image updates in a more timely and reliable manner while ensuring upgrades are always validated against defined standards.
• Circuit Maintenance Notification Processing — Automate the myriad of circuits and links that interconnect your network devices.
• Interactive Chatbots — Significantly reduce the number of tickets that network engineers need to work on.

Security and Compliance

Network to Code’s Fast Track Security and Compliance solutions significantly reduce your software vulnerabilities and help enterprises deliver a security posture unattainable with conventional or legacy methods.

Our solutions are also able to track, maintain, and address vulnerabilities, patches, and software versions on all managed devices.

NTC’s Fast Track Solutions in Security and Compliance include:

• Firewall Policy Automation — Streamline the typically complex process to provide secure access to resources needed across multiple network domains and firewalls.
• Network & Security Verification with Batfish — Build automated tests executed before and after network and security changes to guarantee the state of your infrastructure.
• Config Audit & Compliance – Eliminate the delays resulting from manual configurations while maintaining proper governance and compliance.
• Vulnerability & Patch Management — Automate the acquisition, testing, and installation of multiple patches to an administered network.