• Wireless and Remote Access Determine if you use wireless devices like inventory scanners or cell phones to connect to your computer network or to transmit sensitive information.
• If you do, consider limiting who can use a wireless connection to access your computer network. You can make it harder for an intruder to access the network by limiting the wireless devices that can connect to your network.
• Better still, consider encryption to make it more difficult for an intruder to read the content.Encrypting transmissions from wireless devices to your computer network may prevent an intruder from gaining access through a process called "spoofing" - impersonating one of your computers to get access to your network.
• Consider using encryption if you allow remote access to your computer network by employees or by service providers, such as companies that troubleshoot and update software you use to process credit card purchases.

Detecting Breaches

• To detect network breaches when they occur,consider using an intrusion detection system.To be effective, it must be updated frequently to address new types of hacking.
• Maintain central log files of security-related information to monitor activity on your network so that you can spot and respond to attacks.If there is an attack on your network, the log will provide information that can identify the computers that have been compromised.
• Monitor incoming traffic for signs that someone is trying to hack in.Keep an eye out for activity from new users, multiple log-in attempts from unknown users or computers, and higher-than-average traffic at unusual times of the day.
• Monitor outgoing traffic for signs of a data breach. Watch for unexpectedly large amounts of data being transmitted from your system to an unknown user. If large amounts of information are being transmitted from your network, investigate to make sure the transmission is authorized.
• Have in place and implement a breach response plan. See pages 22–23 for more information.