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Visibility Solutions

Garland Technology is committed to educating the benefits of having a strong foundation of network visibility and access. By providing this insight we protect the security of data across your network and beyond.

Resources

Garland Technology's resource library offers free use of white papers, eBooks, use cases, infographics, data sheets, video demos and more.

Blog

The TAP into Technology blog provides the latest news and insights on network access and visibility, including: network security, network monitoring and appliance connectivity and guest blogs from Industry experts and technology partners

Partners

Our extensive technology partnership ecosystem solves critical problems when it comes to network security, monitoring, application analysis, forensics and packet inspection.

Company

Garland Technology is dedicated to high standards in quality and reliability, while delivering the greatest economical solutions for enterprise, service providers, and government agencies worldwide.

Contact

Whether you are ready to make a network TAP your foundation of visibility or just have questions, please contact us. Ask us about the Garland Difference!

Visibility Solutions

Garland Technology is committed to educating the benefits of having a strong foundation of network visibility and access. By providing this insight we protect the security of data across your network and beyond.

Resources

Garland Technology's resource library offers free use of white papers, eBooks, use cases, infographics, data sheets, video demos and more.

Blog

The TAP into Technology blog provides the latest news and insights on network access and visibility, including: network security, network monitoring and appliance connectivity and guest blogs from Industry experts and technology partners

Partners

Our extensive technology partnership ecosystem solves critical problems when it comes to network security, monitoring, application analysis, forensics and packet inspection.

Company

Garland Technology is dedicated to high standards in quality and reliability, while delivering the greatest economical solutions for enterprise, service providers, and government agencies worldwide.

Contact

Whether you are ready to make a network TAP your foundation of visibility or just have questions, please contact us. Ask us about the Garland Difference!

Cost of Flawed Network Infrastructure Design Rising in 2015

The cost of designing your network infrastructure with imperfections has been steep over the last few years. Without complete network visibility – stemming from specific design flaws – most organizations are failing to competently secure their networks.

These weaknesses have led to a systemic problem regarding security breaches and data loss. Despite the already eye-opening costs of network security issues, in 2015, those cost are growing to unprecedented levels.

Security threats have become more and more frequent. In fact, detected security breaches increased by 66% from 2013 to 2014. That staggering number has been the crux of impending change in the landscape of network security and the consequences of flawed network infrastructure design.

As a network engineer, your costs are no longer strictly financial.

Legislation Increasing the Cost of Network Security Issues

As the person in charge of an organization’s network security, you face an increasingly challenging landscape, but also more costly ones.

 While the events of the past few years were reason enough to rethink your network infrastructure design, 2015 is the year in which the United States is going to scream for change.

To date, 47 states have enacted legislation that further raises the cost of network security issues, and even a single security breach. If attackers capture personally identifiable information, you’ll soon be required to notify each individual affected by your lapse in network security.

The accountability of a data breach also falls directly on network engineers. All 50 states are likely to have legislation in place by the end of the year.

In addition to these pending network security compliance laws, many federal agencies are going to have the ability to levy fines for the loss of personal, health and other information. These agencies include the FCC, HHS and FTC.

So, what do all of these coming changes mean?

It means you must address the greatest and most prevalent flaw in network infrastructure design: the use of SPAN ports.

You Can’t Gain 100% Network Visibility with SPAN

The SPAN port is the root cause of network visibility issues, and thus, the cause of most network security issues.

You simply can’t rely on SPAN to give you complete insight into the activity in and outside of your network. What then is the key to sound network infrastructure design? What must you rely on? A network TAP.

TAPs provide a complete picture of your network activity. They give you immediate and complete visibility into your network. Also, unlike the SPAN port, the network TAP is unable to be physically hacked. It has no IP address. A TAP provides a network security perimeter that detects security threats not only from the outside, but also from inside your network.

Despite the benefits of network TAPs, many choose SPAN ports for their cost (more on that in our next blog). But, what few consider is the financial toll of a security breach. Consider this: The average cost of a network TAP is less than 1% of the average cost of a security breach.

If you fear asking for a slight bump in your budget to pay for TAPs, you’re thinking shortsightedly. You’re not choosing between network TAPs and SPAN – you’re choosing between a conversation about budget and the reason your network was hacked and data lost.

To learn why using a TAP is your only viable way to get full and real time network access, download the free whitepaper on TAP vs. SPAN

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Written by Chris Bihary

Chris Bihary, CEO and Co-founder of Garland Technology, has been in the network performance industry for over 20 years. Bihary has established collaborative partnerships with technology companies to complement product performance and security through the integration of network TAP visibility.

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