Your enterprise network security is the total of the tools, procedures, and policies you use to prevent, resolve, and mitigate attacks on your data and other digital assets. It’s both the tools you use and the efforts you make to protect the data you own, the digital assets you use to make money, and the sensitive customer or financial data you gain and store in the course of your business. Solid enterprise network security should start at the level of server architecture and extend throughout all of the data pathways you use as part of your operations. 

Next‑gen threats demand Zero Trust security, robust web and content filtering (deploying content security gateways, etc.), and identity‑centric controls. Various data security regulations and contracts also demand that you follow a specific, consistent, and secure policy regarding personally identifiable information (PII) and financial data. There are many ways to achieve both goals. That's why it’s best to divide network security best practices into best practices for network security monitoring and those for securing your network infrastructure.

Network security monitoring best practices

• Implement ZTNA. Zero Trust network access  (ZTNA) is a security strategy that mandates strict verification for every user and device trying to connect to the network. 

• Apply the principle of least privilege. The principle of least privilege (PoLP) is a core part of ZTNA. This gives users only the access they need to achieve specific, delineated tasks. 

Secure network infrastructure best practices

• Log everything at line‑rate speeds: This is key to any strategy that includes real-time monitoring. If the logs aren't real-time, neither is your oversight. 

• East/west monitoring and inspection: Network traffic doesn’t only flow into and out of your environment (north/south traffic between your internal systems and the outside world). Traffic also moves laterally within your environment (east/west traffic between servers, endpoints, and applications). North/south monitoring can detect external attacks, but east/west inspection is also necessary to identify threat actors who’ve already penetrated your perimeter and are moving laterally through your network. 

Naturally, a fully-wired network is easier to secure. If you have all the nodes and terminals within an access-controlled building, the battle is already half-won. A wireless network, while miles more convenient, also opens up potential vulnerabilities. 

• Using WPA2-protected Wi-Fi access is a solid start, especially if you use it to encrypt your router traffic.

• Giving your IT people (or SOC) network access control (NAC) and using least-privilege-access strategies is a big help as well. 

• Web app firewalls (WAFs) and AI-based continual monitoring of your Wi-Fi are also highly advised.  

If you can adapt these basic enterprise network security best practices to the way your business operates, you'll be in a much more secure position than if you were to be targeted for a cyberattack. But network security practices aren’t enough on their own. You need to orchestrate your security practices through a coherent enterprise security strategy.

Not so fun fact: Infostealers are one of the most pervasive threats in government, healthcare, and technology sectors—making up 24% of all security incidents observed in 2024. Rather than spending time trying to hack into networks, hackers turn to infostealers to snare credentials, session cookies, and access tokens within seconds. Attackers can then evade endpoint security and weak MFA to access cloud apps and conduct lateral movement undetected.

An enterprise network security strategy is a kind of roadmap that key stakeholders can use to stay aligned when adopting network security practices and making other decisions about their data. It keeps you and everyone else “locked in” with your mission, your operational requirements, and your legal or contractual obligations. It can be a key part of your business continuity planning and a way to inspire better consumer trust as well. 

Threats can seem overwhelming, but with our in-depth understanding of how threat actors think, we know what to look for. Huntress gives you fully managed endpoint detection and response (EDR), so you've got 24/7 support from security experts ready to respond to threats.