What are best practices to protect critical systems ?

[punnamaraju]

Appreciate some good practices to protect critical systems in retail sector especially telecom industry, any feedback / inputs appreciated.

[1jasonr]

- Perform a Business Impact Assessment
- Categorize and risk rate your critical systems and assets
- Proper network segmentation
- Strong firewall governance
- Patch management

all must-do basics.

[mtsapa]

Network segmentation, Security Layers, Traffic Visibility mechanism to quickly identify abnormal activity/volume and a robust DR policies to bring systems up while mitigating issues may help.
Identifying what is critical itself would be a big task as for everyone their own system is critical. However, when a dedicated Crisis management system decides depending on the weighted importance of Business Operations, Revenue and Communications a clear picture emerges and SLA, SOPs are put in place for remediation efforts.
A team that is skilled, trained on latest technologies would help mitigate issues as soon as possible for an effective resolution.

[Etripp2244]

It really depends on what you are trying to protect. Sensitive data, then a combination of access controls, network segmentation, and data encryption. Physical assets, then vulnerability management would be one I would recommend. Really having a "base" level of hygene and process for protection and detection are table stakes in this day and age.

[andy32j3b]

Here are some things I recommend doing to keep your system up:
-Turn on Automatic Updates for your operating system.
-Be suspicious of any official-looking email message or phone call that asks for personal or financial information.
-Use long passwords - 20 characters or more is recommended.
-For desktop computers, shut-down the system when not in use - or lock your screen.
-Securely remove sensitive data files from your system when they are no longer needed.
-Only install apps from trusted sources.
-Monitor your accounts for suspicious activity.
-Be careful of what you share on social networking sites.
-Don't forget to Back up your data.
Hope this helped : )