As an IT-Business owner, you want a secure, low in maintenance, and easily scalable network.

But
for some starting companies, who don’t have a large budget, or Hobbyists who dream of having a
network of their own but don’t have the capital to spend it on a large expensive setup, this can be
quite a challenge. However, it is possible through several means.

Nowadays, having a secure network is one of the most essential things to have in a company of any
branch. However, most IT-Businesses want a network they have either built themselves, or have built
by others with their own chosen products. But how do you set up such an environment? That is the
question I’ve answered with my research.

The first step of any secure network is always asking yourself: ‘What do I want to do with it?’ From
there, you can make a list of requirements on which you can assemble a list of products and design a
layout on how you can achieve this. However, there are a few categories in which you could select
your products from. The following categories are defined by the Defend MIRTE matrix which are:
Harden, Detect, Isolate, Deceive and Evict.

Hardening your network can be seen as placing a proverbial ‘shield’ infront of your network which
protects your data. Ways to do this are for example:

- Installing a firewall to assign rules on which data goes where and if certain sources can or
cannot access your network.
- Using a Password Manager to make sure that your passwords are stored securely so you
don’t have to write them down on a piece of paper.
- Making sure your device(s) have an AntiVirus installed to make sure that malicious data
and/code can not enter or infect your devices.
- And even use Encryption software to make sure that if/when you data gets leaked, the
thieves can’t read your data without a password to unlock the contents.

The Detect category can be seen as one of your neighbors looking at your front door 24/7 to see if
people are not breaking in into your house or apartment. And if/when someone does try something,
they write down exactly when and what happened by whom. Only in this case, your neighbor is
software and your house/apartment is your device with your data. Some ways to make use of this
category is through an Intrusion Detection System, Security Information and Event Management
System or even a Log Analyzer.

You can even take it a step further and Isolate your network. With isolation you make sure that only a
specific select people with their own unique username and password can access your network. This
can be done through VPN and/or an Access Control List.

By Deceiving the attackers on your network, you can feed them false information about your
network. This can be done through i.e. HoneyPots and/or Decoy Accounts. With Honeypots, you lure
someone towards a specific network which in turn is loaded with a ‘counter attack’. Honeypots can
for example send obtain critical information about the attackers or even infect them with a virus
through their connection. With decoy accounts you give them the feeling that they’ve hacked your
network and then use the decoy account to lure them to the honey pots.

With the Eviction of your attackers you simply refuse the attackers from gaining the data they want.
This can be done by remotely whipping your device. But in case they do get access to the data and
they try to rob it from you, its important to also have (cloud-)backups from your devices and an
active incident response plan. With an Incident Response Plan you state what you do if/when you get
attacked. An Incident Response Plan can be your life line for if/when people start to panic. Having
such a plan is not a show of weakness, it’s a sign that you are prepared for the worst and you know
what to do if/when that day comes.

Now, say you have a network of a few laptops and a servers, which products are available to secure
this, having read the article above?

By starting at the front of the network, we begin with the firewall. For the Firewall it self you want to
be as flexible as possible. And for that reason I’ve chosen a pFSense Firewall. The reason for this is
that it already includes a number of features that we talked about, such as a VPN Support, IDS/IPS
capabilities, Firewall rules and backups.

From there, we can choose to use a second IDS for your internal network, in which case I use Security
Union. This tool gives a clear dashboard of all activity within the network and it can also be combined
with other tools such as Elastic Stack for your SIEM. However, if you want to combine your IDS with
your firewall, you could choose for Suricata and Snort.

As a password manager, you can’t go wrong with Bitwarden. At its core, Bitwarden is free with also a
paid plan which offers a wider range of functionalities. After that, the use of Duplicati is practically
one of the easiest backup and recovery tools on the market. Within 10 minutes it can be set up and
configurated to make backups at any time and any day of your choosing.

Then, the last thing is the Anti Virus. There are a number of Anti Viruses that you could use like Avast,
McAffee, AVG and BitDefender. My pick would be Bitdefender since it has a bit of a more
professional look and feel to it. At the end of the day, as long as the antivirus keeps out the malicious
code and data, it’s a good antivirus.

Building your own secure network can be quite tricky. Luckily, we live in a day and age where
everything we need can be googled. Most of the tools listed above are Plug-n-play. Meaning that you
install the tools, open them once and they work almost instantaneously. But that doesn't mean you
shouldn’t stay vigilant. Just because something works, doesn't mean it can’t be improved. Keep track
of the status of your network with the tools listed above. If you ever need to change something
about your network, these set of tools are interchangeable, which means that if/when you swap
them out for something new, the new tool should fit in perfectly in its new environment.

Bottom line: Making your network secure is doesn’t have to cost much, if you have the right tools.

Research quality: I am kind of missing a title for the research publication; I understand the topic, but I
am missing the main and sub-questions. I am guessing the research approach is an internet or
literature study.

Writing quality and validity: I believe it is understandable for the targeted audience, but you can
improve it a little bit to be clearer. You have a compact text with an explanation, but this can be
improved a little bit. I am missing some kinds of pictures or diagrams that will be better for
visualization. I am missing resources to support the explanation, and there are some spelling errors.

Originality and significance: I believe this topic is alright. I can see that it could be valuable, but it
could be improved.

Overall, I can say the topic is good and will have value, but I have mentioned the things that can be
improved in the next version. Good Luck.