TELECOMMUNICATION NOTES

BCOM YR II, SEMESTER I/2022

DEFINITION OF TELECOMMUNICATION
Telecommunication is the transmission of data (voice, audio, facsimile, image,
video etc.) over significant distances by use of electronic technologies like
telephones (wired and wireless), microwave communications, fiber optics,
satellites, radio and television broadcasting, and the internet. Electronic
communications including but not limited to emails, instant messages and phone
calls are examples of data communications.
ROLE OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN BUSINESS
Enable effective Communication
Communication plays a vital role in the operations of a business. Telecom services
provide the platform necessary for data to be exchanged electronically either
through wired or wireless means. It enables companies to communicate effectively
with customers and deliver high standards of customer service.
Telecommunications can help main communication capability for employees
working in remote locations or at home. With high-speed internet, mobile apps,
VoIP and other means of communication, employees can now exchange
information such as documents, analytics, reports, emails, participate in
teleconference conversations etc., in real time and reach out to prospective clients
regardless of location. From web browsing to cell phone calling to instant
messaging, telecommunications have become increasingly integrated into how we
work. This has helped businesses to streamline workflow and productivity.
Businesses can leverage mobile communication to streamline workflow and
productivity. For instance, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) or IP telephony
services bring together email, audio and video calls, texting and other telecom
solutions. Users can conduct conference calls in multiple cities or countries at the
same time, hold virtual meetings and record calls. Moreover, VoIP solutions are
more affordable than traditional phone and internet services.
Businesses are able to reach more customers and provide quality services
Telecommunications technology empowers businesses to reach more customers
with fewer resources and manpower. It has enabled direct conversations with
clients and colleagues hence building business relationships. The absence of
proper business relationships, hurdles business growth. Businesses all over the
world are getting connected as a result of embracing telecommunications
technology thus extending their services. Being able to access the internet 24/7 has

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helped many businesses in delivering high-quality customer service. How your

business communicates with customers (and potential customers) will reinforce
brand loyalty, help your team build better relationships with prospects and clients,
and increase retention. Such technologies include; telephony and video
conferencing, broadcast and interactive television, instant messaging, email,
distributed electronic collaboration, and a range of web- and Internet-based
communications and data transmissions. Clients are served regardless of time
zone and distance. Through calls and texts, clients can be attended to without any
delays. Any assistance with fixing issues is quick, thanks to telecommunications.
Employees can now assist clients by being present there virtually, with video calls
and tele-immersions. Telecommunication methods of advertising and marketing
include telephone marketing calls, social network marketing and online
advertising. These types of campaigns expose a business’s services and products
to a wider audience which helps the business in generating more sales and
expanding its customer base.
Reduces costs associated with transactions
Telecommunications have reduced the financial costs, time and efforts associated
with business transactions. Promotion of business, broadcasting information and
services is just a click away. Your business can be recognized across the boundaries
overnight. Shipping operations have been made smoother by automating the basic
processes that people once handled. The cost of acquiring information through
research and development has also reduced since vast amounts of information are
available to employees. Telecommunications allow more employees to access and
use information and make decisions upon it. This helps to free up valuable time to
allow for more productivity. This technology helps coordinate and dispatch
roaming employees to sites as needed, eliminating the need for a central-based
office. Businesses spend a substantial amount of money and time in training,
traveling, and communicating with customers. Through telecommunication
methods such as teleconferencing, costs and limitations are reduced.
Teleconferencing involves the use of an Internet connection and a phone line to
communicate with people in other locations. Teleconferencing enables businesses
to make decisions more quickly, especially if businesses have overseas
partnerships, because customers and business partners involved have instant face-
to-face communication to exchange information without having to travel far or
wait too long for correspondence. Faster decision making means a business can
progress and implement its operations on time.

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Increase employee productivity and satisfaction

Telecommunications can help a company improve its performance through
increased collaboration, flexibility and direct communication. Telecommunication
and remote work go hand in hand. Connectivity is a critical element for the
modern workplace. It helps companies stay competitive and relevant by making
sure they have access to critical information and the ability to foster deeper
relationships with their customers. As a manager, you can provide your team with
access to VoIP services, file sharing tools, collaboration software, and other
services that allow them to work on the go. This may result in higher job
satisfaction and productivity. You may also find it easier to attract and retain
talent, especially millennials and other groups that prefer newer communication
tools. A May 2020 survey by Harvard Business Review assessed the implications of
working from home amid COVID-19. The study was conducted on more than 600 white-
collar employees. Half of the respondents said they were able to maintain a 10-hour
workday in the first few weeks of the lockdown. Later on, their workdays were still 10 to 20
percent longer than before the lockdown began. Employees also reported fewer task conflicts
and less stress while working from home. Their mental focus and self-efficacy increased by
about 10 percent. They also said they had a better work-life balance, shorter meetings, and
more time for the tasks at hand. Virtual meetings, videoconferencing and other telecom
solutions allowed them to do business as usual and eased their transition to remote work.
Their job satisfaction improved, too. Telecommunications give companies the
opportunity to introduce more flexible working by allowing employees to work
efficiently from home or other, more remote locations.
Improve Collaboration
In today’s business world, many organizations employ cross-functional teams for
product development, customer relationship management, corporate initiatives,
marketing campaigns etc. Telecommunications can improve collaboration
between teams and departments. Smartphones, laptops and tablets connected to
cellular phone services or Wi-Fi hotspots give employees the ability to connect
with each other at any time, virtually anywhere in the world. Mobile phones,
videoconferencing, messaging and other telecom services enable employees to
brainstorm ideas, share data, and work together on projects from anywhere in the
world. Social media and real-time messaging streamline collaboration, allowing
companies to create a digital workplace. Employees can work on the same report
or sales proposal by using services like Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive. This
allows them to see everyone else’s contributions to the document in real time.

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Software systems like Basecamp, online chat software and video-conferencing

apps (such as zoom, skype) give business people the opportunity to work as if
they were side-by-side, regardless of where they are in the world. The
introduction of 5G wireless systems in 2020 will make things like video calls
faster, of higher quality and more accessible to everyone. With the above,
company teams are able to get more done in less time and make faster decisions.
DATA COMMUNICATIONS

Data communications is the transmission of data signals across distances,

between two or more devices using various transmission media that may either
be wired or wireless.

FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DATA COMMUNICATIONS

Delivery: The system must deliver data to the correct destination. Data must be
received by the intended device or user and only by that device or user. This
characteristic includes the security of the system, that is; the protection of data.

Accuracy: Data must be delivered to the receiver without being altered or

damaged. The receiver should receive the exact same data which was sent by the
sender. The protocol might require to alter the sent data to protect and optimize
the process. However, the protocol should also reverse and restore the data back
to its original form before representing it to the receiver. The accuracy must be
maintained otherwise data that has been altered in transmission and left
uncorrected is unusable.

Timeliness: Data must be deliver in a timely manner. Delayed delivery can make
the data useless to the receiver. In the case of video and audio, timely delivery
means delivering data as they are produced, in the same order that they are
produced, and without significant delay. This kind of delivery is called real-time
transmission.

Jitter- Jitter refers to the variation in the packet arrival time. Data is sent as
packets, that is, a chunk of the whole data is sent in each turn. These packets get
re-joined back in the target device to represent the complete data as it is. Each
packet is sent with a predefined delay or acceptable amount of delay. If packets
are sent without maintaining the predefined delay, then an uneven quality in the
data may result. For example, in case of a video, let us assume that video packets

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are sent every 3D-ms. If some of the packets arrive with 3D-ms delay and others
with 4D-ms delay, the quality of the video when streaming may be affected.

Throughput and Bandwidth: Throughput is an actual measure of how much

data is successfully transferred from source to destination, and bandwidth is a
theoretical measure of how much data could be transferred from source to
destination. Throughput measures speed while bandwidth is only indirectly
related to speed. Bandwidth makes your internet connection perceptually faster,
but not technically faster.

COMPONENTS OF DATA COMMUNICATIONS

Message: Communication of data means a message or data will be transmitted

from one device and will be received in the destination or target device. Hence
the first component in a data communication network is data or message that
needs to be delivered and received. The data or message can be in any form such
as text, audio, video, image or combinations of these forms etc.

Sender: A source must send the message to a destination. This source is the
sender (the device that sends the data to the destination or target). It can be a
computer, workstation, cell phone, laptop, video camera etc.

Receiver: The destination of a transmitted message is the receiver that will

receive the message. The device that receives the message is the receiver. A

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receiver can again be a computer, workstation, cell phone, laptop, video camera
etc.

Transmission medium: The transmission medium is the physical path for the
message to travel to its destination. The sender will send the message from one
end of this path and the receiver will receive the message from another end of
the path. The transmission medium could be guided (with wires) or unguided
(without wires), for example, twisted pair cable, fiber optic cable, radio waves,
microwaves etc.

Protocol: A protocol is a set of rules that applies on the full data communication
procedure. It represents some kind of agreement between the networked devices
to successfully communicate with each other. For example, how to send the data,
how the data will be traveling, how to ensure that full data is received, how to
handle errors in transmission etc. The communicating devices must follow the
same set of rules or protocol so that they understand each other. A typical
example of a data communication system is sending an e-mail. The user who
wants to send an email acts as a sender, the message is the information contained
in the email, the receiver is the who the user wants to send the message to, there
are many protocols involved in this entire process, one of them is Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol (SMTP), both sender and receiver must have an internet
connection which uses a wireless medium to send and receive email.

DATA COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM TASKS

Signal Generation: To transmit the data over the transmission system,

communicating device must be able to generate and receive these signals. They
system ensures that the resultant signal generated can be acceptable by the
transmission mediums.

Interface: Device must interface with the transmission system to communicate

or transfer the data over network.

Data Synchronization: It is the process of establishing consistency among data

from a source to destination devices and vice versa and continuous
harmonization of the data over time.

Error Detection and Correction: In any communication system transmitted data

is prone to error. Either it is because of transmitted signal getting distorted in the

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transmission medium leading to misinterpretation of signal or errors introduced

by the intermediate devices.

Flow Control: At the time of transmission of data, source computer is generating

data faster than receiver device capable to receive it. To handle such problem,
there must be some kind of flow control mechanism used to ensure that the
source does not overwhelm the destination by sending data faster than it can be
processed by the receiver.

Addressing and Routing: When more than two devices share a transmission
facility, a source system must indicate the identity or address of the destination
and can choose a specific route through the network. This will ensure that the
data is sent to the appropriate destinations.

Recovery: The system ensures that interrupted transactions resume activity at

the point of interruption or to condition prior to the beginning of the exchange.

Security: Security is a very important issue in a data communication system. The

sender needs to be assured that; only the intended receiver receives the data, data
is delivered unaltered.

Network management: Network management capabilities are needed to

configure the system, monitor its status, react to failures and overloads and plan
intelligently for future growth.

Exchange management: The system ensures that if the data needs to be

exchanged in both directions over a period of time, both parties must cooperate
as follow; whether both devices must transmit simultaneously or take turns,
amount of data to be sent at one time, format of the data, what to do when an
error arises.

Transmission system utilization: The system must ensure efficient use of

transmission facilities that are shared among a number of communicating
devices. For example; techniques like multiplexing to allow multiple users to
share total capacity of a transmission medium, congestion control to ensure that
the transmission system is not overwhelmed by traffic.

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DATA COMMUNICATION SIGNALS

A signal is an electromagnetic current or light wave that is used for carrying data
from one device or network to another through a communication medium. It is
the key component behind virtually all: Communication, Computing,
Networking, Electronic devices. A signal can be either analog or digital

ANALOG SIGNALS

These are continuous time-varying signals in form of waves. Temperature sensors,

FM radio signals, photocells, light sensor, resistive touch screen are examples of
analog signals.

DIGITAL SIGNALS

A digital signal is a signal that is used to represent data as a sequence of separate

values at any point in time. It can only take on one of a fixed number of values.
For example, HDTV uses digital signals to broadcast high quality video signals.

DATA TRANSMISSION METHODS

Data transmission methods are ways in which digital or analog data is sent and
received between two or more electronic devices over a communication medium.

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TYPES OF DATA TRANSMISSION

PARALLEL DATA TRANSMISSION

This is a method of transmitting multiple binary digits simultaneously using
multiple lines (8, 16, 32, 64). Parallel data transmission enables data to be sent
much faster. It can be used when a large amount of data is being sent, data being
sent is time sensitive or when the data needs to be sent quickly. An example of
parallel mode transmission is a connection established between a computer and a
printer. Most printers are within 6 meters (about 20 feet) from the transmitting
computer, and the slight cost for extra wires is offset by the added speed gained
through parallel transmission of data.
SERIAL DATA TRANSMISSION
Serial data transmission is the process of sending data one bit at a time,
sequentially, over a communication channel or computer bus. It is a very reliable
method; as new signals don't be sent until the previous ones are received. Pulse of
a 1 byte is transmitted in a block of 8 bits from sender to destination. This method
is suitable when there’s long distance data transfer and the amount of data being
sent is relatively small. An example of serial data transmission is the transfer of
bits from the computer to the modem for transmission over the phone.
Major categories of serial data transmission are;
• Asynchronous serial transmission
• Synchronous serial transmission
ASYNCHRONOUS SERIAL TRANSMISSION
Asynchronous Transmission is a communication interface in which the data
is transmitted as a continuous stream of bytes separated by start and stop bits.
The signals used are not synchronized to each other using a common clock signal.

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Instead, start and stop bits are used to indicate the beginning and end of a data
message. The start and stop bits ensure that the data is transmitted correctly.
Without the use of these bits, the sending and receiving systems will not know
where one character ends and another begins. Examples where its applicable
include email, forums etc.
SYNCHRONOUS SERIAL TRANSMISSION
Synchronous data transmission is a data transfer method in which a continuous
stream of data signals is accompanied by timing signals (generated by an
electronic clock) to ensure that the transmitter and the receiver are in step
(synchronized) with one another. The data is sent in blocks (called frames or
packets) spaced by fixed time intervals. This method is used when large amounts
of data must be transferred very quickly from one location to the other. The speed
of the synchronous connection is attained by transferring data in large blocks
instead of individual characters. Examples where its applicable include chat
rooms, telephone conversations, video conferencing, VOIP.
DATA TRANSMISSION MODES
Data transmission modes also known as communication modes; define the
direction of signal flow between two linked communication devices in a
computer network. It is important to control the direction of signal flow as it
leads to successful communication over the network and minimizes errors. Data
transmission modes are categorized into;

 Simplex mode
 Duplex mode
SIMPLEX MODE
In this mode, is transmitted in one direction only i.e. from the sender to the
receiver. Example; transfer of data from computer to printer, radio and television
broadcasts, keyboard, mouse etc.
DUPLEX MODE
In this mode, two or more connected devices can communicate with one another
in both directions. This mode is further categorized into;

 Half Duplex
 Full Duplex

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HALF DUPLEX MODE

In this mode, data is transmitted in both directions but not simultaneously i.e. not
at the same time. The sender and receiver can both send and receive information,
but only one is allowed to send at any given time. That means, when one device is
sending, the other can only receive, and vice versa. Example; communication
using walkie-talkies.
FULL DUPLEX MODE
In this mode, data is transmitted in both directions simultaneously. The sender
and receiver can both transmit and receive at the same time. Example; Broadband
phone connection.
DATA COMMUNICATION CHANNELS
The physical path by which data signals are transmitted from one computer to
another. Communication channels are categorized into;

 Guided (Wired) channels

 Unguided (Wireless) channels
GUIDED (WIRED) CHANNELS
It is also referred to as wired or bounded transmission media. Signals being
transmitted are directed and confined in a narrow pathway by using physical
links. There are three major types of guided media;

 Twisted-Pair cable
 Coaxial cable
 Fibre-Optic cable
Twisted-Pair cable; It consists of 2 separately insulated conductor wires
intertwined together. Generally, several such pairs are bundled together in a
protective sheath. They are the most widely used Transmission Media. Twisted
Pair is of two types: Unshielded twisted pair (UTP), which has the ability to block
interference and does not depend on a physical shield for this purpose. It is used
for telephonic applications.

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Shielded twisted pair (STP), which consists of a special jacket to block external
interference. It is used in fast data rate Ethernet and in voice and data channels
of telephone lines.

Coaxial cable; It has an outer plastic covering containing 2 parallel conductors

each having a separate insulated protection cover. The coaxial cable transmits
information in two modes: Baseband mode (dedicated cable bandwidth) and
broadband mode (cable bandwidth is split into separate ranges). Cable TVs and
analog television networks widely use coaxial cables.

Fibre-Optic cable; It uses the concept of reflection of light through a core made up
of glass or plastic. The core is surrounded by less dense glass or plastic covering
called cladding. Digital signals are sent as light pulses which are translated back
into electronic signals. It is used for the transmission of large volumes of data.

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UNGUIDED (WIRED) CHANNELS

It is also referred to as wireless or unbounded transmission media. These transmit
electromagnetic waves without using a physical medium hence being referred to
as wireless transmission. Signals are normally broadcast through space and they
are available to anyone who has a device capable of receiving them. There are 3
types of signals transmitted through unguided media;

 Radiowaves
 Microwaves
 Infrared
Radiowaves; These are low frequency signals and can travel a long distance. They
are easy to generate and can penetrate through buildings. The sending and
receiving antennas need not be aligned. Frequency Range: 3KHz – 1GHz. AM and
FM radios and cordless phones use Radiowaves for transmission. They are
further categorized as (i) Terrestrial and (ii) Satellite.
Microwaves; It is a line of sight transmission i.e. the sending and receiving
antennas need to be properly aligned with each other. The distance covered by
the signal is directly proportional to the height of the antenna. They have a higher
frequency than radio waves. Frequency Range:1GHz – 300GHz. They are majorly
used for telephone communication, mobile phones, television distribution etc.
Infrared; Infrared waves are used for very short distance communication. They
cannot penetrate through obstacles. This prevents interference between systems.
Frequency Range:300GHz – 400THz. It is used in TV remotes, wireless mouse,
keyboard, printer, VCRs etc.

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PROTOCOLS AND STANDARDS

Network Protocols are a set of rules governing exchange of information in an easy,
reliable and secure way. Rules of network protocols include guidelines that
regulate the following characteristics of a network; access method, allowed
physical topologies, types of cabling and speed of data transfer.
Network Standards define the rules for data communications that are needed for
interoperability of networking technologies and processes. The primary reason
for standards is to ensure that hardware and software produced by different
vendors can work together. The use of standards makes it much easier to develop
software and hardware that link different networks.
TYPES OF PROTOCOLS
Many different types of network protocols and standards are required to ensure
that an electronic device (no matter which operating system, network card, or
application it’s using) can communicate with another electronic device located
near or far away. The protocols listed below are a few of the more well-known;
File Transfer Protocol (FTP); Allows users to transfer files form one electronic
device to another. Types of files may include program files, multimedia files, text
files and documents etc.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol; Is an internet standard for electronic mail (email)
transmission. It is designed to send and distribute outgoing E-mail.
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP); Is an application for distributed,
collaborative, and hypermedia information systems. It is the foundation of data
communication for the World Wide Web. HTTP is designed for transferring
hypertext among two or more systems. HTML tags are used for creating links.
These Links may be in any form like text or images.
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS); Is an adaptation of the Hypertext
Transfer Protocol (HTTP) for secure communication over a computer network,
and is widely used on the internet. The secure version is encrypted, meaning that
all the data will be encrypted as it is sent from the client to the server. It can be
defined as a standard protocol to secure the communication among two computers
one using the browser and other fetching data from web server. Https thwart
hackers from interpretation or modification of data throughout the transfer of
packets.

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Transmission Control Protocol; TCP is a popular communication protocol which

is used for communicating over a network. It divides any message into series of
packets that are sent from source to destination and there it gets reassembled at
the destination. It is one of the main protocols of the internet protocol suite. It
originated in the initial network implementation in which it complemented the
Internet Protocol (IP). Therefore, the entire suite is commonly referred to as
TCP/IP. TCP provides reliable, ordered, and error-checked delivery of a stream of
octets between applications running on hosts communicating by an IP network.
Major Internet applications such as the World Wide Web, email, remote
administration, and file transfer rely on TCP.
Internet Protocol (IP); IP is designed explicitly as an addressing protocol. It is
mostly used with TCP. The IP addresses in packets help in routing them through
different nodes in a network until it reaches the destination system. TCP/IP is the
most popular protocol connecting the networks.
TYPES OF STANDARDS
Standards are of two types;

 De facto − These are the standards that are followed without any formal
plan or approval by any organization. They have come into existence due to
traditions or facts. For example, the HTTP had started as a de facto standard.
 De jure − These standards are the ones which have been adopted through
legislation by any officially recognized standards organization. Most of the
communication standards that are used today are de jure standards.
Some of the noted standards organizations are;

 International Standards Organization (ISO)

 International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
 Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE)
 American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
 Internet Research Task Force (IETF)
 Electronic Industries Association (EIA)
NETWORK SECURITY BEST PRACTICES
Network security consists of the policies, processes and practices adopted to
prevent, detect and monitor unauthorized access, misuse, modification, or denial
of a computer network and network-accessible resources.
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The steps below will guide on how to secure a business network.

1. Perform a Network Audit; A thorough network audit is recommended in
order to assess the networks weaknesses that need to be combated in order
to tighten and improve network security. The goal of the audit is to identify
and assess;
 Possible security vulnerabilities
 Unused or unnecessary applications running in the background
 Open ports
 Overall strength of your firewall
 Anti-virus/anti-malware software
 The overall health of servers, software, and applications
 Backups
After the audit, a detailed report is made and reviewed with the business’ IT expert
with an intention to make improvements.

2. Disable file sharing; File sharing might seem like a great and convenient
collaborative method, but it can also put your business’ network security at
risk. However, file sharing means that any user that is accessing the same
public network can access your files. Therefore, it’s a good idea to disable
file sharing on all employee devices, except on your independent, private
servers.

3. Update your Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware Software; In many cases,

businesses will purchase desktop computers for their offices or laptops with
the latest version of anti-virus and anti-malware software. However, over
time, that software becomes outdated. Most cases, users never update their
software again. By taking the time to ensure that your anti-virus and anti-
malware is up to date, you are also ensuring that your devices are running
software with the most recent bug fixes and security updates.

4. Set up a Firewall; If you don’t currently have a firewall, then make this a
priority. Not only should you install firewalls on your devices, but also set
up a web application firewall (WAF). This is especially important if you are
an eCommerce business and sell products online and store customers’
confidential information. Installing a WAF will help protect all your stored
data.

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5. Invest in a VPN; A Virtual Private Network (VPN) encrypts your network

to ensure online privacy for all your users. A VPN blocks your activities,
data, browsing history, communications and other personal information
from hackers. It also protects your files and information while using a public
Wi-Fi network. If your employees frequently travel or work remotely, then
a VPN is a good investment for your business.

6. Secure your Router; it is essential to secure you router. Believe it or not, a

security breach or other security event can occur by simply hitting the reset
button on your network router. Therefore, if your router is in an open or
common location in your office, consider moving it to a more secure
location, such as in a locked room or closet. You can also take security one
step further and investing in video surveillance equipment and installing it
in your server or network router room.

7. Update router information periodically; In addition to moving your router

to a more secure location, update the login information on a semi-regular
basis. Most routers are initially set up with a default username and
password, such as “admin”. It is not wise to leave your username and
password as “admin”. There is actually a list of usernames and passwords
that are easiest to hack, and “admin” tops the list.Therefore, set a complex
password combination that contains at least 8 characters, a number, and a
special symbol. Be sure to also schedule a reminder to change the router
information once a month, or once a quarter, whatever you think might be
appropriate.

8. Update the Name of your network; Again, similar to updating your

network router’s username and password on a regular basis, you might also
want to update your network name on a regular basis—and keep your
router’s make and model confidential. For example, many default network
names are the name of your provider. This tells a potential hacker that you
don’t follow best network security practices, which makes your business a
prime target.

9. Use a private IP address; In order to prevent unauthorized users or devices

to access your network, consider assigning private IP addresses to specific
devices on your network. Therefore, when you or your IT administrator
check your router logs, you will see any and all attempts of unauthorized

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users or devices connecting to your network or any other suspicious

activity.

10. Establish a Network security maintenance system; Depending on the size

of your business, you may have an in-house IT team, or you might be a DIY
solopreneur. Regardless of size, network security is still important.
Therefore, take the time to establish a network security maintenance system
that involves processes such as:

 Performing regular backups

 Running activity reports
 Keeping software up to date
 Setting up a schedule for changing your network name and
passwords
Depending on the size and complexity of your business, your network
security maintenance system may involve additional or fewer steps. The
overarching goal here is to be proactive and establish a process for
monitoring and maintaining network security. Once you have established a
network security maintenance system with the necessary steps that make
sense to your business, document it and circulate it to your team.

11. Create a Network Security-Centered Culture; In addition to taking specific

network security measures and adopting a network security protocol, the
other steps involve educating and training your staff on the importance of
network security and how they can do their part. By creating a culture
devoted to network security, you can ensure that your team will better
understand the implications and risks of lack of network security, and what
they can do to help.

12. Train employees in network security practices; Even though you have put
thought, effort, and time into documenting your network security practices
and process, unfortunately, most team members and employees will skim
through your documentation. In an effort to build a network security-
centered culture, it is also important to follow up with a network security
training session for your employees. For example, in addition to educating
team members on good versus poor network security practices, you can also
engage them with interactive activities, such as having them identify
phishing emails, quality versus unsecured password combinations, and
what to do if they notice any suspicious activity on any of their devices.

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