An Open System Framework For Reducing Users' Vulnerabilities In The Network Security Ecosystem

Network and information security is a critical discipline in both academia and business and is also lucrative for organizations and enterprise IT.Many advanced technologies and latest network security appliances are present in cyberspace today and are often robustly applied in networking ecosystems to provide safeguards against attacks and data breaches.However,network infiltrations by malware and information breaches incidents still occur today despite the applications of these security technologies to detect,prevent and eliminate them.Why then do these risks,threats and attacks still occur despite the application of cyber security solutions to network and information systems?The researcher has answered this question by conducting an investigation using the systematic literature review method.This is because many previous studies have been conducted about this phenomenon and there exists numerous research papers and publications that have derived other conclusions as well.This method allows the researcher to synthesize findings qualitatively and quantitatively and evaluate the reliability of previous studies.From the literature review,it has been established that human actions and behavior pose a serious vulnerability to organizations' network security.Industry examples of data breaches related to human actions have also been presented to support this finding.In the network security chain,the user of the systems has been identified as the weakest link leading to attacks and information losses.These losses,caused by malware infiltrations and attackers gaining illegal access to systems happen despite the fact that advanced security appliances and defense strategies in the cyber industry exist to mitigate against this very problem.To circumnavigate this scenario,the researcher has proposed a framework for the deployment of an open system architecture that allows for the seamless integration of multiple security solutions and sharing of risks and threat intelligence to strengthen the areas of weaknesses brought about by human actions and behavior.The objective is to bolster the users' weaknesses in the network security chain.