We know IT administrators deal with nightmare incidents on a regular basis, but open ports on IT devices shouldn’t be one of them. Without closing your ports, you run the risk of attacks occurring all throughout the network. Not to mention, hackers could steal data and hold it hostage too, which seems to be happening more and more according to NetworkWorld’s article, “Cyber attacks are on the rise.”

Despite many revelations in IT Security, neglecting setting up automatic port scanning shouldn’t be one of them. Thankfully the detection of open ports can be easily identified and maintained and here’s a great DIY option for any organization to implement.

 Step 1

First, and perhaps most obviously, you need to compile a list of ports that need to remain open for your applications’ use. No one wants to accidently close a necessary port and end up shutting down a critical business service. So let’s stay out of the boss’ office, shall we?

Step 2

Once you have this list ready to go, you can get ready to begin scanning your devices to see which ports are unnecessarily open by using ZenMap. ZenMap is free software that runs on Windows, Linux, or Mac. We describe it as an easy to use GUI version of nmap, which we find much more powerful than standard, preinstalled networking tools. Install this tool and move on to the last step.

Step 3

After installing and opening ZenMap you simply enter the IP range in the target section. Then click Profile > Intense Scan. This will return a list of all your open ports so you can see your security vulnerabilities. Now, you can close the unnecessary open ports and gain a much more secure business network.

Don’t have the time for this DIY option? Or perhaps you may want to integrate this security feature within your SerivceNow instance instead of using ZenMap? We take the pressure off and provide an easier way to run port scans from ServiceNow. From beginning to end, we offer a customized approach allowing you to run the same port scanning features of ZenMap directly from ServiceNow. Give us a call or contact us today.