Let me begin with some nostalgia.

Allow me to transport you back to the 1990s... when fashion got rid of shoulder pads, a new rock sound was coming out of Seattle, South Park and The Simpsons brought crude humor to the masses, and the Internet became more available.

Access became faster and cheaper, and email was at the center of our work and personal lives. It was a new and refreshing form of communication- quick and handy, and always at your fingertips.

But with that liberty came a threat -the threat of viruses in attachments.

Information was stored locally on your PC, and was the target of many hackers wanting access to your personal or work information.

Fast forward a decade, when the promise of cloud-based applications emerged. Yahoo, Microsoft, Google and their likes introduced applications that basically brought your PC to the cloud. "No Software", Salesforce.com claimed (and still do), pioneering the concept of Software-as-a-Service.

That promise of cloud, for compute and storage, is here now. And with broadband, mobility and Internet access becoming ubiquitous and affordable, content and information began migrating from the PC into the cloud. More and more sensitive information is now flowing on networks and is stored in data centers in virtual locations.

So, why am I telling you this? Because hackers now have a different target - your network! Information is everywhere, and the network is at the heart of it; it's up to you to secure it!

The Global State of Information Security 2016, published recently by PWC*, showed 3 things:

1. CIOs and CEOs are seeing an increased security threat across all markets and segments.
2. The average financial loss due to security incidents in 2015 was$2.5M!
3. To cope with this risk and financial liability, security budgets have increased by 24% in 2015.

Security incidents not only result in information theft and network compromise, but most importantly -downtime and disruption of services.

So, what can you do? Did you know that your existing Cisco infrastructure already has the ability to secure your network? And with a few simple configuration changes you can minimize the risk of a security incident?

Cisco has developed a set of Enterprise Security Baseline recommendations for LAN and Wireless LAN, that is based on leading practices and guidance compiled from customers' feedback, TAC and escalation cases and in-depth knowledge of the technologies.

What's more, Cisco has developed a free service to compare your existing network against the Enterprise Security Baseline. This service, Cisco Active Advisor, is simple to use and easy to understand.

With an easy-to-use network discovery via the built-in browser-based scanner, Cisco Active Advisor analyzes your network's security settings and makes actionable recommendations based on the Baseline Best Practices recommendations.

It checks for baseline security settings in:

• Device Management
• Authentication Control
• Device Audit
• LAN Access Layer Security
• Baseline Security for Layer-3 LAN and Routed WAN
• Baseline Security for Campus Wireless LAN Controllers

In just a few clicks with minimal processing time, you can leverage Cisco's expertise and experience to ensure your network is secure with the very basic needs -before increasing your security expenses.

Cisco Active Advisor saves you time and money, and allows you to utilize your resources better.

In fact, many customers have reported a >15% increase in efficiency (a saving of multiple man-days or even weeks per quarter) when using Cisco Active Advisor! 

Additionally, Cisco Active Advisor measures Switching and Wireless Best Practices as defined in Cisco Enterprise Campus Infrastructure Best Practices Guide and Cisco Wireless LAN Controller Best Practices.

You can access your account on Cisco Active Advisor any time using your cisco.com credentials.

Securing your network couldn't be easier, and it's free!

So, before investing a large sum in security products, run Security Best Practices Assessment on Cisco Active Advisor.

And please let us know -have we found ways to make your network more secure, with Cisco's Baseline Security Best Practices? And how much time did Cisco Active Advisor saveyouin analyzing these? What did you do with all that time and resources? Please tell us in the Comments below or tweet us @CiscoEnterprise, we'd love to know!

Oh, and in case you are still reminiscing about the 1990s, Cisco Active Advisor does not support Netscape Navigator v3 and is fully Y2K compliant.

*http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/cyber-security/information-security-survey/key-findings.html