Engineers have many tools at their disposal to make cyber networks safer. Many of these tools come in the form of software. Regularly updating software either manually or using systems such as application program interface (API) will help ensure a much safer cyber network. This will help provide safety against known vulnerabilities within the network and protect it from malicious attacks. Software can also be built with intrinsic security or security-by-design included which can help minimize both human and software vulnerabilities. Using security-by-design principles can ensure all security systems are working in harmony with one another, making the network more secure than individual security features working on their own. Anti-virus software and malware provide additional safety for the network against viruses, malware, and other malicious attacks.  Another software safety feature of a cyber network from an engineering perspective includes more secure authentication protocols that use multifactor authentication to access the network. Multifactor authentication uses additional apps, a code, biometrics, keys, etc. By requiring more than one piece of information to access the system, it makes it much harder for an authorized person to gain all the necessary parts/knowledge to gain access to the network.

The implementation of effective firewalls can be in the form of software or hardware. Whether hardware or software, firewalls can keep important information contained within the network as well as keep malicious code and/or hackers out of the network. Another hardware tool would be using a proxy server which acts as a data security boundary to provide an additional layer of safety when conducting activities online. One final feature that engineers can use to make cyber networks safer is to have secure system backups. These are uncorrupted backups of data that are used for recovery in the event that the original data was corrupted or compromised. All of these tools are designed and used by engineers to ensure that the cyber network is as safe as possible.