Is Your Firewall Providing Adequate Protection?
What you need to do to keep your data secure
Firewall security audits should be conducted at regular intervals and additionally when system configurations are updated or changed. With the addition of new firewalls, hosts or applications, a firewall security audit should follow. Security audits should also be conducted when migrating firewalls or making configuration changes as well as in the event of a security incident.
When determining whether to upgrade firewalls, it’s important to understand what functionality your current firewalls provide and how your network may benefit from the upgrade. For instance, older firewalls may only have the capability to block IP addresses and ports while newer firewalls may have features such as intrusion prevention and deep-packet inspection.
Companies may also benefit from having a third-party security audit to reduce the probability of a misconfiguration being overlooked. When performing firewall maintenance, be sure to keep logs of all policy and ruleset changes for each firewall. Following any changes to the firewall, a backup should be performed.
Jason is a consultant at SystemExperts specializing in network security and penetration testing working out of Colorado Springs. Jason holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology from Colorado Technical University and is an Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP).
