Today every organization has a corporate security policy that is developed in years. The corporate security policy is a must have any organization follow and keep up to date. The implementation of corporate security policy on firewall devices is one of the major needs that must be fulfilled since firewalls are devices that opens and closes door to any service or application to anywhere. However, the following of the policy or keeping security policies on firewalls in parallel with it is not so easy. In this post we will be dealing with the reasons of this issue.
To start with, firewalls must be managed in a segregation of duties principle. The application of firewall policies and the decision of which policies are allowed or not must be handled by different teams or employees reporting to a different manager. With the help of this segregation, operation teams be mentored or have a control over what they are doing on firewalls. This segregation of duties principle can not be applied on all the corporations and generally the people managing firewalls are the same with the people having the responsibility of checking corporate security policy. This is a condition that may lead to some kind of blindness and operation teams may apply policies on behalf of their needs or choice. This uncontrolled condition may lead to firewall rules that is not accordance with the decided corporate policies.
As to companies having the segregation of duties already in place there are other difficulties exist. First of all, checking or approving security policies if they have accordance is some kind of operational activity since it is repetitive. One will do the same controls on the firewall access tickets for every ticket. Since this is an operational activity although there is a need of higher experience level, generally the people assigned to this activity are junior level engineers. This low level security experience may lead to decisions that are not appropriate or wrong. Apart from that, since approval duty is somehow an operational activity the people doing this activity have a potential of making mistakes of what they are doing anytime. Also, the turnover rate in security teams is quite high. So, for every newcomers to the teams there is a need of learning what kind of infrastructure exist, what business they are doing and surely what corporate security policies there are. It is a tedious process for the existing employees also. And surely there is a potential of making mistakes for every newcomer dealing with tickets.
Effective implementation of corporate security policies on firewalls is pivotal in safeguarding an organization’s digital assets. These policies encapsulate the organization’s cybersecurity objectives, defining the rules and regulations that govern network access, data sharing, and overall information protection. Successfully translating these policies into firewall configurations demands meticulous attention to detail. The alignment of security policies with firewall rules ensures that only authorized users and traffic can traverse the network, minimizing the attack surface and potential vulnerabilities. Regular audits and updates are essential to ensure that security policies remain current and aligned with emerging threats and changing business needs. The interplay between well-crafted security policies and accurately enforced firewall rules forms a robust defense against cyber threats, enabling organizations to maintain a proactive security posture and mitigate risks effectively.
To sum up, corporate security policy implementation on the firewalls and keeping it in accordance with it is a need. In placed segregation of duties is a must, however it is not a guarantee since it is thought to be an operational activity and is treated accordingly. There must be a mechanism in place to make corporate security policies applied and kept on firewalls.