A firewall is termed as a device or collection of components that are placed between two networks that collectively have the following property.
- All traffic from inside to outside and vice versa must pass through the firewall.
- The traffic that are authorised as defined by local security policy are allowed to pass through the firewall.
Like any other security systems firewalls are more effective or less effective depending upon the customized settings that are set up by any person. To ensure complete firewall protection, it is sometimes necessary for firewall auditing. Firewall Auditing offers network operators to analyze and change the settings accordingly.
Lets in this article elaborately discuss about the steps of firewall auditing.
The steps that are involved in firewall auditing
- Primarily your task is Collection of information
- Secondary step is of reviewing of review process
- Tertiary step is to have a look at the technical details
- Quaternary step is to optimizing the firewall rules
Take a look at the steps mentioned above briefly
Gathering of Information
Primarily your task will be gathering of information. What information you need to gather? You need to collect all the details of hardware and software that your organization is using. In what way the hardware and software of your organization or firm interacts with the firewall settings. If you don’t have the sense of how the hardware and software interacts then you will definitely get a lag in security system. Take the help of previous audits. What were the short comings in your previous audits. Just do a simple research on your previous audits.
Reviewing of review process
A successful firewall audit is one that is reviewed more than once such that there is no gap left in the review process. If you look at the audit loosely then there are a increased chances of mistakes done by you while reviewing once. It is quite possible that you have overlook a simple loop and that might create a big problem for you in near future. Verify whether your managers are working in a systematic way and are reporting to you with proper documents timely.
Keep in mind about the Technical Details
Keep a close watch on employee who has full access to your hardware and software. You decide which employee must be given access to your hardware and software, which employee must not be given that responsibility. You should also choose a responsible employee for access to the firewall wall settings. Make sure that all your software are updated with latest security patches and also make sure that all your hardware are properly working.
Optimizing of Firewall Rule
Sometimes the rule for incoming and outgoing connection can become a burden, especially when any software are updated or is altered. Check whether there are such type of cases involved. If yes change or cleanup the existing rule. Use a clear format for all the rules of firewall such that it is easily understandable.
These were some of the steps for firewall auditing. If you adopt these steps you will become an expert of firewall auditing and there will not be any breaches regarding the security of your company’s data.
