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Explore Algosec's customer success stories to see how organizations worldwide improve security, compliance, and efficiency with our solutions. TECHCOMBANK SAVES TIME AND RESOURCES WITH SIMPLIFIED FIREWALL POLICY MANAGEMENT Organization Techcombank Industry Financial Services Headquarters Hanoi, Vietnam Download case study Share Customer
success stories "AlgoSec enables us to identify ways to consolidate and optimize rules and perform deep risk analysis and automate workflows in ways that other products cannot match" Background Techcombank is one of the largest joint stock commercial banks in Vietnam. With more than 300 branches and 7,000 staff, Techcombank provides deposit products, loans, leasing, cash management and other services to more than 3.3 million individual customers and 45,000 corporate clients. Challenge Tens of firewall devices and hundreds of routers and switches protect the financial data of Techcombank’s customers, as well as the operations of hundreds of branches throughout Vietnam. As a bank, all security policies and firewall configurations must comply with PCI-DSS and ISO27001 standards. Ensuring compliance, however, created ongoing headaches for the IT security team. “With equipment from many different vendors, even simple policy audits were challenging tasks,” says Mr. Van Anh Tuan, CSO of Techcombank. “As a result of the diversity of products and lack of visibility, it was difficult for us to monitor changes to rule configurations in real time in order to maintain internal security compliance as well as PCI compliance.” “Cleaning up and fine tuning firewall policies was a particularly complex process, which made it difficult to respond quickly to the changing needs of our business applications,” adds Mr. Tuan. “We wanted a way to optimize and consolidate rules across all of our firewalls, regardless of manufacturer, and completely automate the end-to-end workflow for firewall rule change management.” In addition, Techcombank sought a solution that would simplify the process of conducting risk analysis, evaluating PCI compliance and identifying the necessary steps for remediation. Solution Following an in-depth competitive evaluation, Techcombank selected AlgoSec’s Security Management solution. “AlgoSec met many of our key requirements, better than its competitors in our evaluation,” Mr. Tuan notes. Techcombank particularly liked AlgoSec’s superior security policy analysis and ability to make actionable recommendations with a high level of accuracy. “AlgoSec will enable us to identify ways to consolidate and optimize rules, perform deep risk analysis, automate workflows and ensure compliance in ways that other products cannot match,” says Mr. Tuan. Techcombank’s IT team wants to be able to quickly identify security policy risks and see what specific steps they need to take for remediation. The bank uses AlgoSec to identify overly permissive firewall rules based on actual use as well as duplicate, unused and expired rules and objects. This information gives Techcombank the data they need to close off potential access points and help prevent attacks. AlgoSec also provides clear, detailed recommendations on how to best reorder rules for optimal firewall performance. In addition, AlgoSec validates firewall policy and rules against regulations such as PCI, as well as industry best practices and customized corporate policies to uncover and prioritize risks and track trends over time. For Mr. Tuan, one of the most valuable benefits of AlgoSec is the increased visibility into security policies across the full range of devices. “Now we can easily monitor our firewall operations and quickly detect any mistakes or non-compliant changes made. These operations used to be invisible to me.” Mr. Tuan comments. The AlgoSec deployment process went very smoothly for Techcombank. “Our team received training from AlgoSec and their partners here in Vietnam and we were fully utilizing the product almost immediately. Post-implementation support has addressed every issue quickly and enabled us to take advantage of all aspects of the product in order to optimize our firewall rules and improve our security posture even faster than we anticipated,” Mr. Tuan adds. Since implementation, AlgoSec has enabled Techcombank’s IT team to “greatly reduce our time and resources when complying with internal policies and PCI standards, and when monitoring changes in rules,” says Mr. Tuan. “We are very happy with the improved security and visibility provided by AlgoSec and will continue to use and exploit more AlgoSec features and add licenses,” he concluded. Schedule time with one of our experts

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Eric Jeffery, AlgoSec’s regional solutions engineer, gives his view on the pivotal role of AppSec network engineers and how they can... Application Connectivity Management How AppSec Network Engineers Can Align Security with the Business Eric Jeffery 6 min read Eric Jeffery Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 7/13/22 Published Eric Jeffery, AlgoSec’s regional solutions engineer, gives his view on the pivotal role of AppSec network engineers and how they can positively impact the business It may surprise many people but the number one skills gap hampering today’s application security network engineers is primarily centred around the soft skills which includes communication, writing, presentation, team building and critical thinking. Why is this so important? Because first and foremost, their goal is to manage the organization’s security posture by deploying the best application security tools and technologies for the specific security and growth needs of the business. Keep things safe but don’t get in the way of revenue generation What an application security network engineer should not do is get in the way of developing new business-critical or revenue generating applications. At the same time, they need to understand that they have a leadership role to play in steering a safe and profitable course for the business. Starting with an in depth understanding of all wired traffic, AppSec network engineers need to know what applications are running on the network, how they communicate, who they communicate with and how to secure the traffic and connectivity flow associated with each one of them. An AppSec network engineer’s expertise should extend much more than mastering simple applications such as FTP and SSH. Rather, business traffic continuity should sit at the pinnacle of their responsibilities. There’s a lot of revenue generating traffic that they need to understand and put the right guardrails to protect it. However, equally as important, they need to make sure that the traffic is not hindered by outdated or irrelevant rules and policies, to avoid any negative financial impact on the organization. Layers of expertise beyond the OSI model A good starting point for any AppSec network engineer is to acquire a commanding knowledge of the seven layers of the OSI model, especially Layer 6 which covers Presentation. In practical terms, this means that they should have a thorough understanding of the network and transport layers – knowing what traffic is going across the network and why. It’s also helpful to have basic scripting knowledge and an understanding of simple scripts such as a cron job for scheduling tasks. It could also be useful to know some basic level programming like Perl and PHP. Beyond the network skills, AppSec network engineers should grasp the business vertical in which they operate. Once they gain an understanding of the business DNA and the applications that make it tick, then they can add real value to their organizations. What’s on the network vs. what should be on the network Should AppSec network engineers be expected to understand business and applications? Absolutely. With this level of skill and knowledge, they can help the business progress securely by corelating what is actually in the network environment versus what should be in the environment. Once they have clear understanding, they can clean up then environment and optimize network performance with enhanced security. This becomes more critical as organizations grow and develop, often allowing too much unnecessary traffic into the environment. Typically, this is how the scenario plays out: Applications are added or removed (decommissioned), or a new vendor or solution is brought on board and the firewall turns into a de facto router. The end result of such often leads to new vulnerabilities and too many unnecessary threat vectors. This is precisely where the aforementioned soft skills come in – an AppSec network engineer should be able to call out practices that don’t align with business goals. It’s also incumbent upon organizations to offer soft skills training to help their AppSec network engineers become more valuable to their teams. Need an application view to be effective in securing the business When firewalls become de facto routers, organizations end up relying on other areas for security. However, security needs to be aligned with the applications to prevent cyber attacks from getting onto the network and then from moving laterally across the network, should they manage to bypass the firewalls. All too often, east-west security is inadequate and therefore, AppSec network engineers need to look at network segmentation and application segmentation as part of a holistic network security strategy. The good news is that there are some great new technologies that can help with segmenting an internal network. The lesser good news is that there’s a danger in the thinking that by bolting on new tools, the problem will be solved. So often these tools are only partially deployed before the team moves onto the next “latest and the greatest” solution. When exploring new technologies, AppSec network engineers must ask themselves the following: Is there a matching use case for each solution? Will procurement of another tool lead to securing the environment or will it just be another useless “flavor of the month” tool? Irregardless, once the new technology solution is acquired, it is imperative to align the right skilful people with this technology to enable the organization to intelligently secure the whole environment before moving onto a new tool. To further hone this point, celebrating the introduction of a new firewall is superfluous if at the end of the day, it does not utilize the right rules and policies. Ushering some of these new technologies without proper deployment will only leave gaping holes and give organizations a false sense of security, exposing them to continuous risks. Don’t put the cloud native cart before the horse The role of an AppSec network engineer becomes even more critical when moving to the cloud. It starts with asking probing questions: What are the applications in the business and why are we moving them to the cloud? Is it for scalability, speed of access or to update a legacy system? Will the business benefit from the investment and the potential performance impact? It’s also important to consider the architecture in the cloud: Is it containerized, public cloud, private cloud or hybrid? Once you get definitive answers to these questions, create reference architectures and get senior level buy-in. Finally, think about the order in which the enterprise migrates applications to the cloud and maybe start with some non-critical applications that only affect a small number of locations or people before risking moving critical revenue generating applications. Don’t put the cart before the horse. DevSecOps: We should be working together; you can be sure the criminals are… Network application security is complicated enough without introducing internal squabbles over resources or sacrificing security for speed. Security teams and development teams need to work together and focus on what is best for your business. Again, this where the soft skills like teamwork, communications and project management come into play. The bottom line is this: Understand bad actors and prepare for the worst. The bad guys are just chomping at the bit, waiting for your organizations to make the next mistake. To beat them, DevSecOps teams must leverage all the resources they have available. Future promise or false sense of security? There are some exciting new technologies to look forward to in the horizon to help secure the application environment. Areas like quantum computing, machine learning, AI and blockchain show great promise in outfoxing the cyber criminals in the healthcare and financial services industries. It is expected that the AppSec network engineer will play a vital role in the viability of these new technologies. Yet, the right technology will still need to be applied to the right use case correctly and then fully deployed to in order see any effective results. The takeaway So much of the role of the AppSec network engineer is about taking a cold hard look at the goals of the business and asking some challenging questions. It all starts with “what’s right for the business?” rather than “what’s the latest technology we can get our hands on?” To be an effective AppSec network engineer, individuals should not only know the corporate network inside out, but they also must have an overall grasp of applications and the applicable business cases they support. Furthermore, collaboration with developers and operations (DevOps) becomes an agent for rapid deployment of revenue generating or mission critical applications. But it still goes back to the soft skills. To protect the business from taking needless security risks and demand a seat at the decision-making table, AppSec network engineers need to apply strong leadership, project management and communications skills To learn more on the importance of AppSec network engineers to your organization’s cybersecurity team, watch the following video Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* Phone number* country* Select country... By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) Security Issues You’re in no doubt familiar with Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) technology and its... Information Security Are VLANs secure? VLAN security best practices Kevin Beaver 2 min read Kevin Beaver Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 9/23/14 Published Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) Security Issues You’re in no doubt familiar with Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) technology and its ability to segment traffic within your network. It’s one of those decades-old technologies that businesses have come to rely on to reduce costs, minimize network broadcast domains, and protect certain systems from others. It sounds good on paper but it’s rare to see a VLAN environment that’s truly configured in the right way in order to realize its intended benefits. For example, I’ve seen some networks segmented by physical switches rather than using logical VLANs configured within each managed switch. This means that anyone on the same physical switch/broadcast domain can see every host on that segment. And if they want to see all traffic, it’s often just a matter of using Cain & Abel’s ARP Poison Routing feature . This is not an effective way to manage network devices and there’s no way to prevent inadvertent connections to the wrong segment during network upgrades, troubleshooting, and the like. It becomes a jumbled mess that negates any perceived switching or VLAN benefits. Furthermore, many “virtual” networks allow anyone to hop between segments if they know the IP addressing scheme. For example, say a user is on the 10.10.10.x network and he wants to get onto the production network of 10.0.0.x. No problem… he just points his Web browser, his vulnerability scanner, or whatever to 10.0.0.x and he’s good to go. Worst case, he might have to configure his system with a static IP address on that network, but that’s simple enough to do. This configuration may be considered a “VLAN” that’s managing broadcast traffic but there are no real ACLs, firewall rules, or packet tagging to prevent unauthorized access by internal attackers, malware, and the like. The network is basically flat with no policies and little to no security between any of the network segments and systems. Another thing to remember is that many VLANs are used to partition networks into distinctive segments to separate business units and their unique data sets. Even if the technical aspects of the VLAN configuration are spot on, these environments are often defined at a very high level without involving the actual business unit managers or information owners, therefore there are often security gaps in the segmentation. This means that information specific to a business unit and believed to be isolated is often anything but – it may well be scattered across numerous other VLANs and network hosts within those segments. How does this happen? Convenience and mobility and general carelessness. Users copy information to places where they can work on it and end up copying it to systems outside of the intended VLAN domain or to different hosts on other VLANs. IT may even copy information for backup or test purposes. Either way, confidential information often ends up on unprotected “islands” that no one knows about until it’s too late. Network security based on VLAN technology can work if it’s done properly. And while it’s not perfect, it can add another layer of security to your environment, one that can make the difference between breach and no breach. Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* Phone number* country* Select country... By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Ensure your network security is up to par with a comprehensive firewall audit checklist. Review and optimize security policy rules to prevent vulnerabilities. Firewall audit checklist for security policy rules review More regulations and standards relating to information security, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and ISO 27001, have forced enterprises to put more emphasis—in terms of time and money—on compliance and the regular and ad hoc auditing of security policies and controls. While regulatory and internal audits cover a broad range of security checks, the firewall is featured prominently since it is the first and main line of defense between the public and the corporate network. The number of enterprises that are not affected by regulations is shrinking. But even if you do not have to comply with specific government or industrial regulations and security standards, it is now commonplace to conduct regular, thorough audits of your firewalls. Not only do these audits ensure that your firewall configurations and rules meet the proper requirements of external regulations or internal security policy, but these audits can also play a critical role in reducing risk and actually improve firewall performance by optimizing the firewall rule base. In today’s complex, multi-vendor network environments, typically including tens or hundreds of firewalls running thousands of rules, completed a manual security audit now borders on the impossible. Conducting the audit process manually, firewall administrators must rely on their own experience and expertise—which can vary greatly across organizations—to determine if a given firewall rule should or should not be included in the configuration file. Furthermore, documentation of current rules and their evolution of changes is usually lacking. The time and resources required to find, organize and pour through all of the firewall rules to determine the level of compliance significantly impacts IT staff. As networks grow in complexity, auditing becomes more cumbersome. Manual processes cannot keep up. Automating the firewall audit process is crucial as compliance must be continuous, not simply at a point in time. The firewall audit process is arduous. Each new rule must pre-analyzed and simulated before it can be implemented. A full and accurate audit log of each change must be maintained. Today’s security staffs now find that being audit-ready without automation is impractical if not virtually impossible. It’s time to look to automation along with the establishment of auditing best practices to maintain continuous compliance. Below, we share a proven checklist of six best practices for a firewall audits based on AlgoSec’s extensive experience in consulting with some of the largest global organizations and auditors who deal with firewall audit, optimization and change management processes and procedures. While this is not an exhaustive list that every organization must follow, it provides guidance on some critical areas to cover when conducting a firewall audit. FIGURE 1: Overview of the Recommended Firewall Audit Process Get a Demo Ensuring continuous compliance An audit has little chance of success without visibility into the network, including software, hardware, policies and risks. The following are examples of the key information required to plan the audit work: Copies of relevant security policies Access to firewall logs that can be analyzed against the firewall rule base to understand which rules are actually being used An accurate diagram of the current network and firewall topologies Reports and documents from previous audits, including firewall rules, objects and policy revisions Identification of all Internet Service Providers (ISP) and Virtual Private Networks (VPN) All relevant firewall vendor information including OS version, latest patches and default configuration Understanding all the key servers and information repositories in the network and the value of each Once you have gathered this information, how are you going to aggregate it and storing it? Trying to track compliance on spreadsheets is a surefire way to make the audit process painful, tedious and time-consuming. Instead of spreadsheets, the auditor needs to document, store and consolidate this vital information in a way that enables collaboration with IT counterparts. With this convenience access, auditors you can start reviewing policies and procedures and tracking their effectiveness in terms of compliance, operational efficiency and risk mitigation. Gather key information prior to starting the audit A good change management process is essential to ensure proper execution and traceability of firewall changes as well as for sustainability over time to ensure compliance continuously. Poor documentation of changes, including why each change is needed, who authorized the change, etc. and poor validation of the impact on the network of each change are two of the most common problems when it comes to change control. Review the procedures for rule-base change management. Just a few key questions to review include:Are requested changes going through proper approvals? Are changes being implemented by authorized personnel? Are changes being tested? Are changes being documented per regulatory and/ or internal policy requirements? Each rule should have a comment that includes the change ID of the request and the name/initials of the person who implemented the change. Is there an expiration date for the change? Determine if there is a formal and controlled process in place to request, review, approve and implement firewall changes. This process should include at least the following:Business purpose for a change request Duration (time period) for new/modified rule Assessment of the potential risks associated with the new/modified rule Formal approvals for new/modified rule Assignment to proper administrator for implementation Verification that change has been tested and implemented correctly Determine whether all of the changes have been authorized and flag unauthorized rule changes for further investigation. Determine if real-time monitoring of changes to a firewall are enabled and if access to rul Review the change management process It is important to be certain as to each firewall’s physical and software security to protect against the most fundamental types of cyberattack. Ensure that firewall and management servers are physically secured with controlled access. Ensure that there is a current list of authorized personnel permitted to access the firewall server rooms. Verify that all appropriate vendor patches and updates have been applied. Ensure that the operating system passes common hardening checklists. Review the procedures used for device administration. Audit the firewall’s physical and OS security Removing firewall clutter and optimizing the rule base can greatly improve IT productivity and firewall performance. Additionally, optimizing firewall rules can significantly reduce a lot of unnecessary overhead in the audit process. Delete covered rules that are effectively useless. Delete or disable expired and unused rules and objects. Identify disabled, time-inactive and unused rules that are candidates for removal. Evaluate the order of firewall rules for effectiveness and performance. Remove unused connections, including source/ destination/service routes, that are not in use. Detect similar rules that can be consolidated into a single rule. Identify overly permissive rules by analyzing the actual policy usage against firewall logs. Tune these rules as appropriate for policy and actual use scenarios. Analyze VPN parameters to identify unused users, unattached users, expired users, users about to expire, unused groups, unattached groups and expired groups. Enforce object-naming conventions. Document rules, objects and policy revisions for future reference. Cleanup and optimize the rule base Essential for any firewall audit, a comprehensive risk assessment will identify risky rules and ensure that rules are compliant with internal policies and relevant standards and regulations. Identify any and all potentially “risky” rules, based on industry standards and best practices, and prioritize them by severity. What is “risky” can be different for each organization depending on the network and the level of acceptable risk, but there are many frameworks and standards you can leverage that provide a good reference point. A few things to look for and validate include: Are there firewall rules that violate your corporate security policy? Are there any firewall rules with “ANY” in the source, destination, service/protocol, application or user fields, and with a permissive action? Are there rules that allow risky services from your DMZ to your internal network? Are there rules that allow risky services inbound from the Internet? Are there rules that allow risky services outbound to the Internet? Are there rules that allow direct traffic from the Internet to the internal network (not the DMZ)? Are there any rules that allow traffic from the Internet to sensitive servers, networks, devices or databases? Analyze firewall rules and configurations against relevant regulatory and/or industry standards such as PCI-DSS, SOX, ISO 27001, NERC CIP, Basel-II, FISMA and J-SOX, as well as corporate policies that define baseline hardware and software configurations to which devices must adhere (See Figure 4 on page 9). Document and assign an action plan for remediation of risks and compliance exceptions found in risk analysis. Verify that remediation efforts and any rule changes have been completed correctly. Track and document that remediation efforts are completed. Conduct a risk assessment and remediate issues Upon successful firewall and security device auditing, verifying secure configuration, proper steps must be put in place to ensure continuous compliance. Ensure that a process is established for continuous auditing of firewalls. Consider replacing error-prone manual tasks with automated analysis and reporting. Ensure that all audit procedures are properly documented, providing a complete audit trail of all firewall management activities. Make sure that a robust firewall-change workflow is in place to sustain compliance over time.This repeats Audit Checklist item #2 because is necessary to ensure continuous compliance, i.e., compliance might be achieved now, but in a month, the organization might once again be out of compliance. Ensure that there is an alerting system in place for significant events or activities, such as changes in certain rules or the discovery of a new, high severity risk in the policy. Ongoing audits When it comes to compliance, the firewall policy management solution must have the breadth and depth to automatically generate detailed reports for multiple regulations and standards. It also must support multiple firewalls and related security devices. By combining this firewall audit checklist with the AlgoSec Security Management Solution, organizations can significantly improve their security posture and reduce the pain of ensuring compliance with regulations, industry standards and corporate policies. Furthermore, they can ensure compliance continuously without spending significant resources wasting time and effort on complex security policies on a regular basis. Let’s go back through the checklist and look at a few examples of how AlgoSec can help. Gain visibility of network policies and their changes AlgoSec enables you to gather the key information needed to start the audit process. By generating a dynamic, interactive network map AlgoSec visualizes and helps you analyze complex networks. (See Figure 2.) You can view routing tables and effectively detect interfaces, subnets and zones. Additionally, AlgoSec provides you with visibility of all changes to your network security policies in real-time and creates detailed firewall audit reports to help approvers make informed decisions about changes that affect risk or compliance levels. Lastly, AlgoSec discovers all the business applications that run on your network and each of their associated connectivity flows. FIGURE 2: AlgoSec provides network topology awareness with a map that provides visibility of all firewalls and routers including all relevant interfaces, subnets and zones, and the ability to drill down to specific information about each device. Understand the firewall changes in your network and automate the process AlgoSec intelligently automates the security-policy change workflow, dramatically cutting the time required to process firewall changes, increasing accuracy and accountability, enforcing compliance and mitigating risk. In addition, AlgoSec provides flexible workflows and templates to help you manage change requests and tailor processes to your business needs. Clean up and optimize your rule base AlgoSec enables you to optimize and clean up cluttered policies with actionable recommendations to: Consolidate similar rules. Discover and remove unused rules and objects (See Figure 3). Identify and remove shadowed, duplicate, and expired rules. Reorder rules for optimal firewall performance while retaining policy logic. Tighten overly permissive rules based on actual usage patterns. Not only does this help you improve the performance and extend the life of your firewalls, it also saves time when it comes to troubleshooting issues and IT audits. Plus, it creates a time savings during rule recertification, as each application is associated with multiple connectivity needs requiring multiple firewall rules. FIGURE 3: Unused rules that AlgoSec has identified for removal. Conduct a risk assessment and remediate issues AlgoSec enables you to instantly discover and prioritize all risks and potentially risky rules in the firewall policy, leveraging the largest risk knowledgebase available. The knowledgebase includes industry regulations, best practices and customizable corporate security policies. AlgoSec assigns and tracks a security rating for each device and group of devices to help you to quickly pinpoint devices that require attention and to measure the effectiveness of a security policy over time. FIGURE 4: AlgoSec identifies and prioritizes risky rules based on industry standards and frameworks and provides detailed information of source, destination, service, as well as user and application when analyzing next-generation firewalls. Out-of-the-box compliance reports AlgoSec ensures continuous compliance and instantly provides you with a view of your firewall compliance status by automatically generating reports for industry regulations, including Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), GDPR, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (J-SOX, also known as Japan-SOX), North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection (NERC CIP), and International Organization for Standardization (ISO 20071). If the network security policy doesn’t adhere to regulatory or corporate standards, the reports identify the exact rules and devices that cause gaps in compliance. A single report provides visibility into risk and compliance associated with a group of devices. FIGURE 5: PCI DSS firewall compliance report automatically generated by AlgoSec. Automating firewall compliance audits with AlgoSec Ensuring and proving compliance typically require significant organizational resources and budget. With the growing litany of regulations, the cost and time involved in the audit process is increasing rapidly. Armed with the firewall audit checklist and with the AlgoSec security policy management solution you can: Reduce the time required for an audit — Manual reviews can take a significant amount of time to produce a report for each firewall in the network. AlgoSec aggregates data across a defined group of firewalls and devices for a unified compliance view, doing away with running reports for each device, thereby saving a tremendous amount of time and effort that is wasted on collating individual device reports. AlgoSec enables you to produce a report in minutes, reducing time and effort by as much as 80%. Improve compliance while reducing costs — As the auditor’s time to gather pertinent information and analyze the network security status is reduced, the total cost of the audit decreases substantially. AlgoSec facilitates the remediation of non-compliant items by providing actionable information that further reduces the time to re- establish a compliant state. Conclusion Select a size Ensuring continuous compliance Gather key information prior to starting the audit Review the change management process Audit the firewall’s physical and OS security Cleanup and optimize the rule base Conduct a risk assessment and remediate issues Ongoing audits Automating firewall compliance audits with AlgoSec Conclusion Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

As organizations respond to an ever-evolving set of security threats, network teams are scrambling to find new ways to keep up with... Auditing and Compliance Continuous compliance monitoring best practices Tsippi Dach 3 min read Tsippi Dach Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 3/19/23 Published As organizations respond to an ever-evolving set of security threats, network teams are scrambling to find new ways to keep up with numerous standards and regulations to dodge their next compliance audit violation. Can this nightmare be avoided? Yes, and it’s not as complex as one might think if you take a “compliance first” approach . It may not come as a surprise to many, but the number of cyber attacks is increasing every year and with it the risk to companies’ financial, organizational, and reputational standing. What’s at stake? The stakes are high when it comes to cyber security compliance. A single data breach can result in massive financial losses, damage to a company’s reputation, and even jail time for executives. Data breaches: Data breaches are expensive and becoming even more so by the day. According to the Ponemon Institute’s 2022 Cost of a Data Breach Report , the average cost of a data breach is $4.35 million. Fraud: Identity fraud is one of the most pressing cybersecurity threats today. In large organizations, the scale of fraud is also usually large, resulting in huge losses causing depletion of profitability. In a recent survey done by PwC, nearly one in five organizations said that their most disruptive incident cost over $50 million*. Theft: Identity theft is on the rise and can be the first step towards compromising a business. According a study from Javelin Strategy & Research found that identity fraud costs US businesses an estimated total of $56 billion* in 2021. What’s the potential impact? The potential impact of non-compliance can be devastating to an organization. Financial penalties, loss of customers, and damage to reputation are just a few of the possible consequences. To avoid these risks, organizations must make compliance a priority and take steps to ensure that they are meeting all relevant requirements. Legal impact:  Regulatory or legal action brought against the organization or its employees that could result in fines, penalties, imprisonment, product seizures, or debarment.  Financial impact:  Negative impacts with regard to the organization’s bottom line, share price, potential future earnings, or loss of investor confidence.  Business impact:  Adverse events, such as embargos or plant shutdowns, could significantly disrupt the organization’s ability to operate.  Reputational impact:  Damage to the organization’s reputation or brand—for example, bad press or social-media discussion, loss of customer trust, or decreased employee morale.  How can this be avoided? In order to stay ahead of the ever-expanding regulatory requirements, organizations must adopt a “compliance first” approach to cyber security. This means enforcing strict compliance criteria and taking immediate action to address any violations to ensure data is protected. Some of these measures include the following: Risk assessment: Conduct ongoing monitoring of compliance posture (risk assessment) and conduct regular internal audits (ensuring adherence with regulatory and legislative requirements (HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS, SOX, etc.) Documentation: Enforce continuous tracking of changes and intent Annual audits: Commission 3rd party annual audits to ensure adherence with regulatory and legislative requirements (HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS, SOX, etc.) Conclusion and next steps Compliance violations are no laughing matter. They can result in fines, business loss, and even jail time in extreme cases. They can be difficult to avoid unless you take the right steps to avoid them. You have a complex set of rules and regulations to follow as well as numerous procedures, processes, and policies. And if you don’t stay on top of things, you can end up with a compliance violation mess that is difficult to untangle. Fortunately, there are ways to reduce the risk of being blindsided by a compliance violation mess with your organization. Now that you know the risks and what needs to be done, here are six best practices for achieving it. External links: $50 million $56 billion Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* Phone number* country* Select country... By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Behind every important business process is a solid network infrastructure that lets us access all of these services. But for an efficient... Application Connectivity Management Understanding network lifecycle management Tsippi Dach 6 min read Tsippi Dach Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 7/4/23 Published Behind every important business process is a solid network infrastructure that lets us access all of these services. But for an efficient and available network, you need an optimization framework to maintain a strong network lifecycle. It can be carried out as a lifecycle process to ensure continuous monitoring, management, automation, and improvement. Keep in mind, there are many solutions to help you with connectivity management . Regardless of the tools and techniques you follow, there needs to be a proper lifecycle plan for you to be able to manage your network efficiently. Network lifecycle management directs you on reconfiguring and adapting your data center per your growing requirements. The basic phases of a network lifecycle In the simplest terms, the basic phases of a network lifecycle are Plan, Build, and Manage. These phases can also be called Design, Implement, and Operate (DIO). Now, in every single instance where you want to change your network, you repeat this process of designing, implementing, and managing the changes. And every subtask that is carried out as part of the network management can also follow the same lifecycle phases for a more streamlined process . Besides the simpler plan, build, and manage phases, certain network frameworks also provide additional phases depending on the services and strategies involved. ITIL framework ITIL stands for Information Technology Infrastructure Library, which is an IT management framework. ITIL put forth a similar lifecycle process focusing on the network services aspect. The phases, as per ITIL, are: Service strategy Service design Service transition Service operations Continual service improvement PPDIOO framework PPDIOO is a network lifecycle model proposed by Cisco, a learning network services provider. This framework adds to the regular DIO framework with several subtasks, as explained below. Plan Prepare The overall organizational requirements, network strategy, high-level conceptual architecture, technology identification, and financial planning are all carried out in this phase. Plan Planning involves identifying goal-based network requirements, user needs, assessment of any existing network, gap analysis, and more. The tasks are to analyze if the existing infrastructure or operating environment can support the proposed network solution. The project plan is then drafted to align with the project goals regarding cost, resources, and scope. Design Network design experts develop a detailed, comprehensive network design specification depending on the findings and project specs derived from previous phases. Build The build phase is further divided into individual implementation tasks as part of the network implementation activities. This can include procurement, integrating devices, and more. The actual network solution is built as per the design, focusing on ensuring service availability and security. Operate The operational phase involves network maintenance, where the design’s appropriateness is tested. The network is monitored and managed to maintain high availability and performance while optimizing operational costs. Optimize The operational phase gives important data that can be utilized to optimize the performance of the network implementation further. This phase acts as a proactive mechanism to identify and solve any flaws or vulnerabilities within the network. It may involve network redesign and thus start a new cycle as well. Why develop a lifecycle optimization plan? A lifecycle approach to network management has various use cases. It provides an organized process, making it more cost-effective and less disruptive to existing services. Reduced total network ownership cost Early on, planning and identifying the exact network requirements and new technologies allow you to carry out a successful implementation that aligns with your budget constraints. Since there is no guesswork with a proper plan, you can avoid redesigns and rework, thus reducing any cost overheads. High network availability Downtimes are a curse to business goals. Each second that goes by without access to the network can be bleeding money. Following a proper network lifecycle management model allows you to plan your implementation with less to no disruptions in availability. It also helps you update your processes and devices before they get into an outage issue. Proactive monitoring and management, as proposed by lifecycle management, goes a long way in avoiding unexpected downtimes. This also saves time with telecom troubleshooting. Better business agility Businesses that adapt better thrive better. Network lifecycle management allows you to take the necessary action most cost-effectively in case of any quick economic changes. It helps you prepare your systems and operations to accommodate the new network changes before they are implemented. It also provides a better continuous improvement framework to keep your systems up to date and adds to cybersecurity. Improved speed of access Access to the network, the faster it is, the better your productivity can be. Proper lifecycle management can improve service delivery efficiency and resolve issues without affecting business continuity. The key steps to network lifecycle management Let us guide you through the various phases of network lifecycle management in a step-by-step approach. Prepare Step 1: Identify your business requirements Establish your goals, gather all your business requirements, and arrive at the immediate requirements to be carried out. Step 2: Create a high-level architecture design Create the first draft of your network design. This can be a conceptual model of how the solution will work and need not be as detailed as the final design would be. Step 3: Establish the budget Do the financial planning for the project detailing the possible challenges, budget, and expected profits/outcomes from the project. Plan Step 4: Evaluate your current system This step is necessary to properly formulate an implementation plan that will be the least disruptive to your existing services. Gather all relevant details, such as the hardware and software apps you use in your network. Measure the performance and other attributes and assess them against your goal specifics. Step 5: Conduct Gap Analysis Measure the current system’s performance levels and compare them with the expected outcomes that you want to achieve. Step 6: Create your implementation plan With the collected information, you should be able to draft the implementation plan for your network solution. This plan should essentially contain the various tasks that must be carried out, along with information on milestones, responsibilities, resources, and financing options. Design Step 7: Create a detailed network design Expand on your initial high-level concept design to create a comprehensive and detailed network design. It should have all the relevant information required to implement your network solution. Take care to include all necessary considerations regarding your network’s availability, scalability, performance, security, and reliability. Ensure the final design is validated by a proper approval process before being okayed for implementation. Implementation Step 8: Create an implementation plan The Implementation phase must have a detailed plan listing all the tasks involved, the steps to rollback, time estimations, implementation guidelines, and all the other details on how to implement the network design. Step 9: Testing Before implementing the design in the production environment, starting with a lab setting is a good idea. Implement in a lab testing environment to check for any errors and how feasible it is to implement the design. Improve the design depending on the results of this step. Step 10: Pilot implementation Implement in an iterative process starting with smaller deployments. Start with pilot implementations, test the results, and if all goes well, you can move towards wide-scale implementation. Step 11: Full deployment When your pilot implementation has been successful, you can move toward a full-scale deployment of network operations. Operate Step 12: Measure and monitor When you move to the Operational phase, the major tasks will be monitoring and management. This is probably the longest phase, where you take care of the day-to-day operational activities such as: Health maintenance Fault detection Proactive monitoring Capacity planning Minor updates (MACs – Moves, Adds, and Changes) Optimize Step 13: Optimize the network design based on the collected metrics. This phase essentially kicks off another network cycle with its own planning, designing, workflows, and implementation. Integrate network lifecycle with your business processes First, you must understand the importance of network lifecycle management and how it impacts your business processes and IT assets. Understand how your business uses its network infrastructure and how a new feature could add value. For instance, if your employees work remotely, you may have to update your infrastructure and services to allow real-time remote access and support personal network devices. Any update or change to your network should follow proper network lifecycle management to ensure efficient network access and availability. Hence, it must be incorporated into the company’s IT infrastructure management process. As a standard, many companies follow a three-year network life cycle model where one-third of the network infrastructure is upgraded to keep up with the growing network demands and telecommunications technology updates. Automate network lifecycle management with AlgoSec AlgoSec’s unique approach can automate the entire security policy management lifecycle to ensure continuous, secure connectivity for your business applications. The approach starts with auto discovering application connectivity requirements, and then intelligently – and automatically – guides you through the process of planning changes and assessing the risks, implementing those changes and maintaining the policy, and finally decommissioning firewall rules when the application is no longer in use. Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* Phone number* country* Select country... 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What is network change management? Network Change Management (NCM) is the process of planning, testing, and approving changes to a... Network Security Policy Management Network Change Management: Best Practices for 2024 Tsippi Dach 6 min read Tsippi Dach Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 2/8/24 Published What is network change management? Network Change Management (NCM) is the process of planning, testing, and approving changes to a network infrastructure. The goal is to minimize network disruptions by following standardized procedures for controlled network changes. NCM, or network configuration and change management (NCCM), is all about staying connected and keeping things in check. When done the right way, it lets IT teams seamlessly roll out and track change requests, and boost the network’s overall performance and safety. There are 2 main approaches to implementing NCM: manual and automated. Manual NCM is a popular choice that’s usually complex and time-consuming. A poor implementation may yield faulty or insecure configurations causing disruptions or potential noncompliance. These setbacks can cause application outages and ultimately need extra work to resolve. Fortunately, specialized solutions like the AlgoSec platform and its FireFlow solution exist to address these concerns. With inbuilt intelligent automation, these solutions make NCM easier as they cut out errors and rework usually tied to manual NCM. The network change management process The network change management process is a structured approach that organizations use to manage and implement changes to their network infrastructure. When networks are complex with many interdependent systems and components, change needs to be managed carefully to avoid unintended impacts. A systematic NCM process is essential to make the required changes promptly, minimize risks associated with network modifications, ensure compliance, and maintain network stability. The most effective NCM process leverages an automated NCM solution like the intelligent automation provided by the AlgoSec platform to streamline effort, reduce the risks of redundant changes, and curtail network outages and downtime. The key steps involved in the network change management process are: Step 1: Security policy development and documentation Creating a comprehensive set of security policies involves identifying the organization’s specific security requirements, relevant regulations, and industry best practices. These policies and procedures help establish baseline configurations for network devices. They govern how network changes should be performed – from authorization to execution and management. They also document who is responsible for what, how critical systems and information are protected, and how backups are planned. In this way, they address various aspects of network security and integrity, such as access control , encryption, incident response, and vulnerability management. Step 2: Change the request A formal change request process streamlines how network changes are requested and approved. Every proposed change is clearly documented, preventing the implementation of ad-hoc or unauthorized changes. Using an automated tool ensures that every change complies with the regulatory standards relevant to the organization, such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, NIST FISMA, etc. This tool should be able to send automated notifications to relevant stakeholders, such as the Change Advisory Board (CAB), who are required to validate and approve normal and emergency changes (see below). Step 3: Change Implementation Standard changes – those implemented using a predetermined process, need no validation or testing as they’re already deemed low- or no-risk. Examples include installing a printer or replacing a user’s laptop. These changes can be easily managed, ensuring a smooth transition with minimal disruption to daily operations. On the other hand, normal and emergency changes require testing and validation, as they pose a more significant risk if not implemented correctly. Normal changes, such as adding a new server or migrating from on-premises to the cloud, entail careful planning and execution. Emergency changes address urgent issues that could introduce risks if not resolved promptly, like failing to install security patches or software upgrades, which may leave networks vulnerable to zero-day exploits and cyberattacks. Testing uncovers these potential risks, such as network downtime or new vulnerabilities that increase the likelihood of a malware attack. Automated network change management (NCM) solutions streamline simple changes, saving time and effort. For instance, AlgoSec’s firewall policy cleanup solution optimizes changes related to firewall policies, enhancing efficiency. Documenting all implemented changes is vital, as it maintains accountability and service level agreements (SLAs) while providing an audit trail for optimization purposes. The documentation should outline the implementation process, identified risks, and recommended mitigation steps. Network teams must establish monitoring systems to continuously review performance and flag potential issues during change implementation. They must also set up automated configuration backups for devices like routers and firewalls ensuring that organizations can recover from change errors and avoid expensive downtime. Step 4: Troubleshooting and rollbacks Rollback procedures are important because they provide a way to restore the network to its original state (or the last known “good” configuration) if the proposed change could introduce additional risk into the network or deteriorate network performance. Some automated tools include ready-to-use templates to simplify configuration changes and rollbacks. The best platforms use a tested change approval process that enables organizations to avoid bad, invalid, or risky configuration changes before they can be deployed. Troubleshooting is also part of the NCM process. Teams must be trained in identifying and resolving network issues as they emerge, and in managing any incidents that may result from an implemented change. They must also know how to roll back changes using both automated and manual methods. Step 5: Network automation and integration Automated network change management (NCM) solutions streamline and automate key aspects of the change process, such as risk analysis, implementation, validation, and auditing. These automated solutions prevent redundant or unauthorized changes, ensuring compliance with applicable regulations before deployment. Multi-vendor configuration management tools eliminate the guesswork in network configuration and change management. They empower IT or network change management teams to: Set real-time alerts to track and monitor every change Detect and prevent unauthorized, rogue, and potentially dangerous changes Document all changes, aiding in SLA tracking and maintaining accountability Provide a comprehensive audit trail for auditors Execute automatic backups after every configuration change Communicate changes to all relevant stakeholders in a common “language” Roll back undesirable changes as needed AlgoSec’s NCM platform can also be integrated with IT service management (ITSM) and ticketing systems to improve communication and collaboration between various teams such as IT operations and admins. Infrastructure as code (IaC) offers another way to automate network change management. IaC enables organizations to “codify” their configuration specifications in config files. These configuration templates make it easy to provision, distribute, and manage the network infrastructure while preventing ad-hoc, undocumented, or risky changes. Risks associated with network change management Network change management is a necessary aspect of network configuration management. However, it also introduces several risks that organizations should be aware of. Network downtime The primary goal of any change to the network should be to avoid unnecessary downtime. Whenever these network changes fail or throw errors, there’s a high chance of network downtime or general performance. Depending on how long the outage lasts, it usually results in users losing productive time and loss of significant revenue and reputation for the organization. IT service providers may also have to monitor and address potential issues, such as IP address conflicts, firmware upgrades, and device lifecycle management. Human errors Manual configuration changes introduce human errors that can result in improper or insecure device configurations. These errors are particularly prevalent in complex or large-scale changes and can increase the risk of unauthorized or rogue changes. Security issues Manual network change processes may lead to outdated policies and rulesets, heightening the likelihood of security concerns. These issues expose organizations to significant threats and can cause inconsistent network changes and integration problems that introduce additional security risks. A lack of systematic NCM processes can further increase the risk of security breaches due to weak change control and insufficient oversight of configuration files, potentially allowing rogue changes and exposing organizations to various cyberattacks. Compliance issues Poor NCM processes and controls increase the risk of non-compliance with regulatory requirements. This can potentially result in hefty financial penalties and legal liabilities that may affect the organization’s bottom line, reputation, and customer relationships. Rollback failures and backup issues Manual rollbacks can be time-consuming and cumbersome, preventing network teams from focusing on higher-value tasks. Additionally, a failure to execute rollbacks properly can lead to prolonged network downtime. It can also lead to unforeseen issues like security flaws and exploits. For network change management to be effective, it’s vital to set up automated backups of network configurations to prevent data loss, prolonged downtime, and slow recovery from outages. Troubleshooting issues Inconsistent or incorrect configuration baselines can complicate troubleshooting efforts. These wrong baselines increase the chances of human error, which leads to incorrect configurations and introduces security vulnerabilities into the network. Simplified network change management with AlgoSec AlgoSec’s configuration management solution automates and streamlines network management for organizations of all types. It provides visibility into the configuration of every network device and automates many aspects of the NCM process, including change requests, approval workflows, and configuration backups. This enables teams to safely and collaboratively manage changes and efficiently roll back whenever issues or outages arise. The AlgoSec platform monitors configuration changes in real-time. It also provides compliance assessments and reports for many security standards, thus helping organizations to strengthen and maintain their compliance posture. Additionally, its lifecycle management capabilities simplify the handling of network devices from deployment to retirement. Vulnerability detection and risk analysis features are also included in AlgoSec’s solution. The platform leverages these features to analyze the potential impact of network changes and highlight possible risks and vulnerabilities. This information enables network teams to control changes and ensure that there are no security gaps in the network. Click here to request a free demo of AlgoSec’s feature-rich platform and its configuration management tools. Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* Phone number* country* Select country... By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Cloud management enhances visibility across a hybrid network, processes network security policy changes in minutes, and reduces configuration risks But what does effective cloud management look like Webinars How to Manage Your Cloud Journey Episode 1 of Keeping Up-to-Date with Your Network Security Securing your data was once much simpler, and has grown more complex in recent years. As the workforce becomes more distributed, so does your data. Spreading your data across multiple public and private clouds complicates your network. While data used to sit behind lock and key in guarded locations, today’s data sits in multiple locations and geographies, and is made up of multiple public clouds, private clouds and other on-premises network devices. This is why managing your cloud journey can be tiresome and complicated. Enter cloud management. Cloud management enhances visibility across a hybrid network, processes network security policy changes in minutes, and reduces configuration risks. But how can you leverage your cloud management to reap these benefits? What does effective cloud management look like, and how can you achieve it when workloads, sensitive data, and information are so widely dispersed? In this episode we’ll discuss: How to manage multiple workloads on the cloud What successful security management looks like for today’s enterprises How to achieve simple, effective security management for your hybrid network May 4, 2021 Alex Hilton Chief Executive at Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) Stephen Owen Esure Group Oren Amiram Director Product Management, Algosec Relevant resources A Pragmatic Approach to Network Security Across Your Hybrid Cloud Environment Keep Reading State of cloud security: Concerns, challenges, and incidents Read Document Choose a better way to manage your network Choose a better way to manage your network Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... phone By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue