What is Security Management?

Purpose of Security Management

The goal of security management procedures is to provide a foundation for an organization’s cybersecurity strategy. The information and procedures developed as part of security management processes will be used for data classification, risk management, and threat detection and response.

These procedures enable an organization to effectively identify potential threats to the organization’s assets, classify and categorize assets based on their importance to the organization, and to rate vulnerabilities based on their probability of exploitation and the potential impact to the organization.

Types of Security Management

Security management can come in various different forms. Three common types of security management strategies include information, network, and cyber security management.

#1. Information Security Management

Information security management includes implementing security best practices and standards designed to mitigate threats to data like those found in the ISO/IEC 27000 family of standards. Information security management programs should ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data.

Many organizations have internal policies for managing access to data, but some industries have external standards and regulations as well. For example, healthcare organizations are governed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accessibility Act (HIPAA), and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) protects payment card information.

#2. Network Security Management

Network security management is a vital component of a network management strategy. The network is the vector by which most cyberattacks reach an organization’s systems and its first line of defense against cyber threats. Network security management includes deploying network monitoring and defense solutions, implementing network segmentation, and controlling access to the network and the devices connected to it.

#3. Cybersecurity Management

Cybersecurity management refers to a more general approach to protecting an organization and its IT assets against cyber threats. This form of security management includes protecting all aspects of an organization’s IT infrastructure, including the network, cloud infrastructure, mobile devices, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and applications and APIs.

Security Management Architecture

A scalable and sustainable security management strategy is one that is built using an integrated framework and the right tools rather than a disconnected set of standalone policies and strategies. A security management architecture enables an organization to consistently enforce its security policies across its entire IT ecosystem. This requires an array of integrated security solutions that enable centralized management and control of an organization’s entire security infrastructure.

Impact of DevSecOps on Security Management

A shift is on to automate security management using DevOps. There are many security tasks that are repetitive and take time to complete when using a management user interface. Security automation is a valuable tool for reducing the time spent completing tasks.

Examples of security management tasks that could benefit from automation include:

• Adding rules and objects to a security policy to complete a new project.
• Responding to a security incident by validating threat indicators, mitigating the threat by isolating the infected host, and searching logs for other infected hosts using Indicators of Compromise (IoC) returned from the security incident analysis.
• Provisioning new cloud infrastructures, including the firewalls and the security policy for the firewalls protecting the new infrastructure.
• Cloud applications of DevSecOps include container image scanning, code scanning, Infrastructure as a Code (IaC) scanning, and scanning for credential exposure.

Security Management with Check Point

Effective security management requires having the right tools for the job. One critical tool for security management is a cybersecurity platform that enables an organization to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of its security team. Without proper monitoring and management, even the best security solutions cannot protect an organization against cyber threats.

Security management has always been one of Check Point’s core competencies, and we continually work to evolve security and management capabilities to meet the evolving needs of the market and our customers. Check Point security management can be deployed on the platform of your choice; turn-key security management appliances, open server hardware, in public and private cloud environments, and as a hosted cloud service. Check Point’s security management solutions are based on four key pillars, including:

• Security Automation into CI/CD Pipelines: Integrating security into CI/CD pipelines via automation reduces configuration errors, makes rapid deployments possible, and allows operational processes to be orchestrated.
• Security Consolidation: Consolidated security improves efficiency, reduces capital and operational expenditure (CAPEX and OPEX), and achieves improved visibility and context by integrating security policy and events management within a single solution.
• Solution Agility: Security management solutions must be agile and dynamic to keep up with the evolving cyber threat landscape. An example is an object in the security policy that defines private or public cloud addresses or users. As these external entities change, so does the security policy.
• Efficient Operations: Security should be a business enabler, not a roadblock. Security management solutions must be efficient to not inhibit security innovation. For example, easy to use management that unifies security and event management and enables delegated access to multiple admins at the same time enables security staff to do more in less time.

We invite you to download our whitepaper on security management and read more about the Check Point security management solution.