Why is a Firewall Security Audit Important?
Firewalls defend the corporate LAN against external threats, prevent data exfiltration, and may be used to implement internal network segmentation.
Firewall security audits are important to ensure that a firewall is effectively protecting the business against potential threats. Audits help to identify misconfigurations, missed patches, and other security gaps that leave the organization vulnerable to potential cyberattacks.
How to Conduct a Firewall Security Audit: 7 Steps
When performing a firewall security audit, perform the following steps:
#1: Define Scope and Objectives
Defining the scope and objectives of a firewall security audit is essential to measuring its success. Audits may focus on particular firewalls within the organization’s environments and be designed to assess compliance with a particular business need.
For example, an organization may perform an audit focused on determining if firewall permissive rules are correctly configured to protect the corporate network after systems have been added, removed, or modified on the network.
#2: Gather Required Information
After defining the scope and objectives, the audit team can collect the required data to answer key questions. This might involve collecting firewall rule base, logs, and other types of data to answer the questions defined previously.
#3: Validate Firmware and Software Security
Regardless of the goal of a firewall security audit, it’s a good idea to check that it’s up-to-date on patches and securely configured.
Check for pending updates, default credentials, and all other configuration settings.
#4: Review Change Management Procedures:
A simple change to a firewall’s rule set or configuration could render it incapable of protecting against certain threats. Firewall settings should only be changed via a formal change management process, which should be reviewed as part of the security audit process.
#5: Check Compliance Requirements:
Many regulations and industry standards mandate that an organization have a firewall to protect sensitive customer data and corporate IT systems. During a firewall security audit, the team should verify that the firewall remains compliant with applicable regulatory requirements and doesn’t have any new or existing compliance gaps.
#6: Audit Firewall Rules:
Often, a firewall security audit is designed to determine whether the firewall is adequately protecting the organization against certain threats. Reviewing firewall rules ensures that the firewall is allowing and blocking the types of traffic flow that it is supposed to.
Third-party solutions like Picus Security provide validation tools for assessing internal policies, attack vectors, and compliance with industry frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK.
#7: Resolve Identified Issues:
If a firewall audit identifies any issues, they should be addressed via the documented change management process.
Then, the audit team should test the updated configuration to ensure that no additional security gaps have been introduced as a result of the changes.
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Firewall security audits help to ensure that an organization’s firewall is meeting the security needs of the business. Changing requirements, misconfigurations, missing patches, and other events can result in a firewall creating security gaps or failing to meet business needs. By performing regular audits, an organization can identify these issues and correct them before they pose a significant potential risk to the business.
However, a firewall security audit can only do so much, especially if the organization has selected a firewall that is a poor fit for its business and security needs. To learn more about choosing the right firewall for your business, check out this buyer’s guide to next-generation firewalls (NGFWs).
Check Point Quantum Force NGFW offers AI-powered prevention-focused security for corporate and private networks. With industry-leading threat prevention capabilities, Quantum Force places your organization on the right footing to protect against cyber threats. Learn more with a free demo.
Firewall security audits help to ensure that an organization’s firewall is meeting the security needs of the business. Changing requirements, misconfigurations, missing patches, and other events can result in a firewall creating security gaps or failing to meet business needs. By performing regular audits, an organization can identify these issues and correct them before they pose a significant potential risk to the business.
However, a firewall security audit can only do so much, especially if the organization has selected a firewall that is a poor fit for its business and security needs. To learn more about choosing the right firewall for your business, check out this buyer’s guide to next-generation firewalls (NGFWs).
Check Point Quantum Force NGFW offers AI-powered prevention-focused security for corporate and private networks. With industry-leading threat prevention capabilities, Quantum Force places your organization on the right footing to protect against cyber threats. Learn more with a free demo.
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