How is your Firewall management doing?

We live in a time of digital transformation, where technology always needs to be aligned with the commercial and strategic goals of the company.  In this aspect, it is natural that new demands and projects arise, where the IT team needs to adapt its respective infrastructure to conceive such execution.

As a result, we often resort to the manufacturers’ technical documentation to identify what the minimum requirements are, such as firewall ports, IPs to be released, permissions to be granted, among other parameters.

However, once we carry out such implementation, how can we carry out appropriate monitoring?

Also, what if the applications are discontinued, how can we disable the rules that were once applied?

How to properly manage the rules created in the firewall, and if necessary, update them periodically?

It is about these topics that we will address in this article.

PREPARING THE ENVIRONMENT FOR THE FIREWALL

Initially, it is worth considering that in a production environment, theoretically, we already have previously configured and implemented all the necessary parameters for the proper functioning of the company.

Thus, we identify below some points that need to be evaluated jointly with the current firewall solution:

1) Status of existing elements – Undoubtedly, it is essential that the elements that make up the security and network infrastructure, are up-to-date and with current technical support from the respective manufacturers. Otherwise, vulnerabilities or problems may occur, where the respective necessary solutions cannot be applied or solved satisfactorily.

2) Overview of the implemented rules – Before we look at possible new implementations, we need to check if we have currently identified all the rules that may have to be created and are in operation.

3) Data network situation – It is important to identify whether your company currently has tools that provide adequate network visibility, as well as to verify if the rules configured in the firewall solution are being correctly applied in practice.

4) Types of traffic performed – It is essential that your company can visualize all types of communications that occur in traffic (whether internal or external) and also be able to naturally identify the origin and destination, respectively.

BENEFITS OF THE CORRECT IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FIREWALL

With that in mind, let’s look at some of the key benefits that we have in having an infrastructure with up-to-date rules:

  • Easier and simplified administration – When we have an environment where we are exactly aware of the existing configurations, as well as for what purposes they exist, we can more easily manage the environment. Thus allowing us to perform more effective diagnostics and troubleshooting, consequently resulting in a shorter downtime for users, in case there is a problem.
  • Improved security – Notoriously, when we don’t have an infrastructure with consolidated rules according to the needs of the company, the gaps for cyberattacks can widen considerably. For this reason, once the rules implemented in the firewall are fully adherent to the needs of the company, we can achieve a more secure environment.
  • Faster and more effective implementations – Once we have to implement new features in the company’s technological environment, an updated infrastructure contributes to a faster and more effective implementation. With this, we can accurately state that the application of firewall rules assists the IT team in new implementations. 

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

There is no doubt about the importance of investing in network management. Thus, it is noticeable that these good practices bring not only benefits to the visibility of the infrastructure, but it is also a way to ensure crucial information for increasingly assertive planning and strategies.

With this in mind, Telcomanager, Latin America’s leader in the network management software industry, in the market since 2002, with a unique and innovative methodology, provides intelligent solutions for monitoring data to provide a complete visibility of your IT infrastructure, allowing your company to monitor the main aspects of its network.

Posted on 08/12/2022