Firewall reporting 4

[natura]

What does your most useful report look like?

 

[jfk]

This question is a bit confusing. What's your firewall? Bastion router/hosts? A proxy server? A combination of router & firewall s/w? Reporting varies based on your firewall solution. Are you asking about a specific package or general?

 

[natura]

Yes, it is a very broad question and I was hoping for a broad answer so we could shape our preliminary reporting requirements. Our organization will be installing a Firewall-1 and a MS Proxy Server. I would like to produce meaningful management reports as well as reports that are useful to security analysts.

 

[jfk]

General then...and I don't mean the following to be a criticism or whatever (I'll include the answers for my current employer as an example, sigh). <br>
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I have to ask the 3 basic questions of security:<br>
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1 - Do you have a Security Policy? (Yes, I believe we do.)<br>
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2 - Have you ever read it? (Nope, don't even know where to find it.)<br>
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3 - Do you understand it? (See last question...ack!)<br>
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Definition:<br>
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A Security Policy defines how an organization manages, protects, and distributes sensitive information and resources. Security experts agree that a good security policy is essential and that network security is not really possible without one.<br>
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An effective security policy is known by everyone. It should be widely distributed and part of ongoing training. That said, I don't think that my current employer has an effective security policy. In fact, a majority of companies don't... which is why crackers and hackers are so effective at what they do.

 

[danno5]

Don't feel alone in your quest for security. It seems to be an ever growing problem trying to get management to understand the importance of a good security policy and implementation of that policy. Too many times, I am currently experiencing this at my company, a security policy is written, but that's about as far as it goes. That is until a break in occurs and even then that is usually blown off. <br>
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Until companies start to recognize this importance every employee is at the mercy of hope. Hope that no one hacks in. Hope that no one has figured out how to commit fraud against the company, hope that an employee isn't seeking revenge. But then how can we get management to understand this when the major companies like Microsoft prefer to deny and ignore the security issues with their products rather than warn and repair the problems.<br>
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Check the current issue of Information Security on what to do before even writing your security policies and what to expect as far as implementation.

 

[natura]

Thanks danno5 & jfk<br>
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Good advise & I'll check out the Info Security edition. It's a long road from theoretical ("words on paper") to actual working procedures. But, I think we have a good start....thanks for your input.