Firewall security standards with ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer

Firewall is a critical component of your network security. It controls the traffic between your organization's network and the internet, and secures your IT environment from external attacks. To ensure your firewall is optimally configured, various industry and government groups have developed firewall configuration regulations and guidelines.

In the case of industries,

• The payment card industry issued the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) regulations.
• The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) issued Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) guidelines.

Government agencies have established regulations to standardize firewall security. These include,  

• The International Standards Organization oversees ISO-27001.
• The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has SP 800-41,
• SysAdmin, Audit, Network, and Security group (SANS) provides a Firewall Checklist.

Other guidelines that are less firewall security-centric include those from the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system about monitoring software, as well as security and privacy regulations enforced by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Challenges faced by companies to meet firewall security standard

Reflecting the relevant industry and government policies your organization should comply with, you should also establish an internal security audit. The solution you select to ensure compliance should monitor your firewall security continuously, generate real-time reports, submit these reports whenever required for audit, and securely archive logs for a mandated period. ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer addresses each of these requirements.

How Firewall Analyzer addresses firewall security standards

Firewall Analyzer, a firewall security audit tool, offers integrated firewall security standards compliance management. It automates your firewall security audits with out-of-the-box firewall security standards compliance reports.

• It continuously monitors firewall rule changes, acts as a firewall compliance tool, and generates reports instantly on any rule misconfiguration. These features help organizations comply with audit firewall rules.
• Audits firewall rules, objects, interfaces, access control lists (ACLs), network address translations (NAT), and other configurations that control internet traffic.
• Automatically schedules Firewall Security Standards Reports to increase operational efficiency by automating Compliance Auditing tasks.
• Allows you to define your own false positive filtering criteria for firewall security standards audit reports that meet internal firewall security policies.
• Provides an easy-to-interpret Compliance Dashboard that displays your network's compliance status. The Firewall security standards dashboard is flexible enough to enable you to customize the compliance widgets to suit your requirements.
• Keeps your firewall security standards compliance in check by performing regular security audits for firewall rule compliance.

To learn more about firewall security standards, watch an online video and schedule a free personalized demo. Our experts would be pleased to answer your product questions.

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Payment Card Industry - Data Security Standards (PCI  DSS) compliance reports

Firewall Analyzer helps you comply with PCI DSS requirements which help you to build and maintain secure network firewall configurations. It also provides you with out-of-the-box reports, and real-time alerts that ensure the security of cardholder data. The solution helps you to review and audit firewall configurations periodically, and archive firewall logs so you can easily conduct audit trails.

What is PCI DSS compliance?

NERC CIP compliance reports

With its comprehensive report templates and alert mechanisms, Firewall Analyzer helps you  meet NERC CIP's requirements on:

• Security management controls
• Systems security management
• Recovery plans for critical cyber assets

ISO 27001 compliance reports

Firewall Analyzer helps you comply with ISO 27001 firewall security standards by meeting firewall device implementation and maintenance requirements.With its out-of-the-box comprehensive reports on firewall access control, configuration and policy changes, and network traffic, Firewall Analyzer ensures the protection of your business sensitive information.

NIST guidelines on firewall policies

Firewall Analyzer helps you to meet the NIST firewall security standards guideline requirements with its instant reports on inbound and outbound network traffic, firewall policy, configuration review, remote firewall management access, and more.

SANS firewall security policy guidelines

Firewall Analyzer helps compare your organization's firewall configuration status with that of the SANS checklist, and ensures security around the clock. The solution also automates your periodical firewall audits thus improving operational efficiency.

Refer Compliance tab help page to get help on this topic.

Refer Firewall security audit and configuration analysis page for more details about firewall security audit and configuration analysis report.

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