Failure Mode and Effects Analysis

Firewalls

There are two main reasons why some companies are hesitant to plug into the Internet.

1. They know they’ll be exposing their company data to outside attacks from malicious individuals and malware.
2. They fear their employees might get too many distractions: games, porn, chats, videos, and even social networking sites.

One vital component for your overall security strategy against such concerns? A firewall.

A firewall can block unauthorised access to certain Internet services from inside your organisation as well as prevent unauthenticated access from the outside. It is also used to monitor users’ activities while they were online.

In an enterprise setting, one may expect a collection of firewalls either for providing layered protection or segmenting off different units in the organisation. Some areas only need a standard line of defence while others require more restrictions. As such, certain firewalls may have different configurations compared to others.

Naturally, the more intricate an organisation’s defence requirements get, the more complex the task of monitoring, testing and configuring the firewalls becomes. That’s why we’re here to help.

• We’ll evaluate your network as well as the security requirements of each department under your organisation to determine which firewall architecture is most suitable.
• To achieve maximum efficiency, we’ll point out where each firewall should be positioned.
• We’ll work with your key personnel to make sure all firewall configurations are set and optimised with your business rules in mind.
• If a large number of firewalls are required, we’ll help you set up a firewall configuration management system.
• Firewalls should be regularly tested and assessed to ensure they are in line with the organisation’s security policies. We’ll perform these routine tasks as well.

Firewalls aren’t very good at defending against sophisticated viruses. There are much better solutions for malware-related vulnerabilities, and we can help you in that regard too.

Other defences we’re capable of putting up include:

• Network Security
• Firewalls
• Malware
• Authentication and Access Control
• Mobile Security
• Forensics

Mobile Security

Today’s advanced enterprises make extensive use of mobile devices in order for team members to exchange information, collaborate, and carry out business whenever and wherever they need to. BlackBerries, iPhones, Google Phones, and other smartphones as well as PocketPCs and PDAs are now allowed wireless remote access to the enterprise network.

As a result, they introduce additional vulnerabilities into the system.

• Bluetooth exploits and unencrypted passwords can allow malicious individuals to gain access to private information.
• Various wireless technologies that have substantially simplified the task of transferring data have provided openings for malicious code. In addition, the diversity of these wireless technologies combined with the constrained environments of these devices have made it difficult to come up with an all-in-one solution.
• All PocketPCs, PDAs and smartphones can be synchronised with PCs and laptops, giving malware an entry point into computers and networks. Memory cards are guilty of this too.
• VoIP, which are usually unencrypted, allow other people to perform unauthorised capture and recording of private conversations.

Mobile security is still an emerging discipline. Because of this, many organisations that allow members’ mobile phone access into the network don’t actually have a specific security policy for such devices.

That’s why we’re here to help. We’ll conduct a thorough evaluation of your security policies and systems in relation to mobile devices and seal gaps we spot along the way. If you don’t have the needed policies or if what you have needs an overhaul, we’ll set everything up (including the needed applications and infrastructure) for you.

Once we’ve got everything in place, you won’t have to worry about the vulnerabilities mentioned earlier. In addition to that, your organisation will already be capable of preventing the following:

• Access to company information when the phone ends up in the hands of anyone other than the authorised user.
• Being billed for phone usage due to virus activity
• Unauthorised phone activity monitoring through spyware
• Other disruptions caused by mobile-based malware

Other defences we’re capable of putting up include:

• Network Security
• Firewalls
• Malware
• Authentication and Access Control
• Mobile Security
• Forensics