Infrastructure, Best Practices, and Security
Introduction
The visualization of functions in a network has several benefits. Mostly, the possibility of a cost-effective transition of hardware functionalities on the software platforms. A review of the security and infrastructure policies and practices of Gail Industries was undertaken to include the evaluation of internal systems and infrastructure used to protect intellectual and physical properties. It is an examination of safety procedures, and how they comply with industry standards, recommendations for developing and sustaining their current programs.
Policies and procedures
- Physical security (Data Center)
The procedure to protect the physical assets of Gail industries should be followed. Any access to the physical data center should have grad, which can be revoked. Two-factor authentication to be implemented before access to the data center. Besides, a request must be submitted for assurance of a badge. Moreover, nametags will be issued only to Its officers. Upon termination of privileged access to the data center, the badge privilege should also be terminated. A periodic audit should be conducted to ensure that terminated employees no longer access to the data center. Finally, the data center should continuously be monitored using CCTV and footprints maintained at leased for 45 days.
- Facilities
There should be the use of the grant to control, monitor, and revoke access to the data center. It is recommended badges should be issued for access to the data center, which, therefore, a request should be submitted before the badge is granted. The entrances should be secured by a person who unlocks doors for visitors to enter. All visitors must be escorted by authorized personnel in the Gail industries premises. CCTV should monitor all the facility server rooms and the footages kept for atleast 45 days.
- Change Management
Any request for change is reported by request for modification. The detailed type CAB meets regularly to review and prioritize demands for change. The signed application form on approves change requests. Before implementation, testing should be completed in a test environment that is separate from the production environment CAB supports all changes before implementation.
- Logical Security
Logical security will assist in modifying privileges of access. Besides, they will guide data, information assets, and infrastructure security. Authenticate the user account and passwords before they allow device access. They will be in charge of password policy
- IT Policies and Procedures Manual
Policy and procedure used to build, manage and preserve password guidelines apply to all workers, contractors, and affiliates of Reach. The policy Governs appropriate use of passwords on all GAIL systems and networks, Gail Industries data, and Smallville City Provides guidelines on the development of passwords (minimum length, Complexity), age of the account (expiry periods), account Protection, and the invalid login threshold.
Analysis of Security Practices
Best practices, in a particular business circumstance, are a collection of rules, principles, or concepts that describe the most successful or prudent plan of action. Officials, such as regulators or regulatory bodies, may create industry standards, and a management team of an organization may decree them internally. It is critical that organizations follow a holistic approach in enforcing organizational IT security. The Standard procedures and best practices can be used as a guide for Gail Industries and Reach within the IT industry. Gail Industries has some excellent practices in place, in terms of network security. Some industry best practices currently associated with Gail Industries are data retention, transparent security protocols, network visibility and control, device permissions, third-party user access, and user education.
Although the company embraces and aligns with best practices, they are not enforcing a few. One of such is network segregating. Gail should divide the networks into usable areas known as zones. For areas such as payment and invoicing, analysis, distribution, and technical support, various zones may exist. Both of these would have different technological requirements, and the use of routers, switches, or VLANs could accomplish this. Network segregation restricts potential harm within a single region. It is also useful for data sorting and safety, since different rules can be applied to each location, for different security levels, and properly monitored. Centralized logging is another best practice that could benefit both Gail and SCOPE. They will report incidents and suspicious logins that will help reconstruct the events that happened during an attack so that further measures can be taken to enhance the identification of threats and to prevent future attacks quickly.
Recommendations and Ways to Maintain a New System
For Gail Industries, one suggestion will be to use cloud computing for most of their applications and data. Although they currently use cloud-based AWS servers for internet-accessible applications, much of their data is stored on local servers. Will it be ordinary. If a catastrophe happens, or the server goes down, they may lose data. Cloud computing advantages include continuous replication, consistency in access data, and knowledge can be exchanged in real-time, increasing collaboration, and is less expensive.
Another protection best practice for the company to adopt will be a contingency plan for security incidents. There has been a lot of emphasis on preventing security breaches, but they should also take the time to develop and establish a comprehensive response plan for incidents. They will be able to respond quickly and aggressively to the attack in case of an attack, an outage, or natural disaster, reducing damage and implementing mitigation against future attacks.
Conclusion
Generally, Gail Industries has some good security procedures in place alongside Smallville. They have policies and procedures that cover physical asset safety, data security, passwords, firewalls and align themselves with industry guidelines and best practices. Controls are in place to protect them; conversely, there are a couple of suggestions that can be acknowledged to improve their security, such as network segmentation, cloud computing implementation, and the creation of an incident response plan to address attacks quickly. Some steps can be taken to protect the company from threats to security, and Gail Industries is well on its way to improving its network security.