What is a Network Security Audit?
A network security audit, as the name suggests, is a specially designed process which analyzes the security threats which a company or business network is facing or could possibly face in the future. In addition to this, it also looks at the countermeasures and other preventive measures which might be in place or should be in place to prevent the network from coming under such an attack and minimize or eliminate the possibility of any losses being incurred by the company or business as a result of the network being compromised. In this way, it highlights whether the current network structure is optimal or needs to be altered or disbanded and replaced by one which is less prone to security risks.
The process is usually conducted by the company’s own network administrators or by an external team of network administrators who are certified to conduct a network security audit and are familiar with a business’s IT infrastructure and processes.
Purpose of a Network Security Audit
There is no hard-and-fast rule to conducting a network security audit. It depends from company-to-company and whether they want to conduct such an audit or not. A network security audit is most commonly conducted when a business is setting up its IT infrastructure from scratch, when a company faces an issue such as an information leak or network irregularities or when a business needs to upgrade their IT setup by replacing old hardware and software with newer versions available in the market.
That said, the purpose of a network security audit remains the same in all instances. Some of the most common reasons of performing a network security audit include;
- Detect vulnerabilities in the company network.
- Maintain an up-to-date hardware inventory.
- Maintain an up-to-date software inventory.
- Making sure that your company is not violating any rules and regulations (i.e. using pirated software, using company resources for illegal purposes).
- Tracing back problems to the source of origination.
- Determining and establishing levels of database access to employees.
Now that you have the basic knowledge of what a network security audit really is and the purpose which it serves, here is a list of 5 easy to follow steps which will give you an insight as to how a network security audit is really conducted;
Step No. 1: Defining the Physical Scope of the Audit
Defining the physical scope of the audit is essential so that the team conducting the audit has a general direction to go in. Audit teams can either conduct their network security audit by grouping together similar hardware (i.e. computer terminals and the main server in the finance department) or by location (i.e. network security audit of a branch of a certain bank).
Step No. 2: Defining the Process Scope of the Audit
Before a network security audit can be conducted, it is important to map out the network and see the link between each hardware and software. It is only by knowing the networking framework that the team will be able to determine and account for every part of the network’s functionality. By doing this, the team can also choose to follow a narrow or a wide scoping approach to check the network for any security risks. Choosing a narrow scoping approach will take lesser time to conduct a security check but may result in a failure to pinpoint all network risks. On the other hand, choosing a wide scoping approach will take much more time compared to a narrow scoping approach but will pinpoint all security risks which the network may be vulnerable to.
Step No. 3: Due Diligence and Historical Data
Before starting a new network security audit, it is essential to look at any previous audits of a similar nature which might have been conducted. This will give the audit team a good insight of past events related to any network security lapses which might have occurred, the company’s business processes as well as any recent IT infrastructure changes the company might have undergone.
Step No. 4: Design the Layout of the Network Audit
When the aforementioned information is obtained, the next step is to design the layout. A good network audit layout includes the scope of the audit as mentioned previously, the participants of the audit, the hardware and software which is to be audited and a timeline of the objectives which need to be accomplished.
Step No. 5: Run the process to Highlight Security Risks
After a layout and audit plan is in place, the team can proceed to conducting the risk assessment. The audit team should analyze each piece of hardware or software separately to trace an issue or a potential issue to its source. The results should list down any issue there might be present in the network currently, potential issues which might arise in the future, the scope of the issue and the steps which need to be taken to eradicate or limit the issues.
