Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
role in securing enterprise networks. Firewalls can be hardware-based or software-
based running on a computer server.
The way a firewall is configured also plays an important role of how it secures the in-
ternal network. IS auditors who are specialised in firewall installations would re-
view firewall configuration either using command- or web-based versions. Firewall
vendors would normally develop configuration standards which enterprises can ad-
opt or customise default configurations by including internally developed firewall
policies.
There are different audit objectives which can be used to audit firewalls. Note that there
are also personal firewalls on personal computers which are designed to protect a
computer system from both internal and external threats. Management might request
an IS auditor to audit both parameter and personal firewalls. The following are some
of the audit objectives which may be used to audit firewalls:
1. test the effectiveness of firewall policies
2. review the firewall configuration and determine whether the firewall was
configured according to enterprise-firewall policies
3. check for unused open ports on firewalls
4. test if the firewall is regularly monitored
5. test if IT management does regularly receive reports on performance of
firewalls
6. test if there are attempts to hack into the internal network using firewall-
generated data.
c) Network Routers
Network routers are used to route traffic from internal sources to outside destinations and
vice versa. Routers also are used to route traffic between various computers with-
in an internal network. Enterprises implement either hardware or software routers.
Hardware routers are quite common in many enterprises such as CISCO routers.
Routers can be used to perform many other networks functions apart from its core func-
tion of routing traffic. In smaller enterprises where traffic is light, routers are used to
perform DHCP functions, provide DNS services, and segmenting the network.
Routers also differ in size and capacity. In bigger enterprises where traffic is heavy, high-
capacity routers are used which are able to handle heavy traffic. In some enterprises,
IS auditors will find more than one router and each performing a specific function or
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