The National Security Agency has issued a report on best practices for ensuring the security of network infrastructure and protection of individual network devices.
The Network Infrastructure Security Guidance report deals with the design and configurations that safeguard against common weaknesses and vulnerabilities on networks and seeks to help network administrators lower the risk of cyber incidents and mitigate potential impacts of a cyberattack, NSA said Tuesday.
The report classified the best practices into several areas, including network architecture and design; security maintenance; authentication, authorization and accounting; remote logging and monitoring; and administrator accounts and passwords.
For network architecture, recommended best practices include installing perimeter and internal defense devices, removing backdoor connections, using strict perimeter access controls and limiting and encrypting virtual private networks.
When it comes to security maintenance, NSA calls on organizations to verify software and configuration integrity, maintain updated operating systems and software, stay current with vendor-backed hardware and maintain proper file system and boot management.
