Perimeter Defenses

Used for security purposes to keep a zone secure. A secure zone is some combination of policies, procedures, technical tools, and techniques enabling a company to protect its information. Perimeter defenses provide a physical environment with management’s support in which privileges for access to all electronic assets are clearly laid out and observed. Some perimeter defense parameters include installing a security device at the entrance of and exit to a secure zone and installing an intrusion detection monitor outside the secure zone to monitor the zone. Other means of perimeter defense include ensuring that important servers within the zone have been hardened—meaning that special care has been taken to eliminate security holes and to shut down potentially vulnerable services—and that access into the secure zone is restricted to a set of configured IP addresses. Moreover, access to the security appliance needs to be logged and all changes to the security appliance need to be documented, and changes regarding the security appliance must require the approval of the secure zone’s owner. Finally, intrusion alerts detected in the zone must be immediately transmitted to the owner of the zone and to Information Security Services for rapid and effective resolution.

See Also: Intrusion; IP Address; Security Zones; Server.