Network assessments

Simply put, network assessments reduce risk. The wired network is like oxygen for the IT stack in any company: pervasive and vital to everything, but often receiving little consideration as to its health, resilience or supportability. Many organisations are not big enough to employ network specialists, focussing recruitment instead on application, server and cloud skills. However, all these things depend on a healthy wired network.

Networks grow over time in often unplanned ways, staff changes happen, documentation updates are forgotten – all these things are commonplace in any organisation. As a result, ‘technical debt’ accrues. Like financial debt, technical debt can impose a significant burden on making changes. Changes become high-risk or highly complex or are approached in a ‘fingers crossed’ fashion with no roll-back plan. This is never a comfortable place to be.

Customers may have specific requirements from this process, so a Nomios consultant will always conduct a kick-off meeting to understand the expectations before beginning. During this meeting:

• Network diagrams and details of security equipment and services are supplied by the customer
• If required, the customer provides remote access in order to perform the assessment
• Any areas of concern or focus for the customer are included in the assessment’s remit

Following the kick-off meeting, the work can begin and could typically include:

• Retrieval and analysis of configuration files from switches and routers, sometimes by script or manually
• Routing tables and other dynamic values are checked
• Investigation of live network telemetry for things like:
  • Device health
  • Interface errors
  • Protocol stability
  • Concerning errors in log files
• Assessment of network architecture and resilience
• Verification of device and operating system ‘End of Life’ dates
• Updating of out-of-date diagrams and other documentation
• Checks for compliance against standards such as Cyber Essentials
  • Audit trail
  • Centralised logging
  • Authentication
  • Device hardening