Network Security, Firewalls, and VPNs, 3rd Edition

Evaluating Needs and Solutions in Designing Security

Any organization larger than a single person will generate multiple opinions about what should and should not be allowed across the firewall. Almost everyone would agree on allowing—at some level—the necessary protocols, applications, and services essential for mission-critical (or at least operationally necessary) business tasks to cross the firewall-secured network boundaries.

Opinions may differ about what constitutes a necessary business task, but if it is a necessary task, the organization’s security solution should make the task possible. Restrictions, limitations, filtering, and logging of even necessary business communications must occur. The point, however, is making a determination ...