Network policy enforcement is the set of rules that you place over your IT environment to ensure you have control over access and communication. This could be as simple as keeping production and development separate from one another to avoid human error. More specific policy enforcement rules can help with compliance needs, such as keeping your CDE isolated so that the rest of your network remains out of scope for PCI DSS compliance.
Data center policy engines have traditionally been inflexible, relying on strict, all-or-nothing approaches, or global denylists without the ability to form exceptions. As workloads become increasingly dynamic, and more and more businesses are embracing the hybrid cloud, flexible policy engines are a must-have. These allow for autoscaling, policies that follow the workloads, and policy creation that is not platform dependent.
The process of policy creation begins with having strong awareness of both your business and your security objectives. There’s a balance to be found with microsegmentation policy. Too strong, and you might end up with an inflexible environment that makes it tough for staff to work freely and with autonomy. Too weak, and you’re left with an attack surface that’s dangerously large.
Accessing a full real-time map of your IT environment can give you insight into how and where segmentation policy should be placed. Choosing a solution that can enforce policy up to Layer 7, not the traditional Layer 4, can give you even greater security benefits. Even if your perimeter is breached, the right policies in place can stop or divert an attacker, who will be unable to make lateral moves across your network.