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CHAPTER 11
Compliance Within the
LAN-to-WAN Domain
DATA SUSTAINS THE ORGANIZATION'S business processes and enables it to deliver products and services. Stop the flow of data, and just as quickly, you disrupt the ability to deliver products and services. If the loss of data lasts long enough, the viability of the organization itself comes into question. That is how vital data is for many organizations today.
The LAN-to-WAN Domain refers to the technical infrastructure that connects the organization's local area network (LAN) to a wide area network (WAN). One of the principal concerns is controlling the network traffic between the outside network (i.e., WAN) to the private network (i.e., LAN). The LAN-to-WAN denotes, for many organizations, its connection to the Internet or a dedicated circuit to a branch office. While LAN and WAN are references to technologies, for practical purposes think of a LAN as the organization’s internal network and the WAN as the Internet or connection to a branch office. The connection to the Internet represents a significant risk to the organization. The Internet has a direct connection to the organization’s private network and resources. Protection relies on the organization’s ability to put in place layers of controls that filter out unwanted network traffic.
The policies of an organization define the amount of risk they are willing to take by defining the number of layers of control between the organization’s network and the Internet. This chapter will examine these layers of control. We will review the policy concern on how to filter the traffic between the Internet and the private network. Additionally, many organizations have an Internet presence. The chapter will discuss the challenge of serving up content on the Internet to customers and businesses. These publicly facing websites provide often access to internal resources such as databases for product information. As a result, they are a prime target for hackers. The chapter will discuss the LAN-to-WAN key controls that harden Internet-facing servers, filter traffic between these networks, and monitor for breaches in security.