New Hanover County Information Technology Department	Issued:  10/09/02
	Policy Number:  6-04
Subject: NETWORK EQUIPMENT

PURPOSE AND SCOPE:

The purpose of this policy is to establish standards for the base configuration of internal server equipment, routers and switches that are owned and/or operated by New Hanover County Government. Effective implementation of this policy will minimize unauthorized access to New Hanover County Government proprietary information and technology.  Any employee found to have violated this policy may be subject to disciplinary action as outlined in the Personnel Manual.

This policy applies to server and network equipment owned and/or operated by New Hanover County Government.   This policy is specifically for equipment on the internal New Hanover County Government network. For secure configuration of equipment external to New Hanover County Government on the DMZ, refer to the Internet DMZ Equipment Policy.

CHANGE SUMMARY:

None.  This is the Original Document.

POLICY:

All internal servers deployed at New Hanover County Government shall be supported by the IT Department or by an approved operational group within a county department. Approved server configuration guides must be established and maintained by each operational group, based on business needs and approved by the IT Department.   Operational groups should monitor configuration compliance and implement an exception policy tailored to their environment. Each operational group must establish a process for changing the configuration guides, which includes review and approval by IT Department.

·        Servers must be registered within the enterprise management system. At a minimum, the following information is required to positively identify the point of contact:

o       Server contact(s) and location, and a backup contact

o       Hardware and Operating System/Version

o       Main functions and applications, if applicable

·        Information in the enterprise management system must be kept up-to-date.

·        Configuration changes for production servers must follow the appropriate change management procedures.

General Server Configuration Guidelines

·        Operating System configuration should be in accordance with approved IT Department guidelines.

·        Services and applications that will not be used must be disabled where practical.

·        Access to services should be logged and/or protected through access-control methods such as TCP Wrappers, if possible.

·        The most recent security patches must be installed on the system as soon as practical, the only exception being when immediate application would interfere with business requirements.

·        Trust relationships between systems are a security risk, and their use should be avoided. Do not use a trust relationship when some other method of communication will do.

·        Always use standard security principles of least required access to perform a function.

·        Do not use root or administrator when a non-privileged account will do.

·        If a methodology for secure channel connection is available  (i.e., technically feasible), privileged access must be performed over secure channels, (e.g., encrypted network connections using SSH or IPSec).

·        Servers should be centrally located in the Administration Building unless specific exception is granted by the IT Department.  Servers must be physically located in an access-controlled environment.

·        Servers are specifically prohibited from operating from uncontrolled cubicle areas.

General Router/Switch Configuration Guidelines

Every router/switch must meet the following configuration standards:

·        No local user accounts are configured on the router/switch. Router/switch must use TACACS+ for all user authentications.

·        The enable password on the router/switch must be kept in a secure encrypted form. The router/switch must have the enable password set to the current production router/switch password from the router/switch's support organization.

·        Disallow the following:

o       IP directed broadcasts

o       Incoming packets at the router/switch sourced with invalid addresses such as RFC1918 address

o       TCP small services

o       UDP small services

o       All source routing

o       All web services running on router/switch

·        Use corporate standardized SNMP community strings.

·        Access rules are to be added as business needs arise.

·        The router/switch must be included in the enterprise management system with a designated point of contact.

·        Each router/switch must have the following statement posted in clear view: 

"UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO THIS NETWORK DEVICE IS PROHIBITED. You must have explicit permission to access or configure this device. All activities performed on this device will be logged, and violations of this policy may result in disciplinary action, and may be reported to law enforcement. There is no right to privacy on this device."

Monitoring

·        All security-related events on critical or sensitive systems must be logged and audit trails saved as follows:

o       All security related logs will be kept online for a minimum of 1 week.

o       Daily incremental tape backups will be retained for at least 1 month.

o       Weekly full tape backups of logs will be retained for at least 1 month.

o       Monthly full backups will be retained for a minimum of 2 years.

·        Security-related events will be reported to the IT Department, who will review logs and report incidents to County management. Corrective measures will be prescribed as needed. Security-related events include, but are not limited to:

o       Port-scan attacks

o       Evidence of unauthorized access to privileged accounts

o       Anomalous occurrences that are not related to specific applications on the host.

Compliance

·        Audits will be performed on a regular basis by authorized organizations within New Hanover County Government.

·        The internal audit group or the IT Department, in accordance with the Audit Policy, will manage audits.  The IT Department will filter findings not related to a specific operational group and then present the findings to the appropriate support staff for remediation or justification.

·        Every effort will be made to prevent audits from causing operational failures or disruptions.

OTHER INFORMATION:

Term              Definition

DMZ                            De-militarized Zone. A network segment external to the county production network.

Server                         For purposes of this policy, a Server is defined as an internal New Hanover County Government Server.  Desktop machines and Lab equipment are not relevant to the scope of this policy.

Production Network  The "production network" is the network used in the daily business of New Hanover County Government. Any network connected to the network backbone, either directly or indirectly, which lacks an intervening firewall device. Any network whose impairment would result in direct loss of functionality to New Hanover County Government employees or impact their ability to do work.

REFERENCES:

(Use Hyperlinks here to list any other documents that are in direct support of this Policy.)

CHANGE HISTORY:

Version	Date	Author	Comments
A	03/19/02	SCT	Original Document
B	10/09/02	SCT	Revised based on Director’s comments