Appliance Installations by Vendors Can Introduce Vulnerabilities

We all have the experience of purchasing cybersecurity appliances from time to time. When we do this, it’s imperative that we do so considering the overall design of the infrastructure. As I mentioned in a previous blog, it is very easy to overbuy appliances and create unnecessary risk exposure, not to mention wasting precious budget resources.

The second, and equally important, factor to consider when buying or upgrading hardware is the installation of the appliance. The appliance vendor will be very quick to offer installation options to make it easier for you and your team. Though it may seem like they are doing this to help, they are more likely doing it to upsell you and increase their commission.

The problem here is not with vendor sincerity or financial considerations, it is with the correct installation of the appliance for your organizations unique security design based on business and compliance needs.

The recommendation of this 18+ year cybersecurity veteran is to have an overall security design with policies and procedures in place to ensure that all infrastructure upgrades adhere to your organizations security design.

I hope this advice will help you understand and avoid the common problems that allow cyber attacks to keep happening. Stay tuned for more thoughts and ideas that will help keep you and your company Cyber Safe.