Lock the Gates! Creating Effective Firewall Zones for the Campus Network

Effective network zoning and firewall protection on campus networks with a wide variety of systems, users, and access requirements can be challenging. Dartmouth College completed an extensive redesign of its campus network that leverages extensive firewall capabilities at both the border and the core. The result has been significantly improved traffic flow policies that protect assets from both external and lateral attacks. At the same time, the design has simplified firewall rule sets and minimized administrative overhead. We will share our design development strategy, implementation process, and ongoing workflow procedures as well as lessons learned from the project.

OUTCOMES: Understand the need of network zoning as a mitigation for sophisticated attacks (APT) and to meet regulatory compliance * Apply the design principles to their own organization * Learn the value of the adopted workflow process