What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on NS-7 Simplify network security configuration?

Central network security management tooling in use; Policy hierarchy showing inherited and local rules; Change process for network rules; Report of rules deviating from the central policy.

What is the most common gap auditors find on NS-7?

rules maintained per subnet by different teams

Azure Security Benchmark v3 (renamed Microsoft cloud security benchmark) · Network Security

`NS-7` Simplify network security configuration

Use centralised tooling to simplify and manage network security configuration across a complex environment rather than maintaining rules device by device.

Source: Azure Security Benchmark v3 (renamed Microsoft cloud security benchmark), NS-7. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open Azure Security Benchmark v3 (renamed Microsoft cloud security benchmark) in the compliance library.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

hard

to go live

Policy repository / GRC workspace

where the evidence lives

teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

none for this control

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Report of rules deviating from the central policy · Cloud console / configuration management

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Central network security management tooling in use · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Policy hierarchy showing inherited and local rules · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Change process for network rules · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

No system holds this evidence for you: it is people and documents. Reminders and routing to the owner still save time. Put the document under version control with an owner and review date, and log each review as a record with reviewer and date.

Common gaps auditors find

rules maintained per subnet by different teams
no central view so conflicting rules coexist
manual rule edits outside the management tool

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

Build my evidence sheet

NS-6 Deploy web application firewall · NS-8 Detect and disable insecure services and protocols