National Security Agency Cybersecurity Technical Report: Network Infrastructure Security Guidance

March 2022

Purpose

This document was developed in furtherance of NSA’s cybersecurity missions. This includes its responsibilities to identify and disseminate threats to National Security Systems, Department of Defense information systems, and the Defense Industrial Base, and to develop and issue cybersecurity specifications and mitigations. This information may be shared broadly to reach all appropriate stakeholders.

Introduction

Guidance for securing networks continues to evolve as new vulnerabilities are exploited by adversaries, new security features are implemented, and new methods of securing devices are identified. Improper configuration, incorrect handling of configurations, and weak encryption keys can expose vulnerabilities in the entire network. All networks are at risk of compromise, especially if devices are not properly configured and maintained. An administrator’s role is critical to securing the network against adversarial techniques and requires dedicated people to secure the devices, applications, and information on the network.

This report presents best practices for overall network security and protection of individual network devices, and will assist administrators in preventing an adversary from exploiting their network. While the guidance presented here is generic and can be applied to many types of network devices, sample commands for Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS) devices are provided which can be executed to implement the recommendations.

View the detailed report below.