Network Security Audit UK — Cyber Essentials & NCSC Aligned

A network security audit is a structured review of your network's security configuration, policies, and controls. It identifies misconfigurations, policy gaps, and high-risk exposures across firewalls, switches, routers, VPNs, and management interfaces — without actively attempting to exploit systems. The output is a risk-rated finding list with clear, actionable remediation steps.

What the Audit Covers

Our network security audit reviews six areas of your infrastructure against NCSC guidance, Cisco hardening baselines, and Cyber Essentials requirements.

Area 1

Firewall & ACL Review

Ruleset analysis for over-permissive rules, shadowed rules, any-any permits, and inbound exposure. Includes management access controls.

Area 2

Device Hardening Assessment

Cisco IOS/IOS-XE, Fortinet, and Palo Alto configuration review against NCSC and CIS hardening benchmarks. AAA, SNMP, banners, unused services.

Area 3

Network Segmentation Audit

VLAN architecture review, inter-VLAN routing policy, guest network isolation, and east-west traffic controls.

Area 4

Remote Access & VPN Review

VPN protocol security, authentication strength, split tunnelling policy, and remote access logging.

Area 5

Cyber Essentials Readiness

Gap analysis against the five CE technical controls. Finding checklist and remediation priority list for your CE assessment.

Area 6

Management Plane Security

Out-of-band access, logging and alerting configuration, NTP, DNS, and management VLAN controls.

Risk Ratings Explained

Every finding in the remediation report carries a risk rating so your team can prioritise remediation effort correctly.

Rating	Definition	Example
Critical	Exploitable without authentication; likely to result in full network compromise	Firewall any-any inbound rule, unpatched CVE on internet-facing device
High	Significant misconfiguration that reduces security posture materially	SNMPv1 community strings in use, no management ACL on routers
Medium	Configuration gap that creates unnecessary exposure	HTTP management enabled alongside HTTPS, weak VPN cipher suites
Low	Best practice deviation with limited direct risk	Missing login banners, non-standard management port

Audit vs. Penetration Test: Which Do You Need?

Aspect	Network Security Audit	Penetration Test
Approach	Configuration and policy review	Active exploitation attempts
Systems affected	No — read-only access to configs	Yes — active testing of live systems
Best used when	You want to identify known misconfigurations quickly	You want to validate whether a known gap is actually exploitable
Typical timescale	3–5 days (SME)	5–15 days
Cost	Lower	Higher
Cyber Essentials alignment	Yes — included as a specific workstream	Partial — validates exploitability, not CE controls directly

Cyber Essentials Readiness Checklist

Our audit maps your network configuration against the five Cyber Essentials technical controls. These are the checks we run against your network infrastructure:

Boundary firewall rules reviewed — no unnecessary inbound access permitted
Network devices hardened to vendor and NCSC baseline (unused services disabled, default passwords changed)
Administrative access restricted by IP range and authenticated with strong credentials
Network segmentation in place — guest, user, and server VLANs separated with policy enforcement
Remote access protected by MFA and encrypted protocols (no Telnet, SNMPv1, or unencrypted management)
Patch status assessed — firmware versions noted against current CVE database
Logging enabled on firewalls and core devices with alerts for critical events

What You Receive

At the close of the engagement you receive:

Executive summary — one-page overview of overall risk posture and top priorities for non-technical stakeholders
Technical findings report — risk-rated finding list with evidence, affected devices, and specific remediation steps
Cyber Essentials gap analysis — control-by-control status with a pass/fail summary and action list
Remediation checklist — prioritised, actionable items your in-house team or MSP can work through
Close-out call — walkthrough of findings with your team to ensure findings are understood and next steps are clear

Important: A network security audit is a configuration review, not a penetration test. It does not involve active exploitation of systems. It identifies configuration-based risk — which accounts for the majority of network compromises — without touching live traffic or production services.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a network security audit include?

Our audit includes: firewall and ACL rule review, device hardening assessment against NCSC baseline, network segmentation and VLAN audit, remote access and VPN security review, Cyber Essentials readiness assessment, and a prioritised remediation report with risk ratings and fix guidance.

What is the difference between a network security audit and a penetration test?

A network security audit is a configuration-based review: we examine firewall rules, device hardening, access controls, and policy gaps without actively attempting to exploit systems. A penetration test actively attempts to breach systems to validate exploitability. Audits are faster, lower cost, and often the right first step — identifying known misconfigurations before committing to a full pen test.

Does the audit help with Cyber Essentials certification?

Yes. Our audit includes a Cyber Essentials readiness assessment, mapping your network configuration against the five CE technical controls: boundary firewalls, secure configuration, access control, malware protection, and patch management. We identify gaps and provide a remediation checklist you can complete before your formal assessment.

How long does a network security audit take?

For a single-site SME, our audit typically takes 3–5 days: one day on-site or remote for discovery and configuration collection, two to three days for analysis and report writing, and a close-out call to walk through findings. Larger multi-site environments are scoped individually.