The Friday afternoon fix
A technician changes a setting on a firewall (a gate that blocks bad traffic) at 4:50 pm on a Friday. She does not tell anybody. She does not write it down.
On Monday the payment page is blocked and nobody knows why. It takes six hours to find the cause.
A change procedure (a set of steps for making changes safely) exists to stop Mondays like this.
Key words
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Procedure | The steps to follow to do a job. |
| Change procedure | The set steps for asking for, approving, making and recording a change. |
| Approval | Permission from the right person before a change starts. |
| Documentation | A written record of what was done, by whom and when. |
| Audit | A routine check that people really follow the policies and procedures. |
| Compliance | Following the rules, the law or a standard. |
| Rollback | Going back to how things were if a change goes wrong. |
| Impact | The effect something has, good or bad. |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can explain the change procedure and audits, and say what happens to security when rules are ignored.
Starter: the other policies
Have a go
Starter: the other policies
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Cycle 1: why changes are controlled
Every change to a server or a setting can break something or open a weak point. The change procedure makes sure each change is approved and documented.
Approval means the right person said yes first. Documentation means the change is written down, so anyone can see what happened and undo it.
Check: put it in order
Have a go
Check: put it in order
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.