What should a medium-sized business establish to enforce minimum security controls across network devices?

Establishing network security baselines is critical for a medium-sized business as it provides a defined set of minimum security controls that all network devices must meet. These baselines serve as benchmarks for the security configuration of devices, ensuring that they are adequately secured against threats.

By developing these baselines, the business can consistently enforce security measures across all network devices, making it easier to identify deviations from the expected configurations and vulnerabilities that may arise from non-compliance. This approach not only helps in standardizing security practices but also aids in simplifying the assessment and management of the overall security posture of the organization.

While network security policies outline the organization's overall security objectives and procedural expectations, and access control lists (ACLs) are specific mechanisms for controlling traffic and access to resources, they do not provide the comprehensive framework needed for ensuring that all devices meet established security standards. Incident response plans, on the other hand, focus on how to respond to security incidents rather than on the proactive establishment of minimum security controls. Hence, defining security baselines is essential for maintaining a secure environment across network devices in a medium-sized business.