A data center's security policy requires that critical network services remain available to users even during equipment failures. To comply with this policy, the network engineer needs to configure a security appliance so that if it experiences a malfunction, legitimate network traffic is not interrupted, though it might reduce security temporarily. Which of the following failure modes should the engineer configure?
Configuring the security appliance to fail-open ensures that in the event of a malfunction, network traffic continues to flow, maintaining availability for users. While this may temporarily reduce security by allowing potentially malicious traffic, it aligns with the policy priority of uninterrupted service. In contrast, fail-closed or fail-secure modes would block all traffic upon failure, prioritizing security over availability, which does not meet the organization's requirements. Fail-safe can be ambiguous but often implies defaulting to a secure state, similar to fail-closed. Therefore, choosing fail-open addresses the need for continuous availability despite equipment failures.
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What does fail-open mean in network security?
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How does fail-safe differ from fail-open?
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What are the implications of using fail-closed in network security?