Cyber Security Firewall. at Spektrum Group in Mons, Belgium

Spektrum supports apex purchasers (NATO, UN, EU, and National Government and Defence) and their Tier 1 supplier ecosystem with a wide range of specialist services. We provide our clients with professional services, specialised aerospace and defence sales, delivery, and operational subject matter expertise. We are looking for personnel to join our team and support key client projects.

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Who we are supporting

The NATO Communication and Information Agency (NCIA) is responsible for providing secure and effective communications and information technology (IT) services to NATO's member countries and its partners. The agency was established in 2012 and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.

The NCIA provides a wide range of services, including:

• Cyber Security: The NCIA provides advanced cybersecurity solutions to protect NATO's communication networks and information systems against cyber threats.
• Command and Control Systems: The NCIA develops and maintains the systems used by NATO's military commanders to plan and execute operations.
• Satellite Communications: The NCIA provides satellite communications services to enable secure and reliable communications between NATO forces.
• Electronic Warfare: The NCIA provides electronic warfare services to support NATO's mission to detect, deny, and defeat threats to its communication networks.
• Information Management: The NCIA manages NATO's information technology infrastructure, including its databases, applications, and servers.

Overall, the NCIA plays a critical role in ensuring the security and effectiveness of NATO's communication and information technology capabilities.

The program

Assistance and Advisory Service (AAS)

The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) is NATO’s principal C3 capability deliverer and CIS service provider. It provides, maintains and defends the NATO enterprise-wide information technology infrastructure to enable Allies to consult together under Article IV, and, when required, stand together in the face of attack under Article V.

To provide these critical services, in the modern evolving dynamic environment the NCI Agency needs to build and maintain high performance-engaged workforce. The NCI Agency workforce strategically consists of three major categorise's: NATO International Civilians (NIC)'s, Military (Mil), and Interim Workforce Consultants (IWC)'s. The IWCs are a critical part of the overall NCI Agency workforce and make up approximately 15 percent of the total workforce.

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Role ID – C005198

Role Duties and Responsibilities

• Build, implement, maintain, and support Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW) (System Administration).
• Configure, maintain and review security policies on Next-Generation Firewalls (System Configuration)
• Under the direction / guidance of the NCSC Point of Contact, a contractor will be the part of the NCSC SEC011 Team supporting the following activities:
  • Central system administration of NGFWs to ensure continuing functionality and availability.
  • Initial systems installation (software, application and threat signatures) and configuration
  • Adding system to central management capability
  • Assign initial template and device group settings
  • Configure date/time/DNS settings
  • Configure high-availability settings
  • Update system software/signatures during pre-defined maintenance windows
  • Central configuration of NGFWs
  • Implementation and verification of firewall rulesets/policies
  • Adaptation of firewall rulesets/policies
  • Adaptation of email attachment types
  • Configuration of additional firewall rulesets/policies
  • Documentation of Firewall systems
  • Development of SOPs and other documentation for repetitive activities
  • Produce and maintain comprehensive documentation for all implemented systems
  • Review and update security documentation
  • Support of Firewall systems
  • Technical support in troubleshooting infrastructure and operational issues
  • Collaborate with other teams for a successful resolution;
  • Provide technical support and guidance by answering end-user requests to identify issues in secure cross-domain data exchange
  • The measurement of execution for this work is sprints, with each sprint planned for a duration of 1 week.
• Central administration of NGFWs
  • The purpose of daily Central administration and configuration of NGFWs is to ensure continuing functionality and availability of those critical systems in order to support a wide range of end-user facing services.
  • The Service Provider will:
  • Support the team by routinely reviewing the tickets queue to ensure 4 hours response time for normal events and 1 hour response time for high/critical events
  • Provide multi-channel support (phone, email, internal chat)
  • Develop and maintain a repository of scrips to automate recurring systems administration activities.
  • Ensure correct logging and log forwarding configurations to support availability of system events in central log database.
  • Provide pro-active system administration and maintenance to prevent system failures
  • Escalate critical events to appropriate channels within 4 hours
  • Support system upgrading/patching during established maintenance windows GSS contractor is expected to be a knowledgeable firewall administrator and should have sufficient knowledge in Networks, and Cyber Security Tools.

• Central configuration of NGFWs
  • The Service Provider will:
  • Support the team by routinely reviewing the tickets queue to ensure 4 hours response time for normal events and 1 hour response time for high/critical events
  • Provide multi-channel support (phone, email, internal chat)
  • Update the configuration of firewall rules/policies based on changing requirements.
  • Support the development of The primary purpose of Central configuration of firewalls is to ensure that all configuration requests are properly prepared (investigated, evaluated and risk assessed) for consideration, documented and implemented.
• Documentation of firewall systems
• The Service Provider will:
  • Document the setup, configuration, installation specifics into the GSS documentation repository
  • Attend internal meetings within GSS team to provide hands-on demonstration and familiarization of firewall systems
• Support of firewall systems

Essential Skills, Experience and Certifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field Or equivalent experience.
• Minimum qualifications required
  • Official firewall certification (such as PCNSA,)
  • Official Network Management certification (such as Network+)
  • Official Service Management certification (such as ITIL Foundation)
• 2+ years of experience in IT security, with a focus on Security Tools Management in large organisations.
• Strong understanding of security best practices
• Good engineering skills including programming
• Demonstrable experience of analysing and interpreting system, security and application logs in order to diagnose faults and spot abnormal behaviours.
• More than 2 years of experience in the following areas:
  • Palo Alto Networks Firewalls and Palo Alto Networks Panorama for Enterprise level deployments
  • Firewall installation and management of other vendors
  • Scripting/Automation (Bash, Python, Ansible)
  • System monitoring and troubleshooting Experience with network protocols and traffic analysis
  • Ability to troubleshoot complex network security issues
  • LAN/WAN networking including protocol network architecture
  • TCP/IP protocols and services
  • Profound communication abilities, both written and verbal, with the ability to clearly and successfully articulate complex issues to a variety of audiences and teams Additionally, the following experience, qualities and qualifications are desirable:
  • Understanding of Information Security Practices; relating to the Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability of information (CIA triad.)
  • Possession of Industry leading certification in the area of
  • Cybersecurity such as CISSP, CISM, CISA, GSNA, SANS GIAC
• In addition to the above, it is desirable for the contracted individual to have working experience and knowledge in the following areas:
  • Experience in working with NATO.
  • Experience of working with NATO Communications andInformation Agency.
  • Experience of working with national Defence or Government entities.
  • Previous work in an international environment comprising both military and civilian elements.

Working Location

• Mons, Belgium

Working Policy

• On-site

Travel

• Some travel to other NATO sites may be required

Security Clearance

• Valid National or NATO Secret personal security clearance