Palo Alto Networks Best Practice Assessment (BPA) and Heatmap Guide

📊 What is the Best Practice Assessment (BPA)?

The Best Practice Assessment (BPA) is a tool provided by Palo Alto Networks that evaluates your Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) and Panorama configurations against established best practices. It performs over 200 checks to identify potential misconfigurations and provides actionable recommendations to enhance your security posture.

Key features include:

• Assessment of security policy configurations.
• Identification of unused or overly permissive rules.
• Recommendations for implementing security profiles like Antivirus, Anti-Spyware, and URL Filtering.
• Generation of a heatmap to visualize adoption of security capabilities.

Learn more: Best Practice Assessment for NGFW and Panorama

🔥 Understanding the Heatmap

The BPA heatmap provides a visual representation of how well your security policies align with best practices. It uses color-coding to indicate areas of strength and those needing improvement.

The heatmap helps in:

• Quickly identifying gaps in security policy configurations.
• Prioritizing remediation efforts based on risk levels.
• Tracking improvements over time.

Watch an introduction to BPA heatmaps: BPA Tool - Intro to Heatmaps

⚙️ How to Run a BPA

To perform a BPA:

1. Generate a Tech Support File (TSF) from your firewall or Panorama.
2. Access the BPA tool via the Customer Support Portal or Strata Cloud Manager (AIOps for NGFW).
3. Upload the TSF to initiate the assessment.
4. Review the generated report and heatmap for insights.

Detailed instructions: Dashboard: On Demand BPA

Video tutorial: Understanding the Best Practice Assessment (BPA) Tool

📋 Step-by-Step Guide: Running the Best Practice Assessment (BPA) Report

To evaluate your Palo Alto Networks firewall or Panorama configurations against best practices, follow these steps to generate a BPA report:

1. Generate a Tech Support File (TSF)

The TSF contains the necessary configuration and system information required for the BPA. To generate it:

• Log in to the web interface of your firewall or Panorama.
• Navigate to Device > Support .
• Click on Generate Tech Support File .
• Once generated, download the TSF to your local system.

2. Access AIOps for NGFW

The BPA tool is integrated into AIOps for NGFW. To access it:

• Go to the Palo Alto Networks Hub.
• Activate AIOps for NGFW if you haven't already. Activation can be done without Cortex Data Lake. Reference
• Log in to your AIOps for NGFW instance.

3. Navigate to the On-Demand BPA Dashboard

Within AIOps for NGFW:

• Go to Dashboards > On Demand BPA . Reference

4. Upload the Tech Support File

To initiate the BPA:

• Click on Generate New BPA Report .
• Select the previously downloaded TSF and upload it.
• The upload time may vary based on the file size and internet speed.

5. Review the BPA Report

Once the TSF is processed:

• Under the Completed section, click on View Report to access the BPA findings.
• The report will provide insights into your security posture and recommendations for improvement.

Additional Resources

For a visual walkthrough, you can refer to the following video:

📈 Leveraging BPA for Continuous Improvement

Regularly running BPAs allows organizations to:

• Maintain alignment with evolving security best practices.
• Demonstrate compliance with industry standards.
• Enhance overall network security posture.

For a comprehensive guide on implementing best practices: Identify and Prioritize Best Practices

📝 Interactive BPA & Heatmap Quiz

1. Which Palo Alto Networks tool provides configuration heatmap displays for security controls?

Expedition Security Lifecycle Review Prevention Posture Assessment Best Practice Assessment

2. Which file must be downloaded from the firewall to create a Heatmap and Best Practices Assessment report?

Configuration Backup System Logs Tech Support File Traffic Logs

3. A Heatmap provides an adoption rate for which three features? (Choose three)

WildFire Traps File Blocking User-ID SSL Certificates Authentication Profiles

Simplified Question 3 (Choose one):

3. Which of the following features' adoption rate is typically visualized in a BPA Heatmap?

WildFire Traps Endpoint Security GlobalProtect Client Version Panorama HA Sync Status

4. Which statement is true regarding a Heatmap report generated by the BPA tool?

It provides a set of questionnaires to uncover security risks. It runs only on firewalls, not Panorama. It provides a percentage of adoption for each assessment area. It is used exclusively by Palo Alto Networks sales engineers.

5. What is the primary purpose of the Best Practice Assessment (BPA) tool?

To monitor real-time traffic logs. To automate firmware updates. To evaluate configurations against security best practices. To manage user authentication settings.

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