ASD ISM 1750 Segregation of administrative infrastructure for server security
What it says
Administrative infrastructure for critical servers, high-value servers and regular servers is segregated from each other.
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What it means
In plain EnglishKeep management systems for different types of servers separate to ensure better security.
This control is about keeping the management systems for different types of servers, like your critical business systems and everyday servers, separate. This matters because if these systems are compromised, it could disrupt your business operations or expose sensitive information. By isolating administration setups, you reduce the risk of a security issue spreading across all your servers.
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Why it matters
If admin infrastructure is not segregated, compromise of lower-tier admin systems could pivot into critical server administration and enable outages or data theft.
How to implement
The IT manager should categorise all servers into groups like critical, high-value, and regular servers, based on their importance and the sensitivity of the data they handle.
This helps determine which servers need stricter control setups and ensures resources are allocated appropriately.
Network administrators need to set up separate management networks for each server category.
This can be done by creating distinct network zones that do not interact, ensuring that if one section is compromised, the others remain safe.
System administrators should use different login accounts and passwords for each server type.
They can achieve this by maintaining separate administrative credentials for critical and regular servers, which reduces the risk of a compromised account affecting multiple systems.
The HR department should ensure that staff have appropriate access levels when joining or changing roles.
They should regularly review who has administrative rights to each type of server and adjust these rights as necessary to prevent unnecessary access.
The IT team should install monitoring tools to track access and modifications made to each server's management systems.
These tools should alert the team of any unusual activity, such as attempts to access the critical server management systems from the regular server network.
Keep it running
Segregate admin networks, jump hosts and accounts by server tier (critical/high-value/regular); block cross-tier access and routinely review firewall rules and admin group membership.
Evidence and audit
- Check 1 of 5What an auditor asks for
Ask for
A list of all server categories and their assigned management networks.
Look at
Whether server types are clearly categorised and linked to separate networks.
Good evidence
Each server category has a clearly defined network that doesn't overlap with others.
- Check 2 of 5What an auditor asks for
Look at
Whether the logs show distinct patterns for different server types.
Good evidence
Each server category has unique login entries for its management systems, without crossover access.
- Check 3 of 5What an auditor asks for
Ask for
A staff access review report.
Look at
Whether access levels were adjusted based on role changes.
Good evidence
Access rights were reviewed within the past six months and adjusted accordingly, with approvals from the department head.
- Check 4 of 5What an auditor asks for
Look at
Whether these alerts are specific to server category access.
Good evidence
Alerts are regularly reviewed and seem to focus on attempts to cross-network administrative access.
- Check 5 of 5What an auditor asks for
Ask for
Incident response plans specific to each server category.
Look at
Whether plans differ to address unique risks to each server type.
Good evidence
Critical servers have stricter and more comprehensive response plans compared to regular servers.
Mappings
Closest match in ISO/IEC 27001: A.8.22, Network segregation for security, which partially overlaps with this control.
ISO/IEC 27001: 1 mapping
This control partially overlaps A.8.22.
Annex A 8.22 requires groups of services, users and systems to be segregated in organisational networks to reduce risk and control access between groups. ISM-1750 relates by mandating segregation of administrative infrastructure for critical, high-value and regular servers, which is a concrete network/domain segmentation pattern. ISM-1750 is narrower and focused on admin infrastructure separation by server criticality, while Annex A 8.22 is broader across all network groupings and use cases.
ASD Essential Eight: 2 mappings
This control partially overlaps E8-RA-ML3.2.
E8-RA-ML3.2 requires privileged administration to be performed from Secure Admin Workstations, separating admin activity from general user computing environments. ISM-1750 requires segregation of administrative infrastructure between critical, high-value and regular servers, which aligns with the same principle of separating privileged administration to reduce lateral movement and blast radius. ISM-1750 is focused on server/admin infrastructure segmentation, while E8-RA-ML3.2 is focused on the secure endpoint used by administrators.
This control depends on E8-RA-ML2.4.
E8-RA-ML2.4 requires administrative activities to be conducted through jump servers as a controlled choke point for privileged management. ISM-1750 requires segregation of administrative infrastructure across critical, high-value and regular servers, which is commonly implemented using separate management networks and dedicated jump server tiers. ISM-1750 strengthens how E8-RA-ML2.4 is implemented by ensuring jump server access and management planes are separated by server criticality, but it is not limited to jump servers.
Mappings show how controls relate across frameworks. They do not imply full equivalence or certification.