Security Change Management

Security changes can affect access, evidence, availability, and trust boundaries. Control them through a documented process that makes scope, impact, ownership, validation, and recovery clear.

1. Define the reason, scope, affected systems, dependencies, and expected impact.
2. Assess risk and choose testing, approval, communication, and maintenance-window needs.
3. Prepare implementation and rollback steps before changing production.
4. Use version control for reviewable configuration or code changes, and a backup or snapshot for recovery where appropriate.
5. Validate the intended service and control outcome, then record the result and deviations.

Version history preserves who changed what and why. A backup or snapshot restores a known-good state. Mature change management uses both, especially for identity, firewall, DNS, routing, certificate, and access-policy changes.