Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for visualizing current and historical access policy of a group based policy. A first group based policy and a second group based policy are received at a computing device, where each group based policy includes policy rules defining a range of destination internet protocol addresses, a range of source internet protocol addresses and a range of access ports. The computing device renders a three dimensional representation of the first group based policy, based on the policy rules of the first group based policy. The computing device renders a three dimensional representation of the second group based policy, based on the policy rules of the second group based policy. The computing device displays the representations of the first group based policy and second group based policy on a graphical interface.