Re: Protecting Home Machines

[Carl_Foote () cyro com]

There is an approach we use that has yielded good results.  All company
laptops are configured for VPN.  All Laptops have Norton corporate
installed with update management.  All have Cisco Security agent installed
for laptop protection.

This has prevented alot of the issues you mentioned.  That and a firm wrist
slapping when they misuse the equipment.  There are company policies in
place and we do not allow for many exceptions, unless shareholder value is
involved.

Carl Foote, CCNA




                                                                                                                        
                
                      Don Voss                                                                                          
                
                      <voss () albany edu>        To:       "Cherian M. Palayoor" <cpalayoor () cwalkergroup com>       
                      
                                               cc:       security-basics () securityfocus com                           
                   
                      11/21/2003 05:57         Subject:  Re: Protecting Home Machines                                   
                
                      AM                                                                                                
                
                                                                                                                        
                
                                                                                                                        
                




Cherian,

Non trivial question. I have been trying to keep home laptops stable
here also. The best I can do is some education. They are, for the most
part personally owned .. or treated that way most times.

If they bring them in for a dhcp connection in their offices .. I have
to authorize the mac > ip to get them on .. thats when I patch, patch,
patch .. + make sure virus protection is loaded, current. The patches
should take care of the known .. the new ones we are all open to. We use
norton corp version. This is where virus crosses over to worms .. I do
not care to debate the descriptions .. hostile is hostile.

I have a simple setup at home: cable modem .. a linksys .. closed down
as much as I know how .. and the machines use it's nat. Currently
patched and  with norton material. Very non-tech users [my family] .. so
far so good. I have considered something like this to recommend to
faculty but they would not consider it .. the smart ones ask what I do.

To roll a procedure out as a policy is the real question .. which I
would like to hear what other larger places are doing. One would need to
"own" the laptop .. vpn material ? virus protection, what else ? Can
they be screened when it comes in and attach to a domain .. push
patches, etc.

/don

Cherian M. Palayoor wrote:

> I have a remote user whose laptop was severely infected by the trojans
> MSBLAST & WiNSHOW.A.
>
> I reinstalled the OS on the machine following a complete reformat, and
> installed an anti-virus with the latest update. I ran a complete scan on
the
> machine prior to shipping the machine back to the user.
>
> However as soon as the user took back the machine home, he was infected
by
> another worm (NACHI.A) within a few minutes of connecting to the internet
> through his high speed cable modem. He swears that he had not downloaded
> anything nor tried any removable media on this machine.
>
> Following a bit of research on the matter, I am now aware that it is
possible
> for machines to get infected on the fly especially through unprotected
home
> internet connections.
>
> The question is, "What do I do to prevent such occurrences which have
> increased of late."
>
> My thanks in advance for any thoughts or words of advise.
>
>
> CP
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------






---------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------