Re: Allowing scanning from home

[Nathaniel Hall <halln () otc edu>]

It all depends on the security policy of the company or organization.  
Luckily, our Vice-President of Information Technology ( a chair person 
on our ISPs security board )  places security very high on his list and 
has started trying to pass this on to the other VPs around the school.  
We are currently performing a vulnerability scan of all network devices 
accross all of our networks and campuses.  The easiest way for us to do 
scans is to connect directly to the switch that is connected to our 
ISP.  There is no protection between us and everyone else at that 
point.  This gives us the see our network exactly as everyone else does, 
but we have a much faster connection compared to DSL, cable, or our own 
dial-up system.

Our VP will go to almost any measure to make our network as secure as 
possible. Right now, we are dealing with instructors who do not want the 
15 minute screen saver lock feature on their machines.  Due to the type 
of data we keep on our systems, he will not even compromise for 20 
minutes.  Once you give some people an inch, they want a mile.  We would 
much rather make the screens lock after 5 minutes instead of 15, but 
security is a combination of security and usability and during a 
presentation, 5 minutes cannot be used.

Nathaniel Hall, GSEC
Intrusion Detection and Firewall Technician
Ozarks Technical Community College -- Office of Computer Networking

halln () otc edu
417-799-0552



ericaldrc51 () netscape net wrote:

> What's the group's consensus on allowing security staff to scan the company's external interfaces from their home, to get a 
> true external assessment.  I personally don't agree with this for audit and other reasons.  Just looking for some other professional 
> viewpoints.  Thx.
>
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