Network managers: good worries, disappointing lapses
Security managers exhibiting risky behaviors, survey shows
'Net Insider
By
Scott Bradner
,
Network World
, 05/06/2008
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VanDyke Software recently published results of the fifth annual edition of its survey of network and system administrators the company hired Amplitude Research to conduct and analyze.
Most of the survey questions concerned security, as it should be, considering the importance of that topic. The general results
(also covered by Network World’s Denise Dubie) are generally realistic -- managers felt issues that they might have an ability to affect
were more important than some of the issues (like user training) that managers often feel are impossible or at least outside
their ability to control. But behind the headlines there were some results I found surprising and not just a little disappointing.
Most usefully, because VanDyke has been commissioning this survey for five years, one can get a sense of the changing management
pain points. Issues that managers who answered the survey this year felt to be most important were securing remote access
(up in importance over the last five years), keeping virus definitions up to date (down quite a bit over the same period)
and monitoring intrusions (which has stayed about the same).
The biggest decline in importance over the five years the survey has been run is patching systems. I expect this is not because the need to patch has decreased in any way but because patching systems are now quite
mature and thus are not a significant worry. I also expect that the drop in importance of keeping virus definitions up to
date has happened for the same reason.
For all the focus on real problems mentioned by the survey, a few important ones seem not to be getting proper attention.
More than a quarter of network managers admit that they are still configuring their network devices using insecure telnet, and more than a third are using insecure
HTTP rather than using secure SSH or HTTPS.
While this is down quite a bit from five years ago it is still far too high. I only hope that there are no cases where the
network manager has to access the network devices while at a conference or hotel. It's easy to hand control of your network
devices to a random observer in such cases. A tale from long ago illustrates the potential for mischief when passwords get
leaked, as they can be with telnet and HTTP.
Comments (2)
Practical SecurityBy tuomoks on May 7, 2008, 2:40 pmPractical security is difficult, period! Point security is not but read on.. I know, this study was about network and systems security but as long as those are seen...
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One can only wonder where their auditors are.By Anonymous on July 13, 2008, 6:28 amNot much to wonder here. All too frequently the entity doing the work is also auditing and/or certifying/accrediting their own work. That, surprisingly to the uninitiated,...
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