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Survival Tips
Network World, 08/28/00
Here are some cheap, easy and effective steps to keep your network safe:
- Build an intrusion-detection system. Our system was cheap: We spent less than $1,000 for the CPU, the gigabit network interface card and the extra memory. The operating system was free, and we had the optical splitter left over from a previous project -you can expect to pay around $500 for this type of tool. Comparable commercial systems can cost $20,000 and can be extremely complex to install and administer.
- Get on good terms with your system administrators. In many organizations the network team and the system administrators fall under different groups. Don't let politics stop you. Get to know the administrators and make sure they're aware of the dangers. A tightly secured system doesn't make an attractive playground for the script kiddies.
- Constantly emphasize the need for funding for security hardware, software and training. Don't wait until you've been victimized to ask for funding to obtain security hardware, software or training. Tell your boss every chance you get just how bad it is out there. You might not get funding, but when you get hit -and you will -you'll be on record as having been proactive.
- Read, read, read. You have a full-time job. The script kiddies don't. To stay ahead of them will require a lot of work. Read everything about security and intrusion detection you can. Subscribe to Bugtraq, and visit the Whitehats.com Web site. Download some of the distributed denial-of-service programs and play with them. Just do it offline -don't attack your own network.
Surfing the Tsunami
A large Southeastern university IS team fights off a massive distributed denial-of-service attack and lives to tell about it.
