RE: Purging Blaster.worm

["Vachon, Scott" <Scott.Vachon () paymentech com>]

<snipped>
> Maybe I am a little sensitive to this, being the firewall guy and all,
> but come on people.  I stopped 135, 136, 445, 4444 and a host of others
> and you know what, it still hit.  Know what it hit, a couple of freaking
> laptops from home.  They brought it in and my firewall did d!ck as it
> bounced around from floor to floor.  Sure I could shut off 69 and keep
> it from hitting the world, but that didn't stop all the UNPATCHED
> workstations from getting this thing.  The answer is to freaking listen
> to the community and patch the boxes.  Don't count on a firewall or
> anti-virus to protect you.  
<snip rant>
> That was the answer.  Patch.  I'll do the
> best I can to block the crap from the outside, but when you let it walk
> in the backdoor, there ain't a lot I can do, but sit back and laugh. 
> Oh, and explain over and over again why for 3 weeks now I warned you to
> patch the workstations (that is what happened here at least) and told
> you the firewall couldn't stop it.

> From one "firewall guy" to another: If you got hit from the inside, then you are part of the problem as well. These 
> days there is no such thing as the trusted zone. A firewall  (and IDS) on your internal desktop network would have 
> been beneficial in securing the "core," and alerting you to the presence of the worm internally. So when it "comes in 
> the backdoor," there is in fact, still a lot you can do.
Security is a multi-faceted approach involving all elements of corporate IT departments working in concert with one 
another. To sit back and point the finger is to be as irresponsible as not patching one's systems.

~S~

Disclaimer: My own two cents.
  
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