Poll Results: Anti-Spyware on servers

["Basgen, Brian" <bbasgen () PIMA EDU>]

 6 Colleges and Universities responded.
 
 5 do not put Anti-Spyware on servers, but most stated that they have
policies in place regarding acceptable use of servers. Thus, they felt
this policy mitigated the threat to an acceptable level of risk. 

 1 College does use Anti-Spyware on their servers, another indicated
that both anti-spyware and anti-virus on servers was unnecessary. While
a prevailing argument is that Spyware is a very low threat because it is
entirely user based and is not self-replicating, the same is not true
for viruses. They can infect machines through no fault of the machine's
users. 

 Thanks everyone for the feedback. As a result, we've decided to not use
Anti-Spyware on our Windows servers, opting to maintain our AV, we will
create a policy, and implement some egress filtering. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brian Basgen
IT Systems Architect, Security
Pima Community College
 
 
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lucas, Bryan [mailto:b.lucas () TCU EDU] 
> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 8:16 AM
> To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
> Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Poll: Anti-Spyware on servers
>
> I would be hesitant to deploy AS on a server.  I would not 
> mind scanning a server in a report only mode from a network 
> host.  I think the product are still maturing as are the 
> definitions.  There is too much risk they would 
> quarantine/clean a necessary file.  A better way to go would 
> be a system-integrity program like TripWire for your servers.
>
> Bryan Lucas
> Server Administrator
> Texas Christian University
> (817) 257-6971
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Basgen, Brian [mailto:bbasgen () PIMA EDU]
> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 10:10 AM
> To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
> Subject: [SECURITY] Poll: Anti-Spyware on servers
>
>  We recently began deploying CounterSpy Anti-Spyware 
> throughout our College, and a debate has arisen over whether 
> or not it is needed on Windows servers. Some administrators 
> feel that it is unecessary and potentially harmful to 
> servers, so I'd like to get an idea on whether or not some 
> higher education enterprises deploy anti-spyware on their 
> servers. Thanks. 
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Brian Basgen
> IT Systems Architect, Security
> Pima Community College
>  
>