Security Basics mailing list archives

Re: Oh Dear, Where to start?!


From: jon rodman <vul_list () yahoo com>
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2003 07:45:59 -0700 (PDT)

I would have to bring up the point that depending on
what type of Government office your working for they
are probably governed the Department of Commerce. The
Department of Commerce created NIST, for the purpose
of dealing with IT and IT security, as well as other
matters.  You will find approved software as well as
FAM's, FIPS, and OMB's, which are requirements for IT
systems, things like minimum password lengths, how
often you have to change passwords, the sharing of
accounts, and may other things.  That way you can
create a policy based upon the already written and
approved requirements that this Government office HAS
to follow, which will stand a better chance of being
approved by the upper management when you mention the
fact that they are required by law to follow them.

http://csrc.nist.gov/
http://www.nist.gov/




--- Steve Frank <stevefrankrit () yahoo com> wrote:
Hey everyone,

Ok... I am in a bit of a jam here and I was hoping
to
get some feedback from some of you with appropriate
experience in the field of network security and
policy
development.

I am an senior at RIT studying (essentially) systems
administration. My main focus and priority has been
computer security and policy development. I recently
took a internship with a small government office
helping out with computer administration tasks. Upon
arrival, I decided it would be fun to do a windows
update to see what sort of things would come up for
my
PC. Low and behold, there were over 40 critical
updates, driver updates, and recommended updates. 

Right off the bat this triggered the feeling that
there was absolutely no security or update plans in
place at this particular organization. I quickly
addressed the issue, and have been working to draft
a
comprehensive security policy and implement
technical
controls.

What I need advice on is the following: If you were
introduced to a mixed network (literally all
versions
of windows since 3.1 and mac systems) that have no
updates, backups, or patches installed... connected
to
a network with only a basic NAT table and no other
security... with not even anti-virus software
enabled... with no user policies or disaster plans
in
place... with unprotected netbios shares
everywhere...
where would you start the process of building some
sort of security solution?

I mean, I've seen passwords on monitors, shared
accounts, open public ports (even the wiring cabinet
was unlocked in plain view of passbys to the
building). I've been tasked with creating the
security
policies relating to internet use, network and phone
use, passwords, physical security, backup/disaster
plans, antivirus, incident response, email
use/protection, and whatever else needs done. This
wouldnt be so bad normally I guess, but there is
virtually no budget allocated to help for this
project
and I have approximately 3 months to do it. To make
matters worse, I am also responsible for systems
admin, network admin, tech support, programming, and
whatever other tasks may need to be done in the
meantime.

So basically, if you had to start from nothing,
where
would you start first? What would you consider to be
the most important things to be implemented? I am
literally working from ground zero here... heh!

Thank so much in advance ;-)

Steve Frank

----------------
President SPARSA
Security Practices and Research Student Association
Rochester Institute of Technology

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