Re: Outsourcing Firewalls/Internet Security count

["Rick Low" <rlow () ewa-canada com>]

At 10:56 03-12-97 -0800, you wrote:
> 1997-12-02-21:10:59 Edward Cracknell:
> > 1997-12-02-02:20:52: Adam Safier:
> > > How many people received a query or had a chief security officer
> > > CIO express an interest outsourcing their Firewall / security
> > > management?
> >
> > All of us....and the general opinion is that this is a good thing.
>
> Speak for yourself; I've never personally heard such a request, and
> regard it as a horrible thing, for a couple of reasons.
>
> The first one is, you shouldn't be extending that sort of trust outside
> your own organization; this is the most obvious and trivial reason.

(Just provoking discussion, not taking a stand...)

Why not?  Isn't that what companies have been doing for years with physical
security -- outsourcing alarm monitoring, sensor configuration and
maintenance, detection and response, etc.

What's the difference between the Honeywells and ADTs of the world and the
network security business?  Will network security ever get to the same
level of "maturity" of the physical security world, so that outsourcing
*is* sensible?  If so, when?  If not, why not?


______________________
Rick Low
EWA-Canada Ltd.
Ottawa, Canada
+1 (613) 230-6067 x239
rlow () ewa-canada com