Re: Outsourcing Firewalls/Internet Security count

[Christopher Nicholls <chrisn () softway com au>]

At 14:41 5/12/97 -0500, Joseph S. D. Yao wrote:
> I suspect we all currently outsource our telephone services, and think
> nothing of it.  Why should we insist on being more private with our
> network services?
<SNIP>
> Heck, I've even heard - although I wouldn't swear to it - that some
> government installations are considering outsourcing firewalls.  I
> haven't heard that any are actually doing it now, though.
>
> Would I do it?  Not bloody likely.  You have to be pretty paranoid to
> do network security, and it shows.  I'm just like a lot of you: I hate
> to let anything like that out of my hands, because then I'm not
> directly controlling it.  But that's also part of the reason why I'd
> never go into business for myself (I don't know how Marcus balances
> it!): I have trouble balancing business justifications for doing things
> less than perfectly.  Intellectually, I'm aware that such reasons
> exist.  But it's not a part of my central mental model of the world.
>
> So why am I arguing for out-sourcing?  Because a lot of the arguments
> I've read have been pretty much from the point of view of that last
> paragraph: pretty much "I wouldn't do it 'cause it's not the perfect
> solution."  And it's not.  But sometimes it can be justified, as not
> having your own private secure communications network across the world
> can be justified, as a less-than-perfect solution for less-than-greatest
> needs.

In Australia it starting to happen in State and Federal Government. In a bid
to reduce the costs of government, systems integration companies such as
IBM, EDS and the like are bidding for outsourcing contacts which include
fully outsourced IT and Internet IT security. In fact there is also a
government-run secure gateway constructed to provide security to whole-of
government for Internet and intranet secure comms. This too in time will
probably be outsourced. 

Whilst we debate the ins and outs of the matter... it is happening here
already. Similar things are happening with private firms too in Australia.

Regards

Christopher
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Christopher A Nicholls
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