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Subject Author Date
Students' computers... Geir Holmavatn 09-30-2005
Posted by Dazz on September 30, 2005, 10:22 pm
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wrote:

>No, it's not done every morning, but it is at least done once, when they
>arrive on campus. They even supply AV to those students without (on our
>site license). That way they can at least _start_ the academic year
>without the network coming under attack.

Only when they arrive on campus? What about the rest of the academic
year?

What do campus staff have in place to ensure that *all* users are
keeping their virus definitions up-to-date? What about security
patches? Are campus staff insisting that they also use firewalls?

Exactly how much is managed by the campus staff and how much is left
in the hands of the users?

How do campus staff enforce these policies and ensure that they are
adhered to?

Is the network segmented or isolated from other more sensitive areas
of the network?

Are campus staff also employing the use of firewalls and anti-virus
gateways to help protect the network?

Dazz



Posted by Steve Welsh on September 30, 2005, 11:15 pm
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Dazz wrote:
> wrote:
>
>
>>No, it's not done every morning, but it is at least done once, when they
>>arrive on campus. They even supply AV to those students without (on our
>>site license). That way they can at least _start_ the academic year
>>without the network coming under attack.
>
>
> Only when they arrive on campus? What about the rest of the academic
> year?
>
> What do campus staff have in place to ensure that *all* users are
> keeping their virus definitions up-to-date?

If they take on 'the' site license software and they are connected to
the campus network, it's done automatically. But in any case it is many
orders of magnitude better than just a couple of years ago, when the
protection was _zero_ :(

What about security
> patches? Are campus staff insisting that they also use firewalls?

They are behind the campus firewall anyway

>
> Exactly how much is managed by the campus staff and how much is left
> in the hands of the users?
>
> How do campus staff enforce these policies and ensure that they are
> adhered to?

Dunno - not that close to it :-O

>
> Is the network segmented or isolated from other more sensitive areas
> of the network?

Yes, very much so

>
> Are campus staff also employing the use of firewalls and anti-virus
> gateways to help protect the network?

As above

>
> Dazz
>


Posted by Dazz on October 1, 2005, 12:07 pm
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wrote:

<snipped>

>If they take on 'the' site license software and they are connected to
>the campus network, it's done automatically. But in any case it is many
>orders of magnitude better than just a couple of years ago, when the
>protection was _zero_ :(

Yeah, there always has to be a starting point. As long as no-one gets
complacent about it and thinks "Well, we've done our bit and that's
all we have to do".

> What about security
>> patches? Are campus staff insisting that they also use firewalls?
>
>They are behind the campus firewall anyway

My concern would be more about what was happening on the internal
network

>> Exactly how much is managed by the campus staff and how much is left
>> in the hands of the users?
>>
>> How do campus staff enforce these policies and ensure that they are
>> adhered to?
>
>Dunno - not that close to it :-O

Ahh.

>> Is the network segmented or isolated from other more sensitive areas
>> of the network?
>
>Yes, very much so

That's always good. :-)

>> Are campus staff also employing the use of firewalls and anti-virus
>> gateways to help protect the network?
>
>As above

The questions I asked are more or less the same questions that the
Library I'm currently contracting at will find itself in very shortly
(and to a lesser degree, the situation they are already in).

Currently, our staff are using the same servers (Citrix environment)
and network as the library patrons. The really cluey patrons out
there can literally access many of the same services that staff
access, even though we've tried to nail them down as much as possible.

Unfortunately, being a Gov entity, there are so many levels of
beaurocracy that it's not funny. When I first walked in (a few months
back) I looked at the current setup and said "Oh, my freaking god"
(substitute "freaking" for another word ;-P ).

Because the Library is supposed to be "open" for the patrons and
because senior management believe in enforcing this "openness" (at the
cost of security), we are in a constant struggle to stay on top.

They have plans to introduce wireless access for the patrons once the
new building is opened up, and we are going to find ourselves in a
similar position to that which was described in the OP's first post,
and your response. :-(

Hopefully, senior management will listen to what we have to say - but
I suspect they won't. :-(

Dazz



Posted by Shadus on September 30, 2005, 7:25 am
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> What tips do you give as of security measurements in this scenario?

One thing I would be sure to do is have a firewall on the edge of the
network to prevent scanning and attacks of opportunity.


Posted by Brian J. Baas, CISSP on September 30, 2005, 10:28 am
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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: RIPEMD160

Shadus wrote:
>
>>What tips do you give as of security measurements in this scenario?
>
>
> One thing I would be sure to do is have a firewall on the edge of the
> network to prevent scanning and attacks of opportunity.

We, at Calkvin College, use Campus Manager from Brandford Networks
URL:http://www.bradfordnetworks.com/

This product will scan for lot of stuff before letting a machine on the
network. It has alot of backend stuff (vlans, a control server...)

It might be worth a look...
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