Security·4,715 discussions

Fill in the blank: The biggest threat to my network is ____

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Topic

Microsoft Windows Users.

In reply to Fill in the blank: The biggest threat to my network is ____

You know, those morons that think everyone should have admin rights over their workstations, that think that using a malware target is a good thing…..

Me

In reply to Fill in the blank: The biggest threat to my network is ____

I’m the last person who should be administering a network. Give me a harmless laptop to destroy. It’s safer.

Oh wait, that already happened.
http://techrepublic.com.com/5254-6257-0.html?forumID=99&threadID=173893&messageID=2000069&id=1383826

The Sales People

In reply to Fill in the blank: The biggest threat to my network is ____

who like jaqui so rightly said, also happen to be Microsoft Windows Users who happen to think everyone should have admin rights (ok I have to use the damn thing too .. but its not like I have a choice :p )

]:)

Microsoft windows itself in all its forms.

In reply to Fill in the blank: The biggest threat to my network is ____

Nuff Said.

Stupidity and Laziness

In reply to Fill in the blank: The biggest threat to my network is ____

Ignorance is a lack of knowledge. Stupidity is the purposeful lack or ignoring of knowledge. Users, execs and administrators that do not follow even the most lax security practices because “It just won’t happen to us.”

Laziness: Users use 123 as their password because they just cant remember one more password. Execs that do not want to enforce strong passwords because they don’t want to piss off Mrs. Oldlady the receptionist or secretary who sat behind moses in the second grade. Execs that don’t allow admins to lock down desktops because that same Mrs. OldLady just has to install weatherbug.

I could go on but I think you get the point.

Lack of documentation

In reply to Stupidity and Laziness

Face it. We’re not invincible and we owe it to our colleagues to leave evidence of what we’ve done and how we’ve done it. Combine that with the fact that we can’t remember EVERYTHING that’s been done and we’ve got issues.

What network?

In reply to Fill in the blank: The biggest threat to my network is ____

I’m lucky no one comes to take away my one computer!

The PTB are on their way. Be afraid, be very afraid. Mind the air lock!!!

In reply to What network?

.

Hiding in the closet

In reply to The PTB are on their way. Be afraid, be very afraid. Mind the air lock!!!

but I’m takin’ my PC with me!

Congress

In reply to Fill in the blank: The biggest threat to my network is ____

they will destroy the ‘net

Yeah, government.

In reply to Congress

That’s a damned insightful answer.

ME :^0 :^0 :^0

In reply to Fill in the blank: The biggest threat to my network is ____

But instead of being like The Trivia Geek I scare my [b]End Users Away[/b] they run out of buildings in sheer terror of me for something that they have done. 😀

And while there away I lock things down even more. :p

Of course the down side is that some of the end users are less than nice people and when they back a [b]BIG[/b] excavator onto their Desktop and ask to have it repaired it gets a bit hard. ?:|

Col :_|

forgetting to back-up data after the xmas party

In reply to ME :^0 :^0 :^0

due to an influx of fluid.

Well Neil

In reply to forgetting to back-up data after the xmas party

You have to drink a lot of fluids to stop the risk of becoming [b]Dehydrated[/b] don’t you? :^0

[b]That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it![/b] :p

Col ]:)

Users

In reply to Fill in the blank: The biggest threat to my network is ____

The biggest threat, especially ‘security threat’ to ANY company is it’s employees. Was it a trick question? This is common knowledge.

you.

In reply to Fill in the blank: The biggest threat to my network is ____

For the same reason that crooked cops are the greatest threat to physical safety, crooked IT “pros” are the greatest threat to information security.

Me too

In reply to Fill in the blank: The biggest threat to my network is ____

I told them not to let me get bored! I really did, I said if I get bored I look for things to do. I found naughty pictures on a hidden share on a server, I found and copied four gigs of music and two users who use one server to vpn to and surf. Well three people were fired and now I am watched all the time! I told them to not let me get bored!

Microsnot.

In reply to Fill in the blank: The biggest threat to my network is ____

Bloatware and seriously flawed coding.

You can just say “IE”

In reply to Microsnot.

it’s faster than typing all that other stuff. 🙂

Users.

In reply to Fill in the blank: The biggest threat to my network is ____

…

oh Dat’s Me…….. Myself : )

In reply to Fill in the blank: The biggest threat to my network is ____

The biggest threat to my network is me myself cos at times i really get bugged by the users who put me into a weird situations by their crappy knowledge so i scare the hell out of them and they find me a bigger threat to their computer than a virus hahaha

Users, users and yes you guessed it, users

In reply to oh Dat’s Me…….. Myself : )

Need I say anything more ? 😀

Staff turn over

In reply to Fill in the blank: The biggest threat to my network is ____

The biggest risk we have is losing key staff that know and maintain our infrastructure.

Physical Threats

In reply to Fill in the blank: The biggest threat to my network is ____

I know some will be tempted to flame me, but with years of preparation and decent budgets, we have a fairly solid network.

Malware attacks are just speed bumps.

I full fledged physical threat such as fire or flood would do us in for sure. Not forever, but for long enough that the losses would be incredible.

actually . . .

In reply to Physical Threats

You’d get less negative attention if you’d quit that passive-aggressive crap, like saying ” I know some will be tempted to flame me, but with years of preparation and decent budgets, we have a fairly solid network.”

Wow Nice Response and Predictable

In reply to actually . . .

You seem to be quite emotional, is it your time of the month?

It’s not called passive-aggressive crap. It’s called I’m sick and tired of people constantly thinking the world will end tomorrow.

It’s already starting to happen. I’m already seeing people like me agreeing that the glory days of malware has peaked.

Malware of all types will continue to be a problem. This is a never ending war. However, the technology and products out there are sufficient to protect oneself against 99% of the problems when implemented correctly.

We still have a lot of work to do, but it is relatively common knowledge now how to stop most attacks.

End users are as knowledgable as ever (still have a ways to go), more and more are using firewalls, AV, anti-spyware/adware, spam blocking, IDS, etc.

Don’t get me wrong, we still have a long way to go. But 2006 isn’t 2001. We’ve all heard it, the AV companies are drumming up alot of this fear…it’s their bread and bread.

Do you really think Microsoft doesn’t have a vested interest in closing security holes? Plenty of wild speculation about them wanting to get into the AV business and what not, but think about it.

The more time and resources they spend on fixing things is the less time and resources they have to innovation and create where the real money is.

Lastly, Linux zealots also have a vested interest in this. I’ll grant you Linux is on the whole more secure. But really, Linux zealots resort to pretty low tactics to scare Windows users.

In my last job, we went 4 1/2 years and had only one minor outbreak. In my current job, we have gone 1 1/2 years and have had no outbreaks. That’s a combined 6 years with one incidence.

That’s two well run networks. Some luck, some skill. But the fear tactics of some just don’t add up and are not my experience.

P.S. In the almost 30 posts in here, only 4 are about Microsoft. The rest are about backups, end users, lack of documentation, government regulations, etc.

I would of suspected a lot of different responses. When it comes down to it, backups, end users, and lack of documentation are USER ERRORS. For that matter, so is government regulations.

No mention so far about the lack of product capabilites. It usually boils down to lack of time, training, money, etc of which are all getting better over time.

That was interesting.

In reply to Wow Nice Response and Predictable

I make a comment consisting of a sentence or two about your “woe is me, I’m just a victim” routine, and you respond with a thirty-minute rant.

. . . and yet, you say I’m the emotional one. To each their own.

Well only having very limited experience

In reply to Wow Nice Response and Predictable

I was working with computers in 1974 and have been ever since that time and while I did try to avoid the PC when the fad hit the streets I eventually got dragged Kicking & Screaming into that side of the business. Back then I used DR Dos and never touched MS DOS as it was no where flexable enough for my needs and I did need to copy betwen different size media which MS was incapable of doing with the [b]XCOPY[/b] command.

Even when I was running Windoes 3 X I was still using DR DOS as the MS alternative just lacked the efficency to do things in a reasonable manner.

Well in all that time I’ve never suffered one infection other than a bit of harmless spyware which was picked up and routed out quickly buy not as [b]YET[/b] any virus of any description but the opperative word here is [b]YET![/b]

If prefering any form of Nix over Windows makes me a [b]Zellot[/b] that’s something that I’m happy to live with particuarly when I go to MS Meetings and complain about the OS and I’m constantly told that I’m expecting [b]Too Much from the OS[/b] as I’m constantly comparing the MS offering to a Comerical OS. I’m slightly confused here as isn’t XP Pro being pushed on business as the solution to their needs but even the MS Techs admit that it has holes and can not be compared to [b]A Real Comerical OS.[/b]

So perhaps you would like to tell me where it is that I’m making such a massive mistake in wanting the PC’s that I support today to work as stabilly as the Mainframes that I used to maintain.

Col

RE: Physical Threats

In reply to Physical Threats

The 25 lb sledge I want to take to that Win 2K3 SBS box.

Resisting the urge. 😐

I’ve got a mate here who

In reply to RE: Physical Threats

Will park a 40 ton excivator on it if you give him half a chance.

He’s done it to me once with a desktop and wanted to know if it could be repaired while the excivator was still sitting ontop of it well one of the tracks anyway. I would have missed that unit completely if he wasn’t hanging ut of the window ssaying [b]Warmer[/b] as I got closer and [b]Colder[/b] as I walked past the thing. As I don’t have a license to drive something like that I just left it where it was and suggested that maybe it was time for a new unit. 🙂

Col

the fix

In reply to Fill in the blank: The biggest threat to my network is ____

After all I have been through with my company protecting itself – my biggest threat is the fixes.

Basically, we are creating more problems and more trouble for ourselves than any hacker could DREAM of pulling off themselves. We are slower. We get ourselves locked out. In some cases, we loose the ability to do our jobs alltogether. The evil hacker doesn’t even have to lift a finger. All he has to do is *exist*.

Worse than recovering from a single attack, we loose the fight every minute of every day. Worse yet, we did it on purpose.

Ah well. Can it be that in terms of network security, is the “cure being worse than the disease” just an unavoidable fact?

I honestly don’t know.

-tb2

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