risks of a networked environment...

atomiser

Gawd
Joined
Jun 12, 2004
Messages
619
hi. as per title really. i'm after people's general considerations of the risks of a networked environment...

here are my initial thoughts...

hardware failure, to include server and network equipment. (the loss of a workstation due to hardware failure i would class as trivial - in a networked environment).

infection due to virii / worms etc etc

'hackers'

some solutions to the problems might be:

'acceptable use' policy of the workstations / server to include such things as password protection, downloading from the 'net, personal use of email etc etc

firewall, intrusion detection system

anti-virus software - possible centrally controlled from a 'patch-distribution' server - if the network is large or distributed enough.

resilient hard drives in a raid type configuration and also a tape backup system for server (or perhaps an offsite backup using spare internet bandwidth if not a 24/7 operation).

redundant network topology.

please could anyone point out things that i have not thought of or that i have plain missed!

many thanks!
 
well depending on how important the documents people are working on you may want them to each have a link to their own network share on their workstations for them to store all their documents on a file server that runs nightly backups. Also I would suggest if you are hosting email to have them use imap as well so that all the emails are stored in one central placei n case of workstation failure, and again make sure the email server is being backed up.

You may also want to think about physical security. Lock on the server room, on the servers themselves, etc. If you are paranoid get some chemical fire supressant systems in the server room or atleast have an electrical fire extinguisher within close reach. I am not sure how much info you are looking for, are you designing a network and performing a total risk analysis on it?
 
-Redundant switches
-Redundant routers
-Redundant connections to the internet and/or satelite offices through ISDN, duplicate connection, etc...
-Redundant Power via seperate circuits, UPS, generator
-Disaster Recovery Plan
-Off site storage of backups
-etc...
 
One of the biggest concerns to consider is your users. A security policy should be drafted and **enforced** to let people know that if they take actions which could lead to a compromise of company information/network security they will be punished. Don't bother drafting a comprehensive security policy and then not enforce it.

Here is a great page that has a huge variety of pre-drafted security policies:

http://www.sans.org/resources/policies/

good luck!
 
thanks for those - i've been doin some research and i pretty much came up with the ones you said.

basically looking at a hq and 3 site offices and maybe thinking along the lines of thin client.
 
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