A roadmap to becoming security conscious

Abstract

We provide a formula for becoming a security conscious network manager. We addresses the core competencies required to be a security conscious network manager and give some examples of things that improves our organization's current security profile. Our opinion is that an administrator cannot secure what he doesn't understand. The reality of this is that without a deep understanding of core areas of computing we have no chance of defending a network. Computer and network attacks are the product of an attacker's understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in operating systems, features of popular software, networking protocols, and programming languages. These four areas of computing are referred to as the core competencies of computing. An attacker with this skill set will be able to use his understanding of these fundamentals to turn common computing tasks or common misconfigurations against us(that is hacking). Network managers are often unwilling to implement measures that could improve their security for the following reasons: 1) they think it's too expensive. 2) they think it'd be too much work, and not enough benefits. 3) they don't think they 'll ever be attacked. 4) they don't know common security measures and recommended practices. Some things we should consider implementing to improve our security are: 1) firewall 2) anti-virus software 3) vulnerability scanners 4) centralized logging 5) intrusion detection system 6) virtual private networking technology.