Final Words

Far too many companies equate computer security with the firewall. OK, perhaps this Internet thing caught you by surprise and you needed to get connected right away. In response, you focused all your energy on selecting the right firewall and making sure that one connection was secure.

The problem with that approach is that the firewall is really a very small part of systems security. You simply pick one and hire someone who can support it. Out-of-the-box installs actually create bigger security problems on an intranet. And I don't say this just because that's what all the statistics are telling me. I say this because that's what I see out there in the trenches.

I'm not the only one who sees it. CMU's CERT Coordination Center estimates that 99 percent of all reported computer attacks are the results of known vulnerabilities for which patches are already available.

Intranet security problems are real so real, in fact, that your employees must know how to configure your systems for security. Otherwise, your systems may be every bit as much at risk as the information on TransWorld's servers.