Chapter 7. Maintaining Security

Sure, the firm had a firewall, but it was all wide open to anyone with an 802.11(b) card.

Simson Garfinkle, Co-Founder Sandstorm Enterprises

You're the MIS manager for a major chip manufacturer. Your team supports the company network and is responsible for keeping the network up and resolving network problems. That's a big responsibility in a large company. It's also a thankless job. Everyone notices when the network goes down. But they never notice how nice and fast the network is when it's up that's expected.

Your team is also responsible for maintaining the company firewall. That firewall protects your network from the big bad Internet. You're really lucky to have one of the world's best firewall experts working for you. Whenever a problem comes up, he's right there to take charge. Having mature employees gives you the extra time you need to deal with things like corporate politics and budgets. In fact, you've just put the finishing touches on your department's budget for next year.

The phone rings. It's your firewall expert, calling to let you know that another hacker broke into the company through the firewall. He's contacted the corporate security group. They will keep track of the hacker, while he figures out how the hacker broke in. You say, "Fine. Just let me know when the problem's resolved."

Now, back to that budget. The numbers look good not too high, but high enough. This way, if 20 percent gets slashed, you can still have a good year.

Since time flies when you're working on budgets, the end of the day rolls around quickly. You're just about to go home when you realize that your firewall administrator hasn't called you back yet. Oh, well. No big deal. You're sure he has things under control. Might as well head out to make that hockey game tonight. The Sharks are playing at home, and you never miss a game.

The next day, your firewall administrator calls. "We kicked the hacker off the network late last night. And I figured out what the problem was and patched it. He won't be back through that route again." Great work! You knew that things would work out fine.

What's wrong with this picture? A manager who's responsible for maintaining the company firewall who thinks a break-in is not a big deal should be looking for a new career path! That's not the type of manager I would want supporting my network and firewall.

If you think that everyone responsible for the safety of your data really cares about security, think again. The company's agenda, to keep information safe, isn't always everyone's agenda. Just consider...