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Network Security: Stand & Deliver
9/26/2006
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Many schools see tools such as vulnerability assessment apps falling into a new category of security solutions: security event management (SEM) software. Generally, this technology combines vulnerability assessment with packet monitoring, intrusion detection and prevention, and a reporting engine to present findings coherently. Still, like penetration testing tools, SEM tools only find problems; they don’t fix them. Yet, when SEM software is working adequately, it can centralize a number of security features, making it easier for network administrators to manage a variety of functions.
Tools of the Trade
SECURITY WAS HOT on the minds of those who attended the Campus Technology 2006 conference in Boston this summer. During a panel about fighting hackers, technologist Jane DelFavero, assistant director of technology security services at New York University, listed a number of free tools that can be used to snuff out spots where hackers may sneak into the campus network.
Some of these tools include:
For more information on the importance of penetration testing, click here.
Recent reports from Gartner indicate that it can cost up to $400,000 to implement an off-theshelf SEM system. At Boston College (MA), however, technologists recently took matters into their own hands, developing their own system to manage security events. The new product is built in XML and Java. David Escalante, director of computer policy and security, says that while it isn’t perfect yet, it has improved visibility of security events across the network as a whole, enabling IT administrators to be more proactive about the enhancements they choose to make.
“If you’re securing your network adequately, you’ve got a bunch of machines generating a ton of data almost every hour,” Escalante says. “We’re just trying to manage this information constructively, and hope to figure out a way to make it more useful than ever before.”
WEBEXTRA :: More on the perennial fight against viruses and spam, click here.
Matt Villano is senior contributing editor of this publication.
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