On Thursday 21 September 2006 09:00, Andrew Cameron wrote:
> > If you actively participate on the net, you will have two way
> > network traffic.
> > Even if you don't have any ports open, you can get hacked -
>
> As you have found out using your'e so secure linux boxes.
> Now was that an inherent vuneribility or  Bad management ?  :)

That was a server hosting exclusively open source projects, with multiple 
people having remote access and software installation privileges, where 
somebody exploited a vulnerability in a wiki program that allowed the 
intruder to install file sharing software in the /temp directory.

This intrusion was detected quickly, and now the /temp directory is set to 
non-executable (meaning you still can copy files onto that directory, but you 
cannot execute any programs on that directory) so that the same exploit 
cannot happen again in the future

In a practice you never would allow remote users to create themselves a user 
account (as is necessary for such open wiki) without vetting the user first

You can't have a car accident without driving in one, and you can't have web 
accidents without interacting on the web. I see great benefits in web 
interaction, so I have to minimize the risks but accept that they will never 
be zero.

In the future, I plan to offer web services to patients *neccessarily* from 
within the practice network (eg realtime online appointments as opposed to 
the system we currently have where the receptionist still has to ring back to 
confirm, realtime access to the patient's own record at the discretion of the 
patient (as opposed to currently being able to request an online health 
summary) etc.

So I have to gain experience in the possible exploits, and once we go live, 
monitoring will be constant. I'll probably install a "security dashboard" on 
my own computer (or whoever administers our practice network at that time) 
where the logs scroll in realtime and get colorized by an analyzing script 
like logcheck (such software, e.g. nagios, of course already exists in the 
open software world) 

Those who do nothing think they cannot fail - but they have already failed in 
the worst sense anybody can fail - they have become irrelevant and 
inconsequential.

Horst
_______________________________________________
Gpcg_talk mailing list
[email protected]
http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk

Reply via email to