On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 2:40 PM, Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 5:21 PM, Kurt Buff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> As a point of curiosity - I'm assuming that there is some sort of >> internal switching going on with the NISP. > > The NISP (National Industrial Security Program) is just the > jurisdiction most private industry contractors doing work for the US > government fall under. It's not a single network or something like > that. It's basically a set of standards you have to follow. Same > general idea as HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, ITIL, etc. Some of their > requirements are a bit strict by typical corporate standards, though. > The most notable thing would be that outside network connectivity > (Internet) is generally going to be forbidden on any such system. The > so-called "air gap firewall" -- if the systems are phyiscally > segregated from outside networks, they can't be attacked via outside > networks. > > It really confounds tech support people who want to use WebEx, > Remote Desktop, etc., though. :-)
This starts to come clear... >> Why not hook up a GPS time source to an internal switch's serial port? >> It wouldn't be outside connectivity. > > Private networks with no outside connectivity are allowed. If you > could find a GPS gadget and a network switch that could work together > to do that, sure. Or, if there is such a product as a GPS gadget that > attaches directly to the network, that would work, too. > > I don't really know much about using GPS as a time source -- I just > know it's possible. I've never needed reference time *that* accurate > for anything I've done. :) It's not necessarily for the precision, though that's nice. It's for the independence from possibly erroneous NTP sources, or bad connectivity if the ISP is fubar'ed - that's your biggest win. ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
