A couple of things come to mind. Spyware programs installed by internal users inadvertently can ramp up outgoing traffic considerably and waste your bandwidth. Opening up outgoing ports also makes it much easier for peer-to-peer file sharing applications on your internal LAN to do their dirty work; clearly a security risk well defined elsewhere. Some trojans may also enjoy the new-found ability to establish outbound communications over whatever port they choose.
I really don't understand why your firewall group would want to do this, it is such an obvious risk in many ways and violates the well established security principle of 'least prividege'. Sounds like your firewall guys are either really lazy or need some remedial security training. Fred -----Original Message----- From: tony tony [mailto:tonytorri@;yahoo.com] Sent: Thursday, November 07, 2002 8:34 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Open All Outbound Ports? Hi, Our firewall group has came to me several times over the last few months wanting my approval to open all of the "OUTBOUND" ports on our firewall facing the internet. Their argument is that this would not significantly reduce our security and it will reduce their time/effort in administration. They claim they get several requests a week to open up out bound ports and the number keeps growing each month. They want to go for the gusto...and open up all 65,000+ outbound ports. I am in the security area and they want my agreement/sign off before they do this. It just does not "feel/smell right" but I am losing ground with my arguments. What are some good arguments I can use? Tony __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? U2 on LAUNCH - Exclusive greatest hits videos http://launch.yahoo.com/u2
