On 30 Dec 2005 at 11:59, Diane Poremsky wrote: > Then the penalties aren't strong enough - make it a firing offence and > they'll quickly learn what they can and can't do on company computers.
That works great, until it's the boss that is messing around. Most clients I encourage to have an AUP that each person MUST sign off on, however without buyin from the boss, that's DOA. > Damage to the computer network should be a fireable offence because it has > the potential to cost the company a lot of money. If they deal with private Too many business customers don't see it that way. I've seen this from 1 computer mom and pop shops up to hundreds of computer enterprises. IT sees the need, management does not and won't pay for it. They look at the initial capital outlay and stop there. > info, like credit cards and social security numbers it also risks anyone > whose private information they hold - there is no excuse for allowing that > data to be at risk of viruses and trojans. Viewing or sharing porn should > also result in firing - it opens the company up to expensive harassment > lawsuits if they look the other way. Couldn't agree with you more. > But... if you know they are this bad, why do you allow them to do anything > not related to work? Block access to all but specific sites at the firewall I was speaking in general here, most of my clients are already protected from this sort of thing. > - block tinyurl services. Use a content scanner on the mail server to remove > viruses and attachments. Use virus scanners on the file shares and group > policies so they can't open or save exe's and other potentially dangerous > file types. Already do that with my larger clients, I use the Fortigate Security Appliances http://www.fortigate.com/ As they cover all that. Their Antispam solution leaves a bit to be desired in my experience so I usually have another line of defence, Trend CSM4SMB on Exchange or a Linux based mail relay running MailScanner or Maia-Mailguard with spamassassin, Clamav and another commerical antivirus package. > Antivirus, content control and security has been the most talked about thing > for the past several years - there is no excuse for a 100 person company not > to have their network secured. I feel no sympathy for any company who is hit > by a virus and suffers damage because they were too cheap to take steps to > protect themselves from their users. Again, preaching to the choir ;-) When I have the ability to do that I do it, however I've dealt with companies as have other consultants I've worked with, that just don't want to put the money out, even if you make a clear business case proposal. Typically after a problem they are more than happy to put the money out, but like many other things in life, it's too late, reputation is damaged etc. -- Harondel J. Sibble Sibble Computer Consulting Creating solutions for the small business and home computer user. [EMAIL PROTECTED] (use pgp keyid 0x3AD5C11D) http://www.pdscc.com (604) 739-3709 (voice/fax) (604) 686-2253 (pager) -- ---------------------------------------- To Change your email Address for this list, send the following message: CHANGE WIN-HOME your_old_address your_new_address to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Note carefully that both old and new addresses are required.
