Disseminating Organizational IT Security - Essay Example

Disseminating Organizational IT Security and Troubleshooting Best Practices In this paper, we are going to show how the information technology (IT) section plays an essential role in the operation of a well-run company. The senior systems administrator belongs to the IT department. The senior systems administrator operates with a group of people to guarantee the smooth running of the computer server system. The efficiency in performance of this job is critical in order for a company to have a success in the company, therefore the individual in this spot must have self-confidence, work experience, outstanding problem-solving skills, and the aptitude to work hard. (Northcutt, 2002) Companies must be cautious of security breaches. They should follow best practices, which include having policies in place to take care of any incidents of security breaches. They should able to detect what information has been mishandled and decide who the proper monitoring authorities are and whom they can report to. Affected clients should also be alerted. Introduction The main task is to help advance security of the company’s IT infrastructure after a chain of network security breaches. These breaches comprises of someone getting in to the network who is not authorized , and accredited users being requested for their passwords by anonymous person claiming to work in the companies department. The senior systems administrator in this company will work and be able to bring together a team of systems administrators including other members of the IT (information technology) staff. His/her precise duties are going to vary depending on the area that the institution focuses on. The senior systems administrator will maintain the computer systems of the company, and offer hardware support to personal computers and other peripherals for the office workforces. The position requires that they purchase different parts for the computer network. In addition, training and supervising prospective IT employees falls under the senior administrator’s job description. (Northcutt, 2002) Information technology system lapses and breaches of data security may disrupt the Company’s capacity to function in the customary course of operation by potentially triggering delays or termination of customer orders, blocking the manufacture of goods, or causing the unpremeditated disclosure of Company information. Management has engaged in steps to address these concerns for its own systems by executing important network security and in-house controls. (Conti, 2007) Information system security breaches Information system security is the practice of defending information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, perusal, inspection, recording, or destruction. It is a general term that can be used regardless of the form the data may take. Companies store vast amounts of information. There are various state laws that require companies to notify people who could be affected by security breaches. Some of the most encountered security breaches at the company include, Physical Security Breach, Electronic Security Breach, Data Capture Security Breach, Hackers breach, Carelessness breach, Insiders breach, and Secrets breach. User authentication policy is the most applied in the company (Conti, 2007) User Authentication policies Account policy The Account policy section of the system administration terminal allows him/her to set up an account policy. An account policy outlines the account-related policies like password and account lockout policies. Once you have come up with an account policy, you can allocate the policy to all the users. (Microsoft, 2003) The Account lockout policy area of the system Administration Console allows for the set up an account lockout policy for various user roles in the company System departments. The account lockout policy inactivates a user account incase malicious actions are noticed against that account in order to lessen the chances that the move compromise the account. The account lockout policy enforces the following items, the number of invalid logon attempts before the account is disabled and the period for which the user is denied any login, after two failed attempts. The delay increments by the configured time delay value with every consecutive login failure. (Microsoft, 2003) The Password policy page of the System Administration Console will allow for the control of a users password variety to define the features of the password to guarantee that it conforms to the security policy for a given site. This feature outlines attributes that the password must comply. The password policy administers conditions such as, if the user ID and password are valid and matching, the highest occurrence of successive characters, Maximum occurrences of any character, lifetime of the passwords lowest total number of alphabetic characters used and if the users former password can be re-entered. Session policies: In some platforms, session policies are included in the login timeout policy. With this policy, the systems will log off a user that is not active for a stretched period and demand they log back on to the program with the Login Timeout node. This enhancement is recalled through the system Configuration Manager. (Custom Security Policies, Fast, 2008) Communication media 1 Memo To all employees From systems administrator Date Subject: technicians: in the IT departments I would like to inform you that these are the guidelines and policies for this company. We expect every one the strictly adhere to it for better security Importance of IT security Step 1.Use of Administrator’s password and user password: the senior administrator will Point out that stalkers know that employees are privy to delicate information, so employees are possible targets. He/she will warn of intruders putting on convincing acts as they try to penetrate a company’s network. Employees who fail to work with the laid down security procedures will not successfully block impostors. Step 2.User Education and use of internet and social sites: The senior administrator should explain how apparently harmless online activities could render your company to serious dangers. Step 3.Physical Security: the senior administrator will use a given crime statistics to prove the significance of adhering to physical security processes. Step 4 Carelessness: The senior administrator should then explain that security provisions are impractical if employees disregard them. Security breaches can endanger the privacy of staffs and the financial integrity of a company, so they need to point out that staffs have a stake in maintaining a robust, secure system against attackers. Thank you for your cooperation Best Name Figure 1 Figure 2 Communication media 2 Memo To all Technicians From systems administrator Date: Subject: importance of security best practices I would like to inform you that these are the guidelines and policies for this company. We expect every one the strictly adhere to it for better security Importance of IT security Step 1 Make use of the Security Configuration Wizard The Security Configuration Wizard permits technicians to create XML-standard security policies, which are then be used on the servers. These policies are then used to facilitate services, configurations, and fixed firewall rules. Step 2 Practice isolation of services If necessary, there should be proper configuration of the servers so that they accomplish one specific undertaking. So that, if a server’s integrity is doubted, the hacker may gain access to just limited set of services. Step 3 Review your firewall configuration All the technicians should use a firewall at the network body and on each hardware on the network. The technicians also review the firewall’s port exceptions list. This will ensure that only the important ports are enabled. They should know that emphasis is typically sited on the ports used by the Windows operating system, but they should also be cautious of any firewall or rules that touches ports 1433 and 1434. These ports are reserved for observing and remotely joining to SQL server and have always become main target for the system hackers. Step 4 Use of multiple Administrator accounts They should know the significance of using a normal user account whenever imaginable and applying only an Administrative account, when the system is needed to achieve an action that needs administrative authorizations. Thank you for your cooperation Best Name Case scenarios, where there is an IT problem that requires troubleshooting Scenario 1: Clara Benson was absent from work for a month on medical leave. As she reported to work, she was dumbfounded, when she discovered that her immediate supervisor had changed his password to his desktop and got access to her voice mail messages. Solution to this of tricky situation starts with having a security policy in place. The purpose for which the system is to be used, this is more personal issue, as a senior administrator he/she must not entertain in the company. Having in place serious penalties for misuse of resources. It should be made clear who is allowed to access e-mails and voice mail messages, they should expect some amount for privacy. New password or editing procedures must be stiffened so that it is only the owner of the account who can login or out. Scenario 2 Dominic is an assistant administrator in the IT department. He complains of frequent disconnection from the network and the internet and he cannot get his mails. Problem Definition: Frequent disconnection from the internet. Collect information and by elimination narrow it down to specific area – starting with Operating System, the Browser, / Email Software that is in use to Outlook Express and Internet Explorer. Check if problem occurred during opening Outlook Express and working with email. If Outlook Express is not launched, the connection remains. Tracing and finding solutions to the problem. Remove the check on the connection tab in the tools menu. After which, reconnect and restart the Outlook Express to see if the connection is restored and is stable. Give some Explanations to the problem and reduce chances of reoccurrences. Scenario 3: Windows fails Start up Normally Make sure there are no systems disks inform of any storage media such as flash drives, CD inserted in the computer. There should be no external drives or devices before trying to worm booting the computer. Press F8 to enter the Windows Advanced Options menu during the process of booting. By Selecting the Last Known Good Configuration option. Make there is a backup file for some work that should not be lost in this process. Locate and choose “boot into Safe Mode with networking,” and this will lead to an area to perform a System Restore. Errors can be eliminated such as disk errors from the hard disks. Disk errors could be responsible for this problem. Perform virus scan and other possible threats at this point. The computer is then restarted. Choose “boot normally” option this time. (Custom Security Policies, Fast, 2008) Conclusion It is now clear that security of the network system of any company has always been very important; this makes it necessary for proper policies and security best practices today. Network security should be given higher priority in every organization. Hardening a machine should be under taken to lessen its attack surface. As a best practice, senior administrators of IT should create and maintain typical user accounts whenever possible. If there are more than one administrator in the company, there is need to create a personalized account for each of the administrators. Consequently, when an action believed to be more of administrative performed, it is possible to trace to the individual. References Custom Security Policies, Fast. (2008). Retrieved from InstantSecurityPolicy.com: http://www.instantsecuritypolicy.com/about.html Conti. (2007). Security Data Visualization: Graphical Techniques for Network Analysis . In G. Conti, Graphical Techniques for Network Analysis. No Starch Press . Microsoft. (2003, March 05). Best Practices and Troubleshooting . Retrieved December 27, 2012, from microsoft TechNet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ Northcutt. (2002). Network Intrusion Detection: An Analysts Handbook. In S. Northcut. sams. Read More