RE: Height of paranoia

["Rivest, Philippe" <PRivest () transforce ca>]

Your starting with a bad step our your missing some description in your text.
You would have to first have some paper work done, followed by IT techniques.

For example, an information security policy, an NDA or similar and also a
policies that regulate the use of the entity equipment. These would be
approved and put in place before anything else is done.

Now that you have something to work BY, you can get a brainstorming done and
apply what ever is acceptable.


For #1, I would'nt detach anything from the domain or even play with the DNS.
If you suspect that port 3389 is accessed when they are away, either have the
PC shutdown by 7pm, disabled the port, or firewall it. Also, if you have a
"feeling that", investigate it first before doing what I'm suggesting as it
may not apply. Remember, a PC that is off is hard to connect to :)

For #2, I belive this should have been done thru out your network. I'm not a
Cisco/network expert, but your network segmentation should be better then
2000 user on the same vlan. Also the ACL and the deney should already be what
your offering the list as an option, this would be basic so yes it would be a
good id (with the monitoring).


And finally, #3, encrypt all inbound outbound emails that they receive thru a
certificate (like pgp, pki, OpenCA). Also its not that crazy to do, if your
information policy states something like "No one should be able to access
emails of other, unless the direction approves it" (patch it with a more
official statement).  If you have to read managements emails, just retrieve
the certificate and read it, but they should have some basic control over the
certificate.


Anyway, hoping there PC are updated, that they done use WIFI or connect at
home. 



I don't want to come down on you, just make some things more clear :)

Merci / Thanks
Philippe Rivest, CEH, Network+, Server+, A+
Vérificateur interne en sécurité de l'information
Courriel: Privest () transforce ca
Téléphone: (514) 331-4417
www.transforce.ca

Vous pourriez imprimer ce courriel, mais faire pousser un arbre c'est long.
You could print this email, but it does takes a long time to grow trees.
"Everything that can fail, will fail. If something can't fail, it will fail
anyway" - Murphy

-----Message d'origine-----
De : listbounce () securityfocus com [mailto:listbounce () securityfocus com] De la
part de WALI
Envoyé : 27 août 2008 11:55
À : security-basics () securityfocus com
Objet : Height of paranoia

It's a given that all workstations have XP firewall enabled, an enterprise 
grade antivirus and Windows defender installed. I am the security guy.

The need is that there are a couple top management executives that have 
highly confidential data/emails residing on their desktops, and quite a few 
times, the information seems to have leaked out.

Discounting the 'word of mouth' of their secretaries or the end recipients 
of that information, I want to take as many precautions from the IT security 
perspective as possible and even bring our domain admins and helpdesk 
personnel into the realm of doubt.

We have a Windows 20003/exchange 2003 environment of about a 2000 users. 
Here's what I have thought:

1. If I detach these executive PCs from the domain. Mails will stop landing 
in MS Outlook. Is there a way around? Also DNS security doesn't register any 
PC unless it's joined to a domain. I thought of this to make it out of 
bounds by system/domain admins. I have a feeling that their port 3389 gets 
accessed when they aren't around.

2. Alternatively, create a private vlan on the core switch and make these 
PCs as it's members. Put an ACL and deny everything except ports required to 
authenticate to AD and exchange and few other web applications. Monitor port 
memberships regularly.

3. How to secure their emails from exchange admins (it's the height, I 
know).

Pls advise!!