Re: RE: Probable new MS DCOM RPC worm for Windows

[Paul Schmehl <pauls () utdallas edu>]

--On Friday, September 26, 2003 7:28 PM -0400 Cael Abal <lists () onryou com> 
wrote:
> Personally, I'm of the opinion that if a person doesn't have admin privs
> on a machine, they shouldn't be expect to *cough* /administrate/ it.
Ah, but there's a big difference between being an "administrator" on a box 
and trying to find out how many "administrators" haven't done their job 
lately.

> I realize that in a school environment it's not that simple (you can't
> really stand by while the worm du jour has its way with your campus
> network) but really, the student subnets are virtually guaranteed to be
> a wasteland of Mad Max-like proportions no matter what you do, no?
> Isn't your only real weapon a set of very enthusiastic edge filters?

Those aren't the only weapons.  Good sound security policy is by far the 
biggest one.  Education is another (don't think classrom, think 
experience.)  Lose access to the network a time or too, spend a little time 
in the Dean of Students office and you begin to appreciate timely patching 
and up to date virus protection and copyright violations, etc., etc.

We're working on a "jail vlan" concept now, where "evil" computers go. 
They get access to email (so they can beg for forgiveness), a web page that 
says, "You naughty, naughty boy" and access to one website - their vendor 
of choice's patch site - so they can fix their problem.

Paul Schmehl (pauls () utdallas edu)
Adjunct Information Security Officer
The University of Texas at Dallas
AVIEN Founding Member
http://www.utdallas.edu

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