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*** And on a related note: Microsoft, please
stop releasing Network Card Driver Updates via
the Windows Update service. They typically cause
more problems than resolution. A better solution
is to say that an updated network card driver
is available and to download it locally, then
manually install it. This is much better than
leaving systems “internet-crippled”
due to installing a network card driver online
and being taken offline as a result. Not everyone
has another machine to use to download a driver.
Number 3 - Train your users. Set IT company
policy about opening emails and attachments.
Train your users not to open attachments with
certain extensions and/or from people they don’t
recognize. If the “blonde secretary”
just can’t get it through her head about
opening emails and attachments from people she
doesn’t know, perhaps she needs an IT
installed mail filter. Or perhaps she needs
a written warning from HR… two warnings
and she’s fired for the betterment of
the company. Teach people to talk to the sysadmin
before following the instructions of an email
he supposedly sent. Teach them not to give out
their work email except when necessary. Set
corporate policy that email is for corporate
use, not personal use. This means Mom should
be emailing your Yahoo
or Hotmail
account, not your me@mycompany.com account.
Further, users shouldn’t be viewing personal
email on corporate equipment or company time.
If Mom doesn’t have your work email address,
then she can’t send you an infected attachment
when she gets an address book virus. Don’t
give out your work email when sites “require”
it. Give them a generic email address. I personally
have 3 main email addresses. My work one is
for just that: work! I have a personal account
for friends and family. I have a Yahoo account
that I use when a website or newsgroup or mailing
list needs an email address. Do not opt in to
mailing lists with corporate email address.
When the java developer needs to join the Jakarta
mailing list, he should do so with his personal
Yahoo account, not his corporate email address.
Don’t have “careers@” alias
to the HR person’s actual email account.
Instead, have it be its own account that the
HR person also checks. It makes things more
portable and easier to control.
Number 4 - Make good backups. Backups to tape
are not sufficient. Definitely do data backups
to tape, but also do disaster recovery backups
such as system images with Norton Ghost. Store
image CDs, copies of OS CDs, and at least a
full backup's worth of tapes offsite.
One rant: recent news says that Microsoft is
considering entering the anti-virus market.
This brings some interesting thoughts.
#1 - How will we get new MS anti-virus definition
files when the virus is assaulting the MS Update
site
#2 - Most viruses are coded against known MS software
exploits. Shouldn’t MS be more focused
on writing good code and A) less focused on
software to stop the viruses exploiting their
own poor code and B) less focused on remaining
a monopoly now trying to put the anti-virus
companies out of business since no one will
use them if the AV software is incorporated
into the OS? Windows needs to be an Operating
System, not a complete computing solution.
#3 - If it takes MS an average of 2 weeks to
a 1 month to release a patch for a publicly
known vulnerability, are we, the end-users,
really going to wait days or weeks for MS to
release updated anti-virus definition files?
Microsoft’s track record doesn’t
speak well for them in this regard. Bill Gates’
security initiative has been in full swing for
well over a year now, yet we have LOVSAN, Slapper,
Slammer, and other viruses plaguing us daily.
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