Network Security Auditing

People often ask me which OS is the most secure, and my answer is the OS with the best administrators. The most important factor in your overall network security is how well you manage the network. A large component of managing network security is knowing which systems are present on your network, finding security holes, and getting them fixed. Even well-built, well-managed systems are vulnerable to ever-new security risks, so running one or more network security auditing tools is essential.

You need to audit your entire network, not just the parts that you think are important. Although smaller networks can use the easy-to-manage security model of allowing only one way in or out through a firewall, a larger network must have many access points. Using a hardened perimeter to protect a large network is becoming as obsolete as using moats and drawbridges to protect a city. Internal security is important in the event of a virus-borne attack as well. If you properly protect your network shares, a virus can't corrupt as many files. Finally, attackers can use unprotected, seemingly unimportant systems to obtain access to crucial systems. . . .