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The Road to Convergence
7/1/2008
Benefits to having data and physical security running over the same network are indisputable.
TIP #4: Engineer for High Availability
The benefits of having data and physical security running over the same network are indisputable: increased efficiency, cost savings, and more. If the network goes down, however, the entire institution could be in a boatload of trouble. Stephen Northcutt, president of the SANS Technology Institute, a postgraduate information security college in Bethesda, MD, says every school that opts to converge disparate kinds of security must engineer for high network availability, and develop a contingency plan should the network fail. "Redundant power supplies and asymmetrical routing are even more critical when everything is riding on the same network," he says. "You can never be too careful."
TIP #5: Test, Test, Test
Once you've blended data and physical security, it's critical to test the converged network to make sure it works. Northcutt says this process should be painstakingly comprehensive, since securing the organization's assets is perhaps the most important task facing technologists today. "Testing the network should go well beyond ordinary quality analysis," he says, suggesting that network security administrators should perform a literal battery of tests to make sure the network can withstand every kind of attack. Northcutt notes that in many cases, it may behoove an institution to hire an outside organization or consultants to perform these tests. Another option: ethical hackers, people employed by the school to find holes in network defenses before truly nefarious users do.
TIP #6: Don't Forget the Humans
In the world of security, even the most sophisticated technologies can't substitute for human intuition. Mullendore insists that the most important factor in security is monitoring, and that no automated system-- no matter how bleeding-edge it might be-- possesses discretionary decision-making on a par with that of a human being. "Whatever kinds of security you've got on your network, a living and breathing person has to receive each alarm and make the decision to send somebody or ignore it," says Mullendore, a former campus security officer who also serves as executive director of the California College and University Police Chiefs Association. "Whatever you're spending on your security network, never underestimate the importance of people."
Matt Villano is senior contributing editor of this publication.
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