Managing a remote access environment (Gartner Group TR)

From Al Macintyre cut & paste from another list because I think this is a 
recurring hassle for some AS/400 managers who might be interested in 
reviewing a larger picture.  I chopped out the part of the e-mail that I 
thought was extraneous to the main issue of showing that TR conducts debates 
that have some relevance to our AS/400 challenges.

Subj:    Managing a remote access environment
From:   ecomments@techrepublic.com (IT Debate at TechRepublic.com)

TechRepublic: http://www.techrepublic.com

Presents
GARTNER'S IT DEBATE TECHMAIL

This week's IT Debate

MANAGING A REMOTE ACCESS ENVIRONMENT: AVOID COMMON MISTAKES

HERE IS THIS WEEK'S BOTTOM LINE FROM GARTNER 
With telecommuting skyrocketing in popularity, IT managers should 
consider establishing policies for managing a remote access 
environment. To avoid costly errors, it's a good idea to learn what 
pitfalls other IT managers have experienced.

If you're providing remote access to your users, you've got to have a 
security plan. The key is to understand and address failure points. 
Gartner provides a list of policies, support questions, and other 
considerations that can help you identify failure points and create a 
remote access security plan.

These failure points were collected by Gartner at a conference of 
experienced IT professionals. The list can be used as a "sanity check" 
against remote access project plans to ensure that important areas have 
been addressed.

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE 
This research note will be available online for one week only, so read 
it now! Then...
http://www.techrepublic.com/article.jhtml?id=r00620000719ggp01.htm

JOIN THE IT DEBATE! 
After you read the research note, join the IT Debate by posting 
comments in our Forum explaining why you agree or disagree with the 
Gartner opinion shown above. We'll feature the best comments on both 
sides of the IT Debate in next week's column and award IT Debate T-
shirts to the members who posted them.

Copy and paste this URL into your browser:
www.techrepublic.com/trbbs/message_detail.jhtml?thread_id=12560&thread_title
=IT+Debate%3A+Avoiding+common+mistakes+in+managing+a+remote+access+environme
nt&ooc=open

To ensure that your comments are considered for publication and that 
you are eligible for a T-shirt, make sure you post your comments by 5 
P.M. Monday, July 24.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM LAST WEEK'S IT DEBATE 
Last week we examined the security vulnerabilities of broadband remote 
access. There were several good opinions, and you can get the full 
story by going to the Forum thread below. We asked, "What are you doing 
to secure your transmissions? Do you prefer xDSL or cable modem 
services? Who do you think will win the technology security war: the 
hackers or the network administrators?"

Copy and paste this URL into your browser:
www.techrepublic.com/trbbs/message_detail.jhtml?thread_id=12299&thread_title
=IT+Debate%3A+Security+Vulnerabilities+of+Broadband+Remote+Access&ooc=open%3
A+Avoid+chaos+on+your+intranet&ooc=open

TechRepublic member JMF provided an opinion from across the Atlantic. 
"In Europe, broadband remote access is not always available. Sometimes 
ISDN line bundling (128 Kbps) is the only 'high-speed' alternative. In 
other regions, either xDSL or cable access could be available. One also 
has to realize that many homes don't have cable sockets in all rooms 
(same goes for the phone socket), so that cable access can potentially 
mean costly wiring upgrades.

"On the security side, the hackers will always be one step ahead of the 
security administrators! Security will always be a trade-off between 
cost and risk. The major issue here is that it is almost impossible to 
enforce a 'safe' configuration on the home PC of a teleworker. (You 
can't stop him or a family member [from downloading] 'stuff' from the 
Web, e.g., a sniffing program.) And as long as you don't know in what 
security state the client is, it is almost pointless to try to have 
watertight security on the server."

Community member Mwb found some advantages in the problem. "I propose 
that there is no security 'war' being waged at all. Most security 
breaches are not deliberate attempts of malicious malcontents to bring 
an enemy to its knees or cases of corporate espionage. With the 
possible exception of credit card fraud, most hacking or cracking 
attempts are done simply because they can be... they are an exciting 
alternative to watching TV or going to work. Add to that most of these 
crimes are viewed as victimless by the hacker, and you have a societal 
class simply seeking a high-risk, challenging pastime--no different 
from rock climbing.

"What they don't realize is that there really is no challenge at all. 
Human error is inevitable, and it shows in the holes they discover. 
Until networks can configure themselves, holes will always be present. 
Besides, do you want one side to win? They seem to promote each other 
by increasing administrative job security, and at the same time, giving 
the socially challenged something to do!"

Both JMF and Mwb will receive an IT Debate T-shirt.

------------------------------------------

TechRepublic Today

LEARN HOW TO HANDLE DISGRUNTLED AND DISRUPTIVE USERS 
Do you have users who cause you problems? If so, you may be interested 
in these solutions for handling such individuals--without having to 
hurt them!
http://www.techrepublic.com/article.jhtml?id=r00320000719eng02.htm

CHOOSING BETWEEN JAVA AND MICROSOFT PLATFORMS 
It's crucial that consulting firms specializing in application 
development adopt both Java and Microsoft technologies for their 
clients' e-business needs. But what will it take to achieve 
multiplatform capabilities? Here's Gartner's outlook.
http://www.techrepublic.com/article.jhtml?id=r00720000719ggp01.htm

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Copyright 2000 TechRepublic, Inc. All rights reserved.

Al Macintyre  ©¿©
http://www.cen-elec.com MIS Manager Programmer & Computer Janitor
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