THE 7 DEADLY SINS OF NETWORK SECURITY

May 1, 2005 12:00 PM

THE FAMILIAR LIST OF BAD HABITS — first compiled by a sixth-century pope — matches up pretty well to many of the security problems of today's IT network administrators, at least according to one IT supplier.

NETWORK PHYSICS, Mountain View, Calif. — provider of the Netsensory network application management system — offers its cyber-take on the Seven Deadly Sins that have been made famous over the years by Dante's Divine Comedy, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Brad Pitt.

PRIDE.

DON'T LET THIS DEADLY TRESPASS BLIND YOU to your other faults — like how reliance on legacy network management systems can obscure network security problems.

ENVY.

DEFINED AS HATE FOR THE SUCCESS OF OTHERS, Dante's prescribed punishment makes this sin a perfect match for external users (e.g., partners, customers, road warriors) who peek where they are not supposed to: They should have their eyes sewn shut and wear clothing that makes them look like dirt.

WRATH.

THE WRATHFUL STUMBLE THROUGH THICK, CHOKING SMOKE, UNABLE TO SEE, Dante says — too good a fate for those who create worms and viruses that spread like wildfire to choke servers and desktops.

AVARICE.

GREED IS A PRIME MOTIVATOR FOR THEFT, such as the theft on a network of intellectual property, whether it's the illicit downloading of copyrighted material or the more serious insider crime of illicit data transfer.

SLOTH.

THE SLOTHFUL ARE FORCED TO RUN CONTINUALLY, according to Dante — not unlike having to run to keep up with users in an extended enterprise network.

LUST.

THE OPPOSITE OF PRUDENCE, lust is exemplified by imprudent users who install rogue applications that burn up bandwidth and reduce critical applications to a crawl.

GLUTTONY.

SOME PEOPLE, AND TOO MANY APPLICATIONS, ARE NEVER SATISFIED. They grab intemperately for bandwidth, sometimes all at once, as is frequently the case with streaming media.

SOURCE: NETWORK PHYSICS, WWW.NETWORKPHYSICS.COM

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