In my case, the admins are the only ones with the safe combo and vault access, they are supposed to be trusted, and the vault logs that they opened the vault, when, and does a digital like an atm of them popping the vault, sooo...
If someone opens the password envelope because memory no longer served for passwords they need, they sign a new envelope after putting the password in it. There isn't any disciplinary action taken for not remembering a long nonsense password, it actually gives us a warm fuzzy that they didn't write it down and stick it in their wallet. They inventory the safe at shift change with the relieving shift. Someone who wants to obfuscate who opened the envelope has to by-pass a digital of them opening the vault, know the safe combo, and then either forge a signature, or fake a forgery of their own. All that for a password they are allowed to have. True, anyone who went in the vault during shift could be guilty, but I can't see why they would do it. -----Original Message----- From: Meritt James [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, December 21, 2001 3:18 PM To: Bonner Jon Cc: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: Re: Passwords On Paper None of my passwords are written down anywhere, but in a previous life I had to write down vault combinations which were put in a sealed envelope like he said and put in the safe. The safe was in a space manned 24 hours a day so someone was ALWAYS watching it, and it was by someone who did not WANT to know how to get in that vault! "Bonner, Jon" wrote: > > How do you ensure that it is the proper envelope? What I mean is, what's to > stop someone from opening the envelope and gaining the passwords, and then > resealing the passwords in a duplicate envelope? (Or have I read too many > Tom Clancy novels...) > > Jon Bonner > > -----Original Message----- > From: John Morris [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Monday, December 17, 2001 9:58 PM > To: gminick; security-basics > Subject: Re: Passwords On Paper > > 6. All the important (router/server/firewall/switch/other) passwords are > stored in a fireproof safe in a sealed envelope, in the event of a > sysadmin's death/???. > When passwords are changed, so is the envelope, in addition to first being > verified as being the correct ones (some people use passwords as a job > security measure, which is lame). -- James W. Meritt CISSP, CISA Booz | Allen | Hamilton phone: (410) 684-6566
