Get approval to run the scans, in writing or at least in an archived email
message. If anything goes wrong, the buck stops with whoever gave you
approval. (not that it's less of a worry if something goes wrong when a hax0r
does it)
On Tuesday 12 March 2002 01:44 pm, tony toni wrote:
> Folks,
>
> I am currently experimenting with Nessus. I also have a spreadsheet of all
> IP addresses that our company uses (about 10,000) and it has a detailed
> description of each IP address. As you can appreciate a hacker would love
> to have this spreadsheet.
>
> My situation�
> I currently work in the Security Group and I *sort of* have approval to run
> Nessus to perform vulnerability assessments. This is a new responsibility
> that is being forced upon my director. He assigned me this project but has
> little interest in what I am doing, is a moron about security issues, and
> will be the first person to stab me in the back if anything goes wrong.
> However, he is also putting a lot of pressure on me to do the assessments
> and produce reports so he can look good to his VP.
>
> My next challenge is the Manager of the Server and Network Group. He is
> very territorial and is not responding to my requests for partnering with
> him while I run Nessus. He does not want audits done on his
> servers/firewall/routers. I think he is either afraid of what I will find
> out or I will cause some damage. He is also a moron on security issues.
>
> My problem�
> I am not sure if I can trust either my Director or the Manger of
> Network/Servers if I start running Nessus. Both have a keen sense of
> corporate politics and only look out for themselves. My manager want
> results..but then he offers no support and will *nail* me hard if I make
> any mistakes.
>
> I have been a *bad boy* of late and have been running Nessus on several
> production servers without telling anyone. Found lots of security
> weaknesses. None of the system admins are aware that I have run these
> tests (must not be looking at their logs). I want to continue running
> Nessus on switches, routers, firewalls and more servers. I want to really
> build a case for using Nessus and all of the security problems this company
> has.
>
> This is my question�
> 1) What are the political risks I may come incur if I run Nessus without
> formal approval? In other words, running Nessus against any IP address I
> want and without telling anyone what I am doing? I am afraid that if I
> list the IP's I want to go against�I will run into a bunch of political
> road blocks. I want to impress everyone that I can successfully run Nessus
> and not hurt anything and everyone will say great job. On the other
> hand�this could back fire on me and I could get *nailed* for doing these
> audits in the *stealth* mode.
>
> 2) From a technical viewpoint�can I run Nessus against a switch, router,
> firewall and not worry about bringing these devices down? Currently, I use
> the option "disable all dangerous plug-ins"�.so I feel I using it safely.
>
> I am sure that others on this list have had the same sort of political
> challenges. I am impatient�I hate politics ..I know I can pull this off.
> Problem is management is getting in my way. What is your answers to my
> questions?
>
> Tony
> Security Project Lead
> Major Financial Institution on West Coast
>
>
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
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