Be very careful of running any type of security scan without permission from those who manage the systems you are scanning. There have been highly publicized cases where this, as well intentioned as it may have been, has led to loss of employment and legal action against someone who has done such. If you feel that you are surrounded by potential backstabbers (as it seems you may well be), then don't even think twice about whether or not they will turn on you if the server or firewall manager does look at his logs and calls his manager, who, in turn, calls your manager. Get buy-in from everyone you can before you venture out and start your scanning. If some people won't cooperate with you, then go to your manager. If he won't help then go up a level. You are in a tight spot here. Make sure you document all of your attempts at meeting your manager's expectations, successful or not. You may need such documentation in the event someone does 'stab you in the back'.
Anthony ----- Original Message ----- From: "tony toni" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2002 1:44 PM Subject: Political Challenges Using Nessus > 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 > > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. >
