Week 1: The security manager's daily checklist

Week 1: The security manager's daily checklist

In an effort to help busy security managers, CISSP Shelley Bard's weekly column builds on the concept of the perpetual calendar, offering a schedule of reminders for a proactive, strategic security plan.

What
A daily checklist for security managers.

When
This is a daily responsibility, so allow time accordingly.

Why
Begin by ensuring that daily activities and processes are accounted for on a checklist. The daily list sets a foundation for the rest of the reoccurring action items. Furthermore, it will help identify reoccurring problems over time. If you have to call for diagnostic service, you'll be able to answer the question, "How long has this been happening, and when did it start?" This document also becomes a record supporting due diligence actions, which you will need should your company ever be brought to court for failing to maintain data properly.

Strategy

    Requires Free Membership to View

    Login

    SearchSecurity.com members gain immediate and unlimited access to breaking industry news, virus alerts, new hacker threats, highly focused security newsletters, and more -- all at no cost. Join me on SearchSecurity.com today!

    Michael S. Mimoso, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchSecurity.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchSecurity.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

Click here to see the list of a security manager's typical daily actions. Add daily actions that occur in your organization that you need to monitor.

More information
Think about the status reports you frequently request from your system. Resource load? Size of audit log? Amount of free space available? Number of users logged on? Print queue loads? Running Unix utilities such as last, who, ps–ef and du (or df-k) will give you snapshots of system activity. Also, talk to other security managers -- what actions do they monitor daily?

Next week: Passwords -- Updating, selecting and recording user and administrative passwords

About the author
Shelley Bard, CISSP, is a senior security network engineer with Verizon Federal Network Systems (FNS). An infosecurity professional for 17 years, Bard has briefed and written infosecurity assessments and technical reports for the White House and Department of Defense, special interest groups, industry and academia.

For more information on this topic, visit these other SearchSecurity resources:

This was first published in December 2003

Disclaimer: Our Tips Exchange is a forum for you to share technical advice and expertise with your peers and to learn from other enterprise IT professionals. TechTarget provides the infrastructure to facilitate this sharing of information. However, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or validity of the material submitted. You agree that your use of the Ask The Expert services and your reliance on any questions, answers, information or other materials received through this Web site is at your own risk.

Back to top