TABLE OF CONTENTS Dealing with theft and vandalism
Securing the system console
Handling system failure
One of the most overlooked aspects of network security is the physical security of networking hardware and software and, in particular, your data center. In many instances, you can gain a significant amount of protection with a relatively small expenditure by paying attention to the physical environment of workstations, servers, and network interconnection hardware.
For many years, the mental picture many people held of a security threat to a computer involved a disgruntled employee with an ax. Such an attack is rare today, but physical theft and vandalism can t be discounted. Laptops and other small devices are, as you would expect, particularly vulnerable.
So you think no one can steal your hardware? Think back to scenes from the first World Trade Center bombing (the truck bomb in the parking garage) where companies were given a short period of time to remove anything they needed from their offices. The television showed people wheeling large laundry carts full of PCs out of the building. Not only did the companies in question seem to be lacking a disaster recovery plan, but they had opened themselves to the theft of their equipment, and, perhaps more importantly, all the data on them.
There are a number of simple things you can do to thwart thieves and vandals:
Use lockdown cables to secure desktop and laptop systems.
