TABLE OF CONTENTS If you have successfully implemented a firewall, a network analysis and reporting system, and an intrusion detection system (IDS), I would like to tell you your job is done, and that you can head over to the coffee shop. Sadly, this isn't true. Securing your network and systems is only the first step of an ongoing process. Without consistent and conscious effort, an otherwise secure infrastructure will devolve into an insecure one. This chapter will discuss the various ongoing efforts that are needed to maintain a secure environment.
Each topic will be examined with an eye toward the security implications and security risks related to not following these procedures. Security is an area of networking where, more than any other, inaction will result in failure. The most secure system today will eventually be the biggest security risk on the network if it is not maintained adequately. Along those lines, almost every system that uses the network for communications, from wireless access points, firewalls, workstations, servers, and even the routers and switches themselves, needs regular maintenance in order to operate reliably and securely. This regular maintenance can be broken into several more specific categories, which we will discuss in detail.
Patch management is a broad category that basically means "keeping everything up to date in a controlled fashion." A patch is a modification of software that is typically relatively small and specific in what it addresses. The changes resulting from the application of a patch are...
