After reading the past few issues, I've come to the realization that I'm not getting much out of it any more. It isn't because it doesn't appeal to me, its largely because they're hawking widgets I have no hope of affording or getting past the privacy hawks. Even the case-studies aren't all that interesting, as they're deploying some spiffy new technology we'll never get, and how they overcame their obstacles. Working in higher ed does have its differences, and one of those is a more hostile IT environment.
In a sense we have a more immediate need for cranking things down, yet ironically we are unable to do just that. Our servers require very stringent patch-schedules since the time between patch-release and exploit release is now measurable in hours these days. Plus we've had at least one compromise that could be attributable to a zero-day (i.e. undisclosed vulnerability, for which no patch exists yet) exploit.
In a sense, our defenses are better than those at a private corp since we don't have the safety-blanket of a firewall to tuck us in at night and allow us to sleep well. Put up a vulnerable version of PHPBB anywhere in our network, and it'll get hacked within a day or two. Because of this, our 'soft interior' is a bit crunchier than your average corp. On the plus side, we haven't had an enterprise-wide worm nail us since I got here.
In a sense we have a more immediate need for cranking things down, yet ironically we are unable to do just that. Our servers require very stringent patch-schedules since the time between patch-release and exploit release is now measurable in hours these days. Plus we've had at least one compromise that could be attributable to a zero-day (i.e. undisclosed vulnerability, for which no patch exists yet) exploit.
In a sense, our defenses are better than those at a private corp since we don't have the safety-blanket of a firewall to tuck us in at night and allow us to sleep well. Put up a vulnerable version of PHPBB anywhere in our network, and it'll get hacked within a day or two. Because of this, our 'soft interior' is a bit crunchier than your average corp. On the plus side, we haven't had an enterprise-wide worm nail us since I got here.