INFORMATION SECURITY CORNER WITH BOB SHAFFER
The Office of Information Security has teamed up with the Information Services, Operations Department to roll out a solution that will make managing our information resources easier, while enhancing computer compliance and security requirements.
The solution is EMC’s Ionix Server Configuration Manager. The EMC product was purchased by UT System and made available to all UT institutions. Jay Benningfield and Chris King, with Information Services, have evaluated the tool and rolled it out to a pilot group of desktops and servers. The initial assessment of this product can be characterized as nothing less than impressive. Systems can be configured on the fly to comply with a variety of legislative mandates. Whether it’s HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley or Payment Card Industry requirements, systems or a subset of systems which function under these mandates can be configured to meet the requirements, and, according to Benningfield, any system configuration that is tampered with, will be flagged, reported and in most cases, automatically be brought back into compliance within 24 hours.
EMC will also give us visibility into our entire enterprise. I.S. management can instantly tell which systems are vulnerable to a specific hacker exploit, missing a patch or needs a software upgrade. EMC can easily accomplish changes, install patches or deploy software with a single click – directly from within the mangers report.
Other UT components have already implemented EMC within their IT environments and have reported a substantial increase in operational efficiency and compliance enforcement. They have also seen a dramatic reduction in the number of errors associated with manual changes.
Deployment of the EMC agent to supported end-users workstations will begin February 1, 2009 during non-peak hours, i.e. early morning. Over the course of 30 days, a small program (about 3Mb) will be installed on all workstations and laptops. During the installation, users may notice increased computer activity for approximately 2-3 minutes. No problems were noted during the installation of the agent to the EMC pilot group, which consisted of approximately 200 workstations and servers, however, if users suspect that the agent installation is causing problems, they are encouraged to call the I.S. helpdesk at extension 25200 for assistance.
Thank You,
Robert V. Shaffer Jr.
Director of Information Security
IR Security
