The Challenges of Network Security

... The Challenges of Network Security Remediation at a Regional University A thesis presented to the faculty of the Department of Computer and Information Sciences East Tennessee State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science in Computer Science by William R. Simons May 2005 Dr. Qing Yuan, Chair Dr. Phillip Pfeiffer Mr. Steven Jenkins Keywords: computer, system security, network security, security audit, security hardening, vulnerability, remediation, Nessus, Nmap 2 ABSTRACT The Challenges of Network Security Remediation at a Regional University by William R. Simons This thesis describes challenges encountered during a year-long effort to improve the security of the 3,300 node administrative computer network at East Tennessee State University. The key remediation strategies used included employing the vulnerability scanner Nessus to profile the network, analyzing the scan results, and attempting to remove the most critical vulnerabilities found. The project succeeded in decreasing known "high" criticality vulnerabilities on campus by 26.1%, and confirmed four standard observations about the challenges of network administration: ??Vulnerability scanning is a lengthy task best performed in parallel and supported by automated

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