"School's out for summer."
-Alice Cooper, 1972
School's out for the summer. By the time you read this, I hope my son graduated and is on his way to the US Navy. Extreme "senioritis" set in starting in January, so it has been a challenge to get him to the finish line.
Summer is the time to "catch up" on and implement new projects.
An important guiding security principle we all strive for is that "school [has not] been blown to pieces" to be a threat actor.
Going into summer, we need to ensure that our endpoints are current with OS and third-party patching and that our endpoint security agents report back.
On a good day, managing your endpoints is like herding cats. Once summer construction starts, floor waxing begins, and parts of your staff are always on vacation, maintaining comprehensive security oversight becomes increasingly challenging.
Many security platforms become increasingly accurate in seeing activity on your network the larger the number of agents who check in regularly.
During the summer, you never really know whether you are not seeing agents because they are broken or compromised or just the floors are being waxed.
It is probably much harder this year because the school year ends so late into June, but knowing that your agents and workstations are as current as possible during the inevitable network disruptions puts you in the best possible light. Knowing where your planned gaps are in your network helps you filter through the "Is this a problem?" questions.
The new reality is that having a comprehensive monitoring solution in place, providing visibility and oversight over the network so that you can play centerfield and see the nooks and crannies of your network that can't be seen, is a vital additional piece of your network security strategy.
If you don't have that oversight as the last stop in your network security. Now is the time to implement that added layer of protection.
Call us to map out a strategy that makes sense for your district.
-Scott Quimby, CISSP
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