Finally, as far as passwords are concerned, you can do what a lot of other administrators do, check the user's passwords with, "cracker" programs. Several of these are available and it's a good way to check your own security. Also break to your own system to see how tough or how easy it is. Decide your strategy based on your experience.
Keeping Up with the Software
Another security headache in networks is the software itself. The software is changing all the time, so the updates that you receive for your operating system are very critical. These are meant to add features or fix existing problems, though they sometimes create new ones. Stay in constant touch with your software vendor for all updates, for some of them are fixes for security holes that got left out earlier. A classic example of this is what has been happening with Windows NT arid Internet Explorer. Several security bugs were found and Microsoft keeps releasing updates and fixes for this. If you don't apply the fixes, then could be in trouble.
Fortunately, Internet access makes it fairly easy to keep up to date with all these changes. Also apart from visiting the vendor sites where you can get the updates or fixes for the software, there are several security alerts available that provide information of this nature. This includes vulnerabilities in the software, hoaxes, virus issues, etc.
Viruses on the LAN too!
Viruses have also spread to the LAN environment. The only solution is prevention. It is better to install LAN versions of virus detection and vaccination software on the LAN. The other usual methods of virus prevention such as disallowing the use of external floppies, checking all shareware before it is loaded on the LAN must also be implemented strictly.
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