Moving from Defense to Offense (or vice versa) to secure your network

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To: <pen-test@securityfocus.com>
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2005 17:37:26 -0800

All,

I was having an interesting discussion with a coworker the other day about
the differences between pen-testing (offense) and network security work
(defense) which we do in our day jobs. The majority of my security
background has been from a penetration standpoint so the way I view network
security defense setups and priorities tends to be of the "how would I break
this and get in" viewpoint rather than the "how do I secure this and ensure
reliable reporting/monitoring" view that my coworker is more centered on.
The differences in the priorities and methods we would choose to secure our
network for defense was much different than I anticipated.

So I was hoping some list members would share some similar experiences with
us. How many of you have switched between offense/defense and what were some
of the stumbling blocks or key differences you found in how you approached
your goals? Is it worth it to cross-train in some manner? How have you sold
someone on the advantages of penetration-testing your network to quantify
and test the effectiveness of your existing defenses?

I would be interested to hear some cases you have run into out there.

--
Erin Carroll
"Do Not Taunt Happy-Fun Ball" 
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• Previous message: John Hally: "RE: DNS ACL ?"
• Next in thread: James Eaton-Lee: "Re: Moving from Defense to Offense (or vice versa) to secure your network"
• Reply: James Eaton-Lee: "Re: Moving from Defense to Offense (or vice versa) to secure your network"
• Reply: Byron Sonne: "Re: Moving from Defense to Offense (or vice versa) to secure your network"
• Reply: Frederic Charpentier: "Re: Moving from Defense to Offense (or vice versa) to secure your network"
• Reply: Bob Radvanovsky: "Re: Moving from Defense to Offense (or vice versa) to secure your network"
• Maybe reply: Evans, Arian: "RE: Moving from Defense to Offense (or vice versa) to secure your network"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]