Chris Henley is a fun and energetic representative of Microsoft. He works on the Developer Platform Evangelist team at Microsoft as an IT Professional Evangelist in the western region and is the co-author of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Administration Instant Reference from Sybex press. Chris is a regular speaker and presenter at user groups, Technet events, and major conferences around the US.
He has extensive experience in the world of computer networks. He is passionate about the way that technology helps people. He has an entertaining and insightful style of communicating technical information and of making difficult concepts easy to understand. He is an expert in server architecture and network design. He loves to push the envelope of what we think about computers, and what software can do. Chris spends his spare time playing XBOX360 with his wife and kids, fly fishing, camping, hiking, and searching for the best chocolate cake on planet earth.
So you know I have strong opinions about hackers.
Anyone know the difference between a great hacker and a great Network Administrator?
A paycheck!
The truth is that in order to be a good network admin you need the skills to know and understand the potential threats and vectors of infection and the smarts to do something to prevent them. I would make some recommendations in regards to the skills part of the equation and you will have to do your part on the smarts end.
There are a host of tools in the arsenal of the Network admin which have been designed to help identify potential problem areas and ease the deployment of the fixes to those problems. The first is a new version of a pre-existing tool called the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) 2.0. This tool allows the Administrator to run the analysis against various machines in the network, locally, or remotely in some cases, to establish a baseline of security. The MBSA 2.0 works with Windows, Office, Exchange, and SQL. It has capabilities to be used directly with Windows Update, Windows Server Update System, SMS, and various 3rd party apps. The big benefit here is that once a potential vulnerability is identified they can be patched using the appropriate resources in a timely manner.
Say it with me again. MBSA 2.0. Visit the following link and get yours free today.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/tools/mbsahome.mspx
Learn it, Live it, Love it, and leave the hackers with no course of action against your network.