training (was Resourceful BSD/Linux NetworkAdministrator)

[Brad Knowles]

At 10:45 AM +0000 2004-07-05, Brandon Joseph Adams wrote:

>  From experience, setting a FreeBSD box on the internet without any clue as
>  to what was going on, there are more than enough people willing to break
>  your box for you that'll leave you with a mess to clean up. I'm not trying
>  to be funny, this is the truth.

	That's a different class of problem.  As a system admin, you're 
going to be responsible for fixing not only those very few systems 
which have been compromised by external attackers, but also the > 90% 
break-ins which have come from inside personnel exceeding their 
authorized level of access, as well as the machines which have been 
munged because you (or one of your co-workers) fat-fingered something.

	Just leaving an open box on the 'net and trying to fix whatever 
comes up is a very poor way to try to learn about all those other 
classes of problems.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles at skynet.be>

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

     -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
     Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755

   SAGE member since 1995.  See <http://www.sage.org/> for more info.