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How Secure Is Your SAN?: Page 10 of 10

Storage devices that are directly attached and dedicated to a specific server--and therefore easily secured--are rapidly giving way to shared networked storage topologies that introduce new security exposures.
August 05, 2003

"Which applications are using the SAN? What data is critical? What would happen if a failure occurs? These are the questions you need to start with," says Piers McMahon, director of architecture for Computer Associates' eTrust Group. In many cases, risk can be significantly reduced by using existing server- and application-security tools rather than deploying new storage-level encryption, McMahon says.

Another step companies can and should take now is to develop a prescribed set of responses should their storage network be penetrated. In much the same way that network administrators have a script of actions to take when a virus strikes, storage administrators should have a pre-defined set of procedures in place that will allow them contain a storage security breach and quickly turn to back-up storage.

"Technology is only going to solve 30% to 40% of the storage-security problem anyway," says The451's Robinson. "The rest will have to be done through policies, guidelines, and procedures."

Jeff Moad is a Bay Area freelance writer.

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