A Detour Into the Streaming Media

Computerworld - In my previous column ["Enough! I Quit!" QuickLink 51579], I explained how I left my position to seek more amicable pastures. I am now working for a manager who is not only amicable, but also reasonable, intelligent, kind and mature. How did I find such a catch? I know the guy. I worked with him many years ago, and I always stay in touch with friends, ex-bosses and former co-workers. Rule No. 1 in this industry is to keep your network alive, keep your contacts list up to date and be willing to do a good turn for a colleague. It always comes back to you. When my new boss found out I was looking for a job, he recalled the weekends that I had helped him out on a critical project and immediately offered me a position.
It's a public-sector job, so I had a few mental adjustments to make. I'm working for a division within a very large government bureaucracy, and how I do my job will be very different from the way I operated in the private sector. For one thing, budget cycles are very long, so long-range planning is critical to getting funds allocated to specific projects.
Security managers always have endless to-do lists, but my position isn't well funded, the division isn't well funded, and there's no money to even hope to address the to-do list within three years.
When beginning a new job, I always identify the quick-hit list, problems that can be solved within the first 30 days of employment. I want to prove my worth, but upper management tends not to see security tasks -- tightening firewall rules, fine-tuning virtual private network performance, making sure the latest operating system patches are installed -- as critical. I needed to identify some issues that I could address and that management would think were worth tackling.
Within the first week, I performed a network scan, reviewed documentation and interviewed my direct reports to get a feel for the network and security architecture. I found that our division was attached to the larger government network, so our security was dependent on a vast array of network devices outside of our control. And the larger organization controlled our endpoints (that is, the routers). I realized I'd have to network diligently within the larger organization if I was going to make any headway in improving our division's security without making enemies. I needed to spend time understanding the political climate; no charging in and demanding change. As the