SECURING FIBRE CHANNEL FABRICS - Brocade

Chapter 1: IntroductionInternet standard for the authentication of devices connecting to aFibre Channel switch, as defined in the FC-SP/FC-sec standard specificationdefined by the ANSI T11 committee.Most of the security features originally available in Secure Fabric OShave since been replaced with either equivalent or more powerful andflexible functionality in the base Fabric OS (version 5.3.0 or later), sothey no longer require a special license. Appendix A provides a comprehensivelist of technical security features that can be implementedin a Brocade-based SAN environment. As new security vulnerabilitiesare discovered or required, Brocade is continually enhancing existingfeatures and creating new security features to help ensure that FC fabricinfrastructures and data moving through them remain secure andhighly available.Security represents a delicate balance among factors such as the typeof threats and risks, the likelihood that a vulnerability can and will beexploited, the effort and cost associated with implementing countermeasures,the impact on fabric management, and the value of theasset being protected. With more than 100 FC fabric security featuresavailable, not all features available should be implemented in all environments.Different organizations have different security requirementsand levels of tolerance to risk. A detailed analysis and assessment ofthe state of security for a given environment should be performed tofully understand the risks and how to best mitigate them. There shouldbe enough detailed information in this book to gain the knowledge necessaryto conduct this assessment. Nevertheless, there may beadvantages in hiring the services of a third-party organization withexpert knowledge in the subject as is frequently done with conventionalTCP/IP-based networks. Brocade offers such a service to help customersevaluate and assess the current state of security of their SAN.Who Needs to Know About SAN and StorageSecurity?SAN security is a relatively new field and many organizations have justbegun to consider and integrate this area of security into their organization.Many stakeholders within organizations now have an interest inSAN and storage security. Each individual may be interested in differentaspects of SAN security to different degrees and to differentdepths but SAN security can no longer be ignored. The roles of thesestakeholders is varied as you can see in the following list,6 Securing Fibre Channel Fabrics