SECURING FIBRE CHANNEL FABRICS - Brocade

Types of Threatsside attacks such that each layer adds an additional barrier andchallenge to the attacker. (See also “The Brocade SAN Security Model”on page 91.)There are two access points for an outsider to gain access to an organization'sIT assets. Attackers can breach one or both of the following:• Physical security to gain physical access to the assets• The network to gain access to the servers and other assets connectedto the networkProtecting assets from physical access requires appropriate physicalsecurity measures to restrict access to authorized persons only. Protectingassets from being accessed through the network is much moredifficult, since there can be more than one entry point into the network.As with any technology, networks have many vulnerabilities withnew ones discovered on a regular basis. Although protecting conventionalLAN networks is out of scope for this book, if you are interestedthere are many excellent resources available on this topic.Protecting from Internal ThreatsIt is a well established that the majority of attacks are perpetrated byinsiders or by an insider who may assist an outsider, deliberately orinadvertently. Protecting against internal threats is arguably the greatestchallenge a security professional faces. Insiders are individualsthat have been granted physical access to systems and facilities. Theyare often given passwords to super accounts such as root and admin.Even in the most secure facility, there is really nothing that can bedone to prevent an insider from causing physical damage to equipmentif they decide to do so. They will most likely get caught doing it,but they cannot be stopped before the damage is done.Non-malicious insider threats are probably the most common cause ofservice disruptions in a SAN. Several factors can contribute to thisproblem, including:• Lack of knowledge and training• Undocumented or non-existent operational procedures• Bypass of operational procedures• Fatigue caused by long or nighttime working hours• Misidentification of hardware• Simple human errorsSecuring Fibre Channel Fabrics 55