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Ten attacks you can easily avoid with Group Policy

Let's play pretend.

Pretend you've got a malicious insider on your network with a bone to pick. We'll call him Eddie. Perhaps Eddie is a consultant or even a salesperson. He might even come in during off hours to work his "security" shift. Regardless of what he does, he knows it is pretty simple to connect to someone's network and do just about anything he wants. Why? Default Windows settings, that's why.

Eddie doesn't know about the wonders of Group Policy Object (GPO) in Windows 2000 and later. However, thanks to his malicious mindset and quest for information, he knows that most Windows systems aren't hardened from common threats and realizes there are plenty of goodies in the form of 1s and 0s on your network for the taking.

Now this Eddie doesn't need a wireless LAN connection to get into your network. He can plug right into one of the dozens of live network drops throughout the building -- in empty cubicles and meeting rooms. As a fallback plan, Eddie knows he will likely succeed in attaching to an unsecured Wi-Fi access point just as easily if he needs to. He also knows that having physical access to your systems is invaluable.

Based on my experience, Eddie will do several things on your Windows systems -- most likely on 2000, probably even XP and quite possibly on Server 2003. (The sad thing is that all of these breaches could be prevented by simply tightening your Group Policy settings.) Ten attacks you can easily avoid with Group Policy

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