Intriguing and informative numbers for the most trusted, most popular, and the most highly recommended h/w and s/w tools to enhance the security of NT systems and networks. This guide is another of those impressive "cooperative research" reports from the System Administration, Networking, and Security (SANS) Institute. See: <http://www.sans.org/powertools.htm> _Vin --- <SANS text> Windows NT Power Tools -- The Administrators' Consensus The results are in and the winners areŠ. More than 350 NT administrators and security professionals participated in the recent SANS Institute project designed to identify the best tools for improving security, performance, and administrative efficiency on Windows NT systems. We call those the Power Tools. The group members first identified the products that are most commonly found in NT environments. Then they rated every tool they use or had used, from critical and highly recommended to not-recommended and not meeting expectations. For the first phase, they focused their attention on the higher-priced Power Tools that are more difficult to install and use, thereby excluding low-cost utilities and virus protection systems. They also went much deeper, identifying the specific business value that reach product provides, the names of competing tools and the reasons they selected each one over its competitors, the surprises they encountered in implementing and using them, and the capabilities that they most wish the vendor would add in each tool. These in-depth findings are the subject of the full report, "Windows NT Power Tools: Administrators' Consensus," which will be provided free to all attendees at SANS98 (Monterey, May 7-15) and NT-SANS. Sample Report <http://www.sans.org/nt_power_tools.htm> (The NT Power Tools Guide will be distributed to all who attend the SANS 98 conference next month. If you are not able to attend SANS98, you may order the full report for $59 prior to May 15 and $99 after May 15. A pdf version, licensed for up to 6 users, is available for $99 before May 15 and $149 after May 15. To purchase the full SANS report on the 22 most trusted NT Security products, see: <https://nt4.corpsite.com/secure_escal/ntpowerform.htm>) <<<<Here are the results on popularity and ratings:>>>>> 1. Which power tools are most commonly used in Windows NT environments? This table tells how likely a product is to be used in a Windows NT site. It is the ration of the number of people who say they use the product to the total number of people who said they use any product. Microsoft SMS 56.3% Seagate BackupExec 48.5% Cheyenne ARCserve 44.5% Citrix Winframe/Enterprise 36.7% ISS Internet Scanner 33.2% Security Dynamics SecureID 30.1% IDI Kane Security Monitor 27.9% ISS RealSecure 27.1% Mission Critical SeNTry 17.9% CA-Unicenter 17.0% Legato NetWorker 16.2% Security Dynamics ACEServer 16.2% Security Dynamics SecurPC 14.4% Tivoli TME10 13.5% Axent Omniguard 13.1% NCD WinCenter 8.7% Mission Critical Enterprise Administrator 7.9% IBM ADSM 7.0% Schumann SAM 5.7% Memco SeOS WinNT 3.5% 2. Which power tools are most likely to be seen as critical? This table ranks the products based on the ratio of the number people saying the power tool was critical, to the number of people who said they had used or use the product. For example, if a product falls below 20%, that means that fewer than one in five users consider it critical. This is a very demanding criterion. Table 3, below, uses a less severe criterion. <<More than 50%>> Seagate BackupExec 54% <<40% to 50%>> Cheyenne ARCserve 49% Security Dynamics ACEServer 47% Security Dynamics SecureID 40% <<30% to 40%>> Mission Critical Enterprise Administrator 35% Citrix Winframe/Enterprise 34% ISS Internet Scanner 33% Legato NetWorker 32% Tivoli TME10 31% NCD WinCenter 30% <<20% to 30%>> IBM ADSM 29% ISS RealSecure 24% Security Dynamics SecurPC 24% Mission Critical SeNTry 20% <<10% to 20%>> Microsoft SMS 19% IDI Kane Security Monitor 19% CA- Unicenter 14% Memco SeOS WinNT 10% 3. How likely are users of the product to recommend it to other users? Here we rank the products by the percent of people who said they would recommend it. <<More than 2 out of 3 recommend it>> Security Dynamics ACE/Server 92% Security Dynamics SecureID 82% Seagate BackupExec 76% ISS Internet Scanner 75% Security Dynamics SecurPC 74% ISS RealSecure 70% Citrix Winframe/Enterprise 70% <<One half to two-thirds recommend it>> Cheyenne ARCserve 66% IDI Kane Security Monitor 63% Microsoft SMS 62% Mission Critical Enterprise Administrator 60% Sistex Asssure 60% Mission Critical SeNTry 57% TivoliTME10 56% Schumann SAM 53% Axent Omniguard 53% <<Less than one half recommend it>> NCD WinCenter 48% Legato NetWorker 45% Wheelgroup NetRanger 44% IBM ADSM 38% CA Unicenter 37% Memco SeOS WinNT 30% ---------- <End SANS text> The "sample report," noted above, is really a sample review of one product from their full NT Power Tools Guide. It indicates the depth and detail involved in this SANS cooperative research effort. See the sample product analysis at: <http://www.sans.org/nt_power_tools.htm> Again, to purchase the full NT Power Tools Guide, see: <https://nt4.corpsite.com/secure_escal/ntpowerform.htm> <<SANS background & future events>> The SANS Institute is a cooperative research and education organization through which system administrators, security professionals, and network administrators share the lessons they are learning. It offers educational conferences and in-depth courses, cooperative research reports, and electronic digests of authoritative answers to current questions. SANS Planned Events: <<SANS 98>> <<Monterey, CA, May 7-15, 1998>> The 7th annual System Administration, Networking, and Security (SANS) Conference, has been enhanced with NT-SANS, a special training program which uses Unix savvy and experience to inform and analyze options for NT Security. "The seventh annual gathering of system administrators, network managers, and security professionals is scheduled for May in Monterey, California. SANS98 offers 43 full and half-day courses on UNIX and network management and security, plus 12 courses on Windows NT. In addition, SANS98 offers a five-track technical conference featuring invited presentations, short-courses on hot new topics, birds of a feather sessions, and the largest exhibition of useful tools we've ever assembled." See: http://www.sans.org/sans98/ataglance.htm See "More on SANS NT": http://www.sans.org/NT/nt2.htm See SANS faculty: http://www.sans.org/sans98/faculty.htm <<SANS Network Security 98>> <<Orlando, FLA. Oct. 25-30, 1998>> Call For Papers: http://www.sans.org/NS98/nscall.htm <<Other SANS Resources>> SANS Network Security Digest (Mitchell Crabb, editor) http://www.sans.org/digest.htm SANS NT Security Digest (Jesper M. Johansson, editor) http://www.sans.org/ntdigest/ntapril.htm SANS's Cooperative Research Projects: "NT Security, Step by Step" http://www.sans.org/ntstep.htm The annual SANS System Admin & Security Survey http://www.sans.org/salsur.htm SANS also has several new "cooperative research" initiatives underway to develop "Step by Step" Guides for technical managers and administrators on Incident Response, Intrusion Detection, VPNs, and Firewall Troubleshooting. ----- Vin McLellan + The Privacy Guild + <vinat_private> 53 Nichols St., Chelsea, MA 02150 USA <617> 884-5548 -- <@><@> --
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