Software vendor clueless

From: Jeff Peterson (jpetersonat_private)
Date: Sat Aug 16 2003 - 12:31:35 PDT

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    All,
    
    I have a customer whose company does legal work for lots of businesses.  
    The data housed on their network is what I would call 'financially 
    sensitive'.  Recently, I found their Exchange server had been turned into 
    an open relay.  It was not that way a month ago.Once I stopped the 
    bleeding, I told them I wanted to change the Administrator password, 
    (NT4.0, Exch5.5.  I know, I know).  They told me they were not allowed to 
    change the password.  "Sez WHO", I asked.  "Our software vendor", they 
    replied.  Turns out the vendor in question has a niche market in this 
    kind of legal field.  Also turns out they use the same 4-letter, (no 
    caps, no special chars), administrator password on ALL their customers 
    networks.  To make matters worse, they have PCAnyWhere ports open on all 
    these networks, because their software is so buggy, the developers need 
    to remote in and fix things all the time.  The spokesman for the group 
    claims that the AT&T managed firewall prevents anyone else from using the 
    PCNoWhere ports by IP address.
    
    I'm not a great negotiator, and I'm going to face the SW spokesman next 
    week.  He is a good spin doctor.  I'm looking for help in making him 
    secure his stuff.  All help is appreciated.
    
    Jeff Peterson
    BTIIS
    
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