Tuesday's news of the Mydoom virus spread was old hat to the two CIOs, who said that dealing with external issues is a prime concern for all enterprises.
Gayley said one of his biggest concerns on the security front is "wondering what the next thing is." He's also aware that the time adminstrators have to react to worms, viruses and other attacks "is minutes now, not hours." Since virus protection firms typically take much longer than that to craft responses, both CIOs said enterprises need to build their own defenses to keep operations safe.
At George Washington, Swartz said his department has set up a "controlled area" where their servers direct users whose clients are determined to be infected. Gayley said at Amtrak, the protection against viruses and worms starts at server level. Users there aren't allowed to log on, he said, unless their client has properly updated software. And, "all our servers are kept up to date, all the time," Gayley added.
On the issue of open source products, the panelists were split. Swartz said that George Washington has discussed the idea of eliminating Microsoft products from the data center, simply to eliminate the need for multiple patches and updates. Using Linux on servers, he said, "seems like a safer environment to be in."
Amtrak's Gayley, however, said he shys away from open source, preferring Unix products from IBM. "I still don't believe it [open source] is mature enough," Gayley said.
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