Vision

Standards

Performance Metrics

Rapid availability of virus signature file updates; ease of standard desktop deployment; heuristic platform monitoring; automatic updating; support.

Usage and Dependencies

Industry Usage: Antivirus software is increasingly becoming a necessary part of the enterprise infrastructure investment. It is cheap insurance. The leading vendors are Symantec (Norton), McAfee, Computer Associates, Norman, Datafellows, Dr. Solomon's, Sophos, and Trend Micro. Of these, Norton AntiVirus probably has the best product and support, although it may be advisable to provide redundancy by using multiple suppliers in an organization, as the Dept. of Defense does (they have a multivendor contract with Norton and McAfee).

Gartner recommends an organization-wide approach to protection, ranging from alignment of technologies within a current and frequently-updated protection system, to full communication with helpdesk, vendors, and management to be ready for early warnings of attacks and to prepare for emergency operations and practices in case of attack.

SC Usage: SC deploys and manages Norton AntiVirus software via a central server. SC's standard desktop environment makes it easier to deploy and manage antivirus protection, although it also may make SC more vulnerable to some types of attack because all systems are alike.

SC will comply with the security requirements of the SC Cyber Security Protection Plan (SCPP). SC has migrated to Symantec's Norton Antivirus to provide effective virus protection for both workstations and servers, for clustered servers, and for MS Exchange e-mail and e-mail attachments. Its operations are unobtrusive, so that users are unlikely to request that it be disabled, as was the case with prior systems. The DOE Tumbleweed Messaging Management Server provides additional security in controlling external message traffic at the Department level.

SC Application Impacts: None.

References

Previous TPS Report
DOE ASSIST