[PLUG] Re: The lion in Salem

[david pool]

Erik wrote:
> Mr. Pool,
> 
> "Lion" in Salem is a *Nix box, I think Sun running some varity of 
> sendmail.  Lion is owned and maintained by the "NOC", more officially 
> known as Department of Administrative Services (DAS) / Information 
> Resouce Management Division (IRMD) / NOC.  I've met some of the guys 
> responsible for LION.  If I had to hazard a guess, I'd bet that LION is 
> well patched, well maintained, carefully watched and properly licensed. 

Great. That is reassuring. As I understand it DAS has some highly 
qualified IT staff. We're lucky to have them.


> 
> DAS is the great grand daddy of all State bureaucracy? IRMD's web page 
> is here: ___http://irmd.das.state.or.us/_
> 
> Lion is the "front door" for all email services in the State.  I think 
> all State email other than maybe ODOT goes through Lion.  The reason 
> LION exists as near as I can tell is to keep Windows Wussy 
> Administrators from sticking their unpatched Exchange 5.5 email servers 
> out on the web and wondering why they get smacked  :> 

All of the state's e-mail goes through a single server. Thankfully, it's 
not a windows box. Good to know.


> 
> (For the Record, one might refer to me as a Windows Wussy, but I'd argue 
> that I'm a fairly successful Windows Network & System Administrator.  
> Besides, If you want to defeat the empire you have to know how to hack 
> the deathstar?   )

:-D


> 
> Anyhow, hope that helps.

Straight technical responses are always appreciated. Thanks for the 
help. Should I have the opportunity to speak with some more legislators 
before the session ends, I'll let them know that there's a reasonably 
good chance that the state isn't rooted.

Does anyone know if the State suffered much on the last couple of waves 
of MS viruses?

david

PS The reason to bcc the Speaker isn't to threaten anyone, it's to help 
educate. Threats are a form of violence and are bad for one's karma.