My first system refresh for 2009. How often do you refresh yours?
Greetings,
It’s that time of the year again and now I have more of a challenge this year as I have more systems to refresh. Every 2-3 months I do a complete system wipe and rebuild of my primary systems (now 16) to give them a clean start and a fresh look and feel. During the year I test so many products and solutions from the industry and once I have tested and like something, it gets added to my approved applications list and is allowed to be installed on my primary systems. It also give me a fresh build as I get rid of old install files or hidden threats that may have been left behind and now the system breathes and runs much better.
These are different from my test boxes that I may refresh daily, weekly or after a few months depending on what i’m testing on it and the period needed to properly deal with it.
As a senior executive on various committees, boards and teams, I take my security practices very seriously as a compromise on my end could lead to mass messaging or some kind of threat coming from my network which could lead to serious issues for my recipients. I am very vigilant about keeping the best of best practices for my organizations infrastructure with regular reviews and updates. As a security professional responsible for numerous organizations infrastructure, I practice these steps to protect myself and those who I collaborate with and the responsibility to protect the people and data in them. One can never be too cautious in this time and age of new and emerging technology and threats and so I try to stay on the cutting edge of the security issues.
So it is that time and my first refresh of which I am somewhat happy for as i’m getting ready to move most of my Vista boxes over to Windows 7. I have been playing around with some new products and solutions and will be moving over to them during this refresh cycle. The timing of this new Conficker worm couldn’t be any worse (or maybe better) as i’m refreshing between March 31st-April 1st. I’m also rolling out a hot new UTM ~Unified Threat Management~ device today as well and I look forward to its protective features and enhancements.
So away I go to start prepping for my refresh and trying to keep up on this Conficker issue which has set me back a day in my schedule.
Thank you and have a great day,
~Brett A. Scudder~
The IT Security Attaché
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Usually refresh machines only after drive failure or viruses/malware….
More interested in your dealings with Windows 7 and how much
better is it than Vista?
I hardly refresh my main systems. Both my primary desktop and laptop have been running Vista x64 since early 2007, and before that, they ran XP x64 for 2+ years.
What I try to do is make greater use of Virtual Systems for testing, and then reset those every 6-9 months as needed.
-ASB
Mr. Spalding,
I understand and that is the logic behind it in many cases. However, I try to be a bit more proactive and cautious in handling the health of my primary systems that I use for business. If I even visit a website and something suspicious happens, I run my scans and diagnostics and then wipe the system.
This is why I have test boxes separate from my primary production systems.
As for Windows 7. I find it to be very stable and have some very well needed fixes and improvements over Vista. It operates with less resources and runs much smoother on a similar system that had Vista on it.
The IE8 issues are not as bad on Win7 as they are on XP and so I use IE8 on Win7 and stayed with IE7 on XP.
There are new security products in beta from the vendors and so those having been coming along nicely. I am waiting for the RC to do more aggressive testing but for everyday use it has been very good.
Mr. Baker,
Sounds good sir. The x64 architecture is perfectly suited for the virtual environment. The thought of running my systems that long without a refresh scares me. What can I say, i’m a bit over cautious especially when it comes to thinking of those who rely on me for updates and info. I fear the impact to them than myself. Even though I trust the security of the box I still need that additional comfort knowing that it is clean.
Thank you and have a great day,
~Brett A. Scudder~
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