Many IT professionals, in-house or outsourced, are so busy fixing problems that they do not have time to check daily tasks. Here is a beginning list of some items to check.

Just like pilots perform a pre-flight check before every flight, every morning someone needs to spend 10 minutes verifying items such as:

• Backup report(s) - check for any errors in the logs
  - If the errors can be corrected by excluding files that do not need to be backed up anyway, then exclude those files and folders
• Operating system and application high priority security patch status
  - See list of machines needing updates
  - If a machine needs patches, they need to be applied as soon as the patch can be tested
  - Hopefully all patches are tested and applied the same day they are released!
• Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware
  - All machines have scanned all files within the last 24 hours - or on whatever schedule you use
  - All machines have an updated signature file and Anti-Virus program version
  - You decide how often remote users need to connect to be checked: daily, every 2 days, etc.
• Appliances and servers used for Intrusion Detection Systems / Anti-Spam / Web Filtering / etc.
  - Software firewall program version
  - Any errors or messages that need attention
• RAID array utilities - verify integrity of RAID arrays
• Main Firewall error log
• Event viewer log consolidation tool
• Any other appropriate checks

Moreover, even better than having someone check these manually, is when each service automatically sends a short and complete report via e-mail to an IT professional every single day.

You may choose not to check every single item, and you may choose to add even more. Just please make yours a conscious and informed choice.

Posted by Mike Foster on October 29th, 2008 in IT Security.

Tags: IT, Managing IT Professionals, professionals, Working With IT People