Anonymous writes "Is too much security ever enough?Until recently I would have sided on the response of no, but then something happened to make me reconsider.I run a small network.It has several users, all who use different branches of the network for extremely varied reasons.The network contains everything from MMUD games to personal credit accounts.As such, while some security is needed very little by some of the users, a great deal is needed by others.To that end, and that of the work I do, I place my system into the category of Fort Knox;everyone knows about it, but what goes on inside is a mystery to most.Analogy aside, what I have is basically a system thats reside behind 6 levels of firewall, a DMZ, a primary network, sub-networks, and a gateway.

Each terminal has a separate firewall, and each runs portblockers, sandboxes, three type of anti-viral, anti-trojan, anti-spyware.Logs are kept of everything.The network at every point has various means of anti-intrusion.Heavy levels of encryption are used.It is a fortress by today's computer standards.It ensures the best protection I can afford my users, while at the same time remains functional and useful.Now, everyone/anyone, having permission to use my network, also knows, various booby-traps exist within the system.Only senior personnel have knowledge of these devices.Only I, as the owner, have complete knowledge of all the security.I have been proud to say, that in over 3 years, my system has remained virtually unscathed.Until this week.Was is a massive Denial of Service attack?Was it a new trojan or virus?Was it harmful phreakers or crackers?Nope.In the end, it was a disgruntled gamer, who after dying off a half a dozen times lost his temper, and started beating on the keyboard.Call it fate, a one in a million chance, or just dumb luck...they managed to hit just the right combination of keys to initiate a self destruct protocol script that can secretly be triggered from any terminal.It is not a simple combination, and must be done in the proper order...a 10 second abort exists...just enough time to decide, was it a mistake, or short enough to fight off any invasion long enough to carry out the process.To the unexpecting, it is also just enough time to panic, run around screaming (as I am told), and allow the process to continue before a phone call could be placed to me.That process... eliminate all data on various harddrives containing confidential information by tripping a relay tied to an uninteruptable power supply, which in turn charges a television degaussing coil wrapped around the selected drives.I had once considered taking even more extreme measures, but weighed safety over destruction.In light of recent events, I think it a wise choice.So, where does that leave me and my network?With 3 days of down time, 26 Gb of data lost, and a friend who feels bad because he thinks he only crashed a game.I am also reconsidering my security.The moral of the story, I leave to you."