Network scan tool/appliance horror stories

Tue Oct 30 15:18:18 UTC 2012

I can share with you several stories personnel (both IT or vendors), who have scanned Electric Utility environments with or without permission; and hence caused multiple failures - including electro-mechanical systems and related applications. Utilities typically utilize many industrial controllers - some of which many IT personnel have no knowledge, and some are not robust enough to weather the storm.

1. Know your environment.
2. Know your tools.
3. Communicate.

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan White [mailto:dwhite at olp.net] 
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2012 12:47 PM
To: Pedersen, Sean
Cc: nanog at nanog.org
Subject: Re: Network scan tool/appliance horror stories

On 10/29/12 12:10 -0700, Pedersen, Sean wrote:
>We're evaluating several tools at the moment, and one vendor wants to 
>dynamically scan our network to pick up hosts - SNMP, port-scans, WMI, 
>the works. I was curious if anyone had any particularly gruesome horror 
>stories of scanning tools run amok.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=334&articleid=20121002_11_A1_CUTLIN325691

A > layer 7 failure. Make sure all members of your organization are aware of your plans.

--
Dan White