Makerere University

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ICT Best Practises - Document and understand the local technical environment

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Each College and units/departments of Makerere University must create and maintain documents describing the systems that are hosting functions and databases that support their local operations.

Technicians assigned to systems supporting critical applications and/or hosting sensitive data can't begin to protect those systems or data without first knowing what technologies they have deployed, how they are interconnected and how they communicate. In order for senior department managers and technicians to assess risks associated with their operation, and to allocate appropriate resources to mitigate those risks, they must collect and maintain information about their technical environment, including information concerning:

Computer systems by IP and name (DNS and NetBIOS)

  • Operating systems
  • Operating systems version and patch level

Services active on each computer like

  • File Transfer Protocol (FTP) servers
  • Telnet servers
  • Web servers
  • File servers
  • Mail servers

Applications software

  • Anti-virus
  • Email
  • Local department applications

Database Management Systems (DBMS)

  • MS-Access
  • SQL Server
  • Sybase
  • Oracle

Extensions to the local network segment like

  • Hubs
  • Switches
  • Active/always-on modems
  • RAS and other remote access services
  • Virtual Private Network (VPN) services
  • Wireless access points

Public access terminals and workstations