March 19, 2001
Please feel free to invite some of your colleagues from your or another city/county if you think it would benefit them to be part of our group!
Attendance
Rich Lovett, KCMO
Barbara Hensley, MARC
Robyn Stewart, Leavenworth, KS
Jason Holmes, Independence, MO
Alan Millson, Independence, MO
Bob Harp, Independence, MO
Chris Holdman, Olathe, KS
Dave Grinnell, Olathe, KS
Holly Baxley, Platte County, MO
Sue Hocking, Oak Grove, MO
Desiree Hourigan, Lee's Summit, MO
Kevin Davidson, Lee's Summit, MO
Randy Ellis, Overland Park, KS
Susan Waters, Overland Park, KS
A survey was passed out for all members to complete. If you were unable
to attend, it was sent out via the listserv. Please fill out and fax back to
Rich at (816) 513-3668. If you need another copy of the survey, e-mail sjwaters@opkansas.org.
Guest Speaker
Kevin Davidson, Network Manager, City of Lee's Summit
Kevin recently attended the Black Hat security conference and
brought us some information on making our systems and Web sites more secure. He made clear that security is essential
and anyone is a target. Some of the easiest things we can do are to stay up on patches, back up, encrypt, or password-protect
data. Audits are also good ways of evaluating your security measures. Use defense in-depth by layering your security.
Another way to reduce attacks is to only allow valid IP addresses in as a rule.
It is essential to get support from top management. Explain the importance of budgeting for security with possible
scenarios that would greatly affect them or the whole organization.
Investigate your resources now. Do not wait. Hacking and data theft are growing more and more prevalent.
Microsoft IIS servers seem to be most vulnerable to attacks because they are easiest to use and default settings
allow anyone to view source and tables. Use and tailor your security settings if you have one of these servers.
Look at your logs regularly, even daily.
Software is available to help create log reports and/or audit like Private I or Event Viewer.
On the legal side, if your Web site does not have a warning somewhere, it will be almost impossible to prosecute
a hacker. You should have a prosecutory warning.
He suggested the book Hacking Exposed.
*See attachment
(in Word format) for Kevin's notes, contact information, helpful links and his top 10 list.
Paul Cristus of the KCMO Police Dept. has created a Web site for our group. It is currently located at www.epauldesigns.com.
We are looking to buy our own domain name at kcmagweb.org, so we may be passing the hat for a small donation soon.
Todd King from Johnson County volunteered to host the site.
Rich Lovett shared with us how KCMO got their Channel 2 streaming
live on the Web and are using video in other ways. They are using Axis Web cams (axis.com) to snap periodic photos
of the City Hall rotunda and similar scenes. These are indoor-use only cameras with a network connection and a
small Web server inside. They would also make good security cameras; they have no sound and run up to 15 frames/second.
These cameras can each have their own static IP address and cost about $500. For an indoor/outdoor (not weatherproof)
cam, a package of camera and lens from Minet Communications (minetinc.com) costs about $1100.
He reminded the group to ask lots of questions when selecting Web cams to make sure the camera will operate in
bright sun and at night.
The cable channel streaming video application uses a VCR to split the cable TV feed into audio and video. Those
connections then feed into a video capture card (made especially for that purpose) in a PC running RealMedia Producer.
The producer PC sends the processed video to a RealMedia server for web output.
KCMO is also archiving city meetings on their site. They have contracted with Big Edison to archive and host the
video archive. It costs $75 an hour per tape hour plus $400 per month. The city plans to spend about $40,000 annually
on this application.
The benefits of archiving meetings and putting the live cable channel on the Web include:
- Not all residents have cable access
- Easy look up for employees or those involved in a certain issue
- Traveling employees can keep up to date as well as vendors outside the city limits
See Rich's attachment (in PDF format) for more
information.Note: Our April meeting will be replaced by the option of attending
MARC's E-gov seminar with City Managers, RAPIO and RITMA. The April Managers Luncheon has been scheduled for Friday,
April 20. Cost is $15 for lunch (payable the day of the event). The program will feature what could be a great
regional initiative on e-government and a partnership between local governments, the Innovations Group and MARC.
SJW