Identify Unnecessary Services from a Saved Vulnerability

Nmap/Zenman is an application that allows users to scan networks to see what ports and services are open. It can be used by network security to find holes in their networks and plan what to do with them or it can be used by hackers to scan other networks to get a clear look at a networks topology and map out where everything is and plan for an attack. In this case, we have a scan of our network at Corporation Techs and need to look at what services that we have and make a decision on whether or not we should keep or get rid of them.

According to the scan we have, we have a bunch of difference services that we use. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is how our employees sent their mail. Post Office Protocol (POP) is the services on how we receive them. These are both important in any business so they could send and receive messages so I would not recommend closing them.

As I look through more services that we have on our network, I notice that we have Sophos installed on our app server. Sophos is a company that works in anti-virus software. They been in business for a few years and to my knowledge they do a good job. However in this case we have enough anti-virus software and our network is very stable. Matter of fact, the scan also shows that we have other IDS and other services that will protect this network. I believe that Sophos is a good service but it is unnecessary at this time so I would suggest removing this.

My plan for removing unnecessary services is simple. Go though our network to see we have and have not been using and make a list of services that are necessary to keep this network working. Any services that do not make the cut, gets cut.