Yes, you can make a Network Control Center look Hollywood cool, but when a Local Network (LAN) is down, you don't call the ISP (Internet Service Provider), because you said the Network is down. You call the site asking, if electricity is down.
Actually you have procedures to follow created with the System Architect.
Network Support Centers are places in large computer based companies that have several connected branches piled up with computers, local networks, sub networks, servers, digital storage, dial up and permanent connections to other branches and laptops dialing in from public networks with even WWW access points to parts of the system.
His scenario looks like that:
It was one of these late nights in the New York Office. We were really important as a Network Security Service Provider and I was one of the three Chief Network Security Officers staring in a three shift system at the monitors showing feedback of our software installed on the International Bank's systems. They were next door and, if someone would be in at 3 o'clock in the morning of their IT, my corporate badge would give me any meeting time I asked for.
One of the branches in Paris triggerd an Alert. There was an Network issue. A Server here in New York send every minute a ping to the Paris branch router and the second consecutive failed.
There was no peak in upload and download before the failure. I looked up the telephone number of the Paris Branch IT Desktop Support who usually fixed the Bankers keyboards from a Coffee overload and handed out new posh notebooks.
He confirmed the downtime and a technician already rebooted the router. I waited for that minute with the Frenchy on the phone and two minutes later the ping received a reply. The Network was online again. I hung up and connected to the router going through the settings and triggerd an update scheduled at Paris time midnight.
The IT guy called back and said that with the router also parts of the Paris network went down in his branch and two other offices using a direct antenna ontop of the building createing a secure wide area network of the Paris branch several offices. He send me via our company chat and per email a list of all effected IP ranges. They also rebooted the antenna routers after a few phone calls telling some secretary to look for that white box with flashing lights, pull the plug, count to five and plug that back in. It was quickly all online again.
I started an immediate Virus scan on all download folders and email clients of all computers identified by the effected IPs and connected to also those routers.
There was no obvious reason for the failure, but it happend before to the same routers according to our incident database.
The rest of the shift I spent on searching the intent IT security community for reports and conversations about that router make and model to learn that they do keep failing missing an firmware update that needs to be locally administerd. There was a clock issue causing a failure. They don't like Summer time switch.
Considering the security level of the Paris branch I might get a few days in France soon.
But that fool there is a hoax. Or...
#provos #gfyNSA
