Russ Woodman, Systems Administrator for Northern Arkansas Telephone Company, recently attended training at the SANS Institute in Orlando, Florida. As the leading organization in computer security training, the SANS Institute is known for providing intensive, immersion training designed to help individuals and companies master the practical steps necessary for defending systems and networks.

Woodman attended a six day in-depth course relating to the secure operation of networks and applications which run in Linux and UNIX environments. More than 90% of NATCO's core server infrastructure is based on Linux.

“I've been a systems administrator, security administrator and network administrator for almost 20 years, yet there will never come a time when there is nothing new to learn,” Woodman said. “Training like that from the SANS Institute helps keep me up to date on new security vulnerabilities and allows me to respond more quickly and efficiently to viruses, denial-of-service attacks and other Internet threats. The Internet is not today what it was 20 years ago: A picture of congeniality. Now it's more like a war zone.”

Along with the training, Woodman received 1000 pages in printed documentation on the latest security issues affecting systems and network administrators today. SANS develops, maintains, and makes available at no cost the largest collection of research documents about various aspects of information security and operates the Internet's early warning system - the Internet Storm Center.

Woodman said he looked forward to implementing the training and materials he received to provide better service to NATCO customers in a few different ways: by tightening access controls to equipment, by prioritizing traffic to speed up network connectivity for upcoming services like wireless, voice-over-IP and video, and by integrating more thorough infrastructure monitoring for faster response times if there are security issues.

“In a way, it's a shame that such preventive measures are even necessary. But in order to provide the best possible Internet experience for our customers, I and other systems administrators like me have to balance security and permissiveness,” noted Woodman.

NATCO is a family owned and operated independent telephone company, since 1951, serving six exchanges in Marion and Boone County. NATCO Technologies is the Internet services division of NATCO serving customers throughout the Twin Lakes area, including Baxter County. For further information about NATCO and NATCO Tech services, call toll free, 800-775-6682. NATCO offices are at 301 E. Main St., Flippin, AR 72634.