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KBOX Client Workstations

Sacramento State, like all CSU campuses, is working to be compliant with state and federal law, University policy, industry regulations, contracts ,CSU policy and audit findings.  The 2006-2007 Chancellors Office FISMA audit found that Sacramento State did not have a reliable process for providing desktop software patch management.   Additionally, in 2008 the Chancellor’s Office released a set of draft policies and standards that will require all campuses to have a formal, documented process for regularly identifying all relevant and necessary security and functional patches for its information systems and applications. To facilitate compliance with these findings, policies, standards and contractual obligations, Sacramento State is required to maintain an accurate and current integrated asset inventory system with objective reporting that provides standardized, timely and detailed records of all software procurement, distribution, use and retirement. 

As part of campus compliance, the department of Information Resources & Technologies has procured KBOX for campus-wide use.  KBOX works through the installation of clients on workstations and labstations (Windows, Macintosh and Linux) that report system inventory data, operating system and application patch levels to the central KBOX appliance.  All workstations and labstations maintained by campus personnel or that utilize software applications negotiated by the campus must have a KBOX client installed and running in order to meet the audit, policy and contract requirements.  IRT selected KBOX because it allows distributed control over workstation management while enabling campus wide monitoring and compliance reporting.

Each program center can determine how they want to utilize KBOX.  At minimum the KBOX client must be installed on all workstations to allow the client to report the software and patch level.  In order for program centers to manage workstations using KBOX advanced features workstations must follow the KBOX prefix naming convention.  Coordination with the Information Security Office is required to avoid conflicting prefixes with other program centers.

Benefits

The KBOX installation provides many benefits to the campus and program centers beyond meeting policy and contract requirements. 

Administration

Compliance/Audit
  • Asset Management
  • Software Distribution
  • Configuration Management
  • Patch Management
  • Reporting and Alerts
  • License Reporting
  • Patch Reporting

Green technology

In addition to the preceding benefits, KBOX provides a mechanism that allows power management on workstation and labstations to reduce energy cost.

Next Steps

Implementing KBOX will take time and planning to be successful.  It is critical that IRT and program center technical staff collaborate to develop a plan for each program center.  New and rebuilt workstations must have KBOX clients installed as part of their regular imaging or installation process.  IRT Desktop Services will create a plan and timeline with each program center to identity and install clients on existing workstations and will work with individual ITCs to ensure successful installations, training and other support, as needed.  

Questions, Comments and Concerns

Information security has become increasingly visible with Sacramento State’s forthcoming Chancellors Office Information Security Policy, Standards and 2009 Audit. If you have questions, comments or concerns regarding this or any other information security compliance projects do not hesitate to contact me.

To read more on KBOX best practices see our additional information page here: