Salsa: Security Application Launcher for System Administrators.

Abstract : When one speaks of computer science today, it is impossible not to mention networking in the same breath. Networking is changing the way we think, shop, do business, communicate, learn, study, etc. However, one of the main threats to the continued growth of networking is network security. The need for system and network security is well-documented, and dozens of security "tools" already exist to assist system administrators in analyzing the relative vulnerability of their systems. However, these tools are often hard to configure and each operates independent of each other. The SALSA project addresses the need for a system administrator's tool that can provide a variety of applications (ranging from vulnerability scanning to intrusion detection) in a user friendly manner. SALSA incorporates several previously written security applications and it also introduces three new tools. Each of these applications is accessed via the SALSA graphical user interface. Thus, the administrator does need to take time to make the tools work, but can instead spend time analyzing the data the applications provide.