Here's an idea for a forum that doesn't seem to exist anywhere so far. The only topic would be Extreme Security.

I am currently involved in a project with some pretty interesting security requirements. The office discussions about some of these issues are extremely interesting and I think that a forum to talk only about implementing extremely secure Domino environments could be quite interesting also. It's probably so interesting because it involves not just the technical questions of how to get mail from here to there. There's a bit of psychology, some philosophy and a lot of politics also.

Some topics that could get a forum like that started: ...

Everybody knows you have to trust your Admin team. But what if you would prefer to work under the motto of "We don't trust anyone." - the curent project doesn't go quite that far, but it's a fun mind game: How would you implement Notes and Domino in an environment where you don't [want to] trust anyone.

Assume you want no single administrator to have access to both the password and the ID file for any ID file other than her own. Sounds good, but implementation and 'living it' can be tricky.

Sure, from a security point of view, having passwords on Domino server IDs makes a lot of sense. In real life however, passwords on server IDs are a major hassle and cause trouble after a crash or power failure. What's the best solution?

We are all aware that there are only two things between an administrator's eyes and your sensitive information are ... ethics and encryption (and that only if all those user IDs are secure). We also know that encrypted stuff can't be scanned for nasty payloads, active content, and other bad stuff. You certainly want sensitive stuff encrypted, but you also want to keep bad stuff from causing problems. Sure you can have scanning software on the client PCs, but what if 2 or 3 out of a couple of thousand don't get updated and cause a major mess? How do you attempt to solve both problems?

Of course, not just Domino administrators have access to the server room, there are other systems admins, the networking guys and a few others. You feel it's enough to have to trust your Notes admins, you really don't want to have to trust all those other folks when it comes to everything you have inside Domino. Make sure to watch out for the networking guys! Hide Domino servers from your users behind their own firewall that pretty much only opens 1352, enable port encryption on everything, keep all the server cabinets locked up like Fort Knox. Only give OS passwords to the Notes admins. What else would you do?

So, if there is any interest in a crazy-whacko security forum like that, I'll set one up here.