Chick Bits

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40690969174563579372011-11-17T02:59:40.012-05:00Chick BitsAnswers to your Enterprise IT and computer security questions. No fluff, just facts. Period.H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.comBlogger521100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-1845357648473013122011-07-10T00:28:00.001-04:002011-07-10T01:03:43.955-04:00Mobile Security - "doing it" the right way

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H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-48804543010029784512011-06-16T13:20:00.000-04:002011-06-16T13:20:55.440-04:00Next generation firewall. Is it the future?

I know I haven't blogged in quite some time. For a while I have felt a little uninspired about security. Well, things have changed a bit in the last few weeks. We all know the threat landscape has changed dramatically. Hackers are less interested in defacing your site and more interested in stealing your Intellectual Property. IP is more lucrative for them. RSA and Lockheed Martin found

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-87721616536358519742011-01-27T11:14:00.000-05:002011-01-27T11:14:57.746-05:00What is Data Loss Prevention?

Is it a policy, process or procedure? Is it a technology? Is it training? Answer: All of the above! Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is a program an organization creates to address the threat of data leakage. It is what you often hear as an "umbrella" term. It is not simply one policy or one technology. It is made up of many policies and many technologies that align together to create the overall

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-14523802349564579552010-12-15T19:46:00.000-05:002010-12-15T19:46:32.008-05:00Security is not a checklist...

The year is coming to a close, and if you are one of the luckier folks out there who have extra money in your IT budget, you are thinking about how to spend it. Should you buy that IPS, some DLP endpoint clients, a SIEM, or maybe one of those nifty little network DLP appliances even though you have no idea what DLP is or even an idea of what data is leaving your organization. DLP, IPS, SIEM,

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-10959855750570174932010-10-05T10:02:00.002-04:002010-10-05T10:06:06.978-04:00The Human Factor

Data Loss Prevention or DLP is the new hot topic in technology today. The first things IT departments run to lock down is e-mail, USB drives, CD/DVD burners etc. Yes, those are important things to look at but just locking down a particular service, hardware device or creating lexicon searches on your mail gateways is not going to solve your DLP problem.There's one component that is overlooked.

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-86134450129445759072010-08-05T11:33:00.005-04:002010-08-05T12:36:43.196-04:00To outsource or not to outsource?

This is a question on the minds of many network security professionals of late.As more regulations on privacy and security are put into law requiring businesses to deploy state of the art security measures, security managers are thinking (maybe to themselves) that they can't do it all.In a perfect world, you are a network security superhero who has all the ability and time to configure firewall

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-12880224495292142602010-07-06T09:07:00.006-04:002010-07-06T10:48:27.165-04:00iPad and iPhone in the Enterprise?

Yes, it is indeed possible.I know most people say Apple products are not something that can be used in an Enterprise setting, but I tell you with the new enhancements it could give the "other" vendors a run for their money.Did you know the iPad and the iPhone both have 256 bit hardware encryption? What I like about that is your device performance does not suffer as a result of the encryption,

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-61232726780777938032010-06-19T16:38:00.003-04:002010-06-19T17:30:35.832-04:00Magic Quadrant illusions...

Ever heard of the Gartner Magic Quadrant? If you work in IT and purchased network equipment in the last ten years then you have probably read their product ratings. Your management may have even brought you the report of the top vendors and told you to only choose the folks in the top quadrant. Here is a tip for those who don't know..just because a vendor is in the top quadrant does not mean

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-6635479039371899322010-05-21T09:43:00.003-04:002010-05-21T10:41:08.715-04:00Thinking of moving to the Cloud?

Has upper management ever come to you and declared they want to move an application to the cloud?If the answer is yes, then most likely the "want to" means they've already signed on the dotted line. It's possible you may only have a few weeks before the external consultants arrive to start the project. Sound familiar?This scenario is very typical in companies today. A friend of mine is going

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-52861863614421443082010-03-14T18:25:00.002-04:002010-03-14T20:47:37.238-04:00Highlights from RSA conference

Last week I attended the RSA conference and wanted to write a little summary for those who did not have a chance to get there.The Innovation Sandbox was very good at showing some great new security products that will help us to better do our jobs. Lots of great whiteboard sessions on our greatest security challenges. I did hear about a new paradigm called "Implicit Authentication" for mobile

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-11651567232745004392010-02-20T10:49:00.005-05:002010-02-20T19:20:06.014-05:00The real goal of network security...

I get a lot of questions about what is the best anti-virus, anti-malware, intrusion detection (IDS), intrusion prevention (IPS) etc. out there to buy so my business will be secure. I always ask people, what is your end goal? "To be secure, so I don't get hacked" is usually their response. I often reply by saying "so, what you really want is to make sure your assets are protected and your users

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-56259310909163044022010-01-13T10:00:00.002-05:002010-01-13T16:38:08.999-05:00IPS - questions from the BrightTalk summit!

Yesterday I gave a webinar on the "Ins and Outs of IPS" in which I talked about IPS, what it is and the best practices for deployment and management. At the end of the webinar, several folks sent me really great questions and due to time constraints didn't get around to answering them all.I thought I would take the time now to answer a few of them.1. What is the difference between "fail open"

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-70536794406839763162010-01-04T10:12:00.009-05:002010-01-04T11:38:20.425-05:00Security for 2010, what's really important?

I wanted to start the year off with a bit of talk about the most important security issues that we face in 2010. In actuality, they are very much same to what we faced in 2009, but in 2010 we need to get serious about them!Application security tops my list. Why? Injection attacks, Cross Site Scripting, Cross Site Request Forgery, Authentication and Session Management.It still amazes me that

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-13403148057724615762009-11-14T20:52:00.003-05:002009-11-14T21:34:13.311-05:00Two factor authentication, is it necessary?

Absolutely! No question. If you are a business and serious about fraud detection and keeping your employees and customer information safe, then just do it! If your business accepts credit cards, and you have over a certain amount of transactions per year, then you'll have to do it as part of PCI compliance (requirement 8.2 on the questionnaire.) Just having a single password or passphrase

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-34118454529999768512009-10-30T09:39:00.006-04:002009-10-30T10:32:32.231-04:00New token on the block....

Is your business thinking of implementing token based authentication? Let me guess, you've already got quotes from RSA and Vasco, well put those quotes aside and take a look at fireID http://www.fireid.com/What is it? It's a new kind of token, one that you install on your mobile phone. It completely eliminates the need for your users to carry around a physical token. You don't have to spend

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-26562405565613336022009-09-22T14:25:00.002-04:002009-09-22T15:04:23.251-04:00Security in the Cloud

On the heels of last week's announcement of a cloud computing initiative by the new federal CIO, thought it would be time to talk about the security components needed to protect all the data within the cloud. If you are not sure what "Cloud Computing" is, in short, it is a new paradigm in which all your resources are delivered as a service over the internet. A perfect example of this is Google

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-52545622675632666192009-09-16T09:26:00.002-04:002009-09-16T09:38:43.618-04:00Top Cyber Security Risks

Yesterday, SANS released their report on the Top Cyber Security Risks facing us today. I really liked the executive summary section of the report. What I really found interesting was the fact that application vulnerabilities are far exceeding client-side vulnerabilities. Over 80% of all vulnerabilities discovered today are Cross-Site Scripting and SQL injection.Just curious as to how much

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-78358982027560452322009-09-08T14:42:00.003-04:002009-09-08T14:56:10.278-04:00Unpatched zero-day vulnerability in Vista, 2008, and 7

Just heard about a vulnerability in SMB2 that was reported yesterday along with active exploit code that could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to cause a page fault, resulting in a "blue screen of death." The affected versions of windows will all reboot automatically once the page fault occurs, unless you have a savvy administrator who has turned that feature off... http://

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-9334449040332160182009-09-01T15:33:00.002-04:002009-09-01T15:48:39.584-04:00IIS FTP exploit

Heard about this yesterday and tweeted a little about it. Thought I would write a full post about the vulnerability.The vulnerability in the FTP server service of IIS, could enable an attacker to run their own code on a remote server. Yes, we've all heard this before from Microsoft. What I found really interesting was that it affects IIS5 and 6, even if your IIS6 has stack cookie protection

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-59305569534014358922009-08-27T16:12:00.002-04:002009-08-27T16:30:37.144-04:00What is Pharming?

Recently, I got asked "What is Pharming?" and specifically how it is related to phishing attacks.Pharming is an attack on a DNS server that allows the phisher to redirect users from a valid website to a false website. Here is how it works:1. The phisher sets up a fake banking website that looks almost identical to a major financial institution (this has happened before with several major banks

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-90019758289066115632009-08-25T10:02:00.001-04:002009-08-25T10:05:38.914-04:00The dirtiest web sites?

Symantec's Safe Web ratings service put out the "Dirtiest Websites of Summer 2009." Interesting reading.http://safeweb.norton.com/dirtysites

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-31935685553762361132009-08-24T16:21:00.002-04:002009-08-24T16:59:09.547-04:00Should you jump on the Virtualization bandwagon?

I was sitting around a table with some folks today and heard quite a bit of frustration about how their Windows server virtual machines "blue screen" at least once a day. I asked what role these servers play in the scheme of things and was told they are domain controllers that are not in production yet. It's really interesting to see businesses go out and purchase server virtualization software

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-86369211357543771522009-08-18T13:20:00.002-04:002009-08-18T13:27:05.003-04:00Attacker methodology

I was reading the Securosis blog today and they had a really good post about attacker methodology and why security, network, and server administrators and forensic analysts need to pay attention. This will help you in what to do for prevention (use secure coding practices), monitoring (read your firewall and server logs), and investigation (find out what gets installed.) http://securosis.com/

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-69258055101926713542009-08-17T13:04:00.002-04:002009-08-17T13:10:46.976-04:00MS09-039 actively being exploited

I've been getting reports from several folks the MS09-039 vulnerability in WINS is actively being exploited because the server administrators did not patch in time. Most of the attacks happened this weekend and the source IP was 221.214.82.183 which is in China and registered to the CNC Group CHINA169 Shandong Province Network.http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms09-039.mspxI

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-43832326983912045252009-07-30T09:43:00.002-04:002009-07-30T10:05:51.992-04:00What a week for vendor patches!!

Lots of vendor patch releases this week, where do I begin....DNS - BIND 9 - this is actively being exploited, so get moving....https://www.isc.org/node/479Microsoft - released its OOB patch for IE and Visual Studiohttp://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/973882.mspxDon't ask questions, just patch!CiscoTwo this week, one for BGP 4-byte AS number vulnerability and one for wireless LAN

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-78276938637066827712009-07-24T12:54:00.002-04:002009-07-24T13:14:41.687-04:00iPhone 3GS Encryption is useless?

Just reading the recent article from Wired magazine about how the encryption on the iPhone is really not encryption at all. The article has been creating quite a bit of fear out there. Let me say they are all valid concerns.One of the most disturbing portions of the article explains how by pressing the "home" button, and even zooming in on a screen (which we all do), automatically creates a

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-23573002224902338542009-07-21T12:59:00.003-04:002009-07-21T13:10:24.504-04:00twhirl vulnerability

Just reading the news about the latest vulnerability with the twhirl application. For those of you who don't use it, twhirl is a desktop client that allows you to send your tweets from your desktop without going through the Twitter browser. It's a very cool app, and if you are a heavy Twitter user, it's very handy! There is one small problem with it. When the application checks itself for

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-52159720836370690062009-07-16T14:09:00.001-04:002009-07-16T14:11:27.835-04:00New NMAP released today

Biggest release for NMAP since its inception in 1997. Version 5.00, so go and get it, right now!http://nmap.org/5/

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-53218292105796584662009-07-14T14:38:00.002-04:002009-07-14T14:55:45.674-04:00Microsoft Black Tuesday

If it's the second Tuesday of the month, then it must be Microsoft Black Tuesday. I was listening to the SANS ISC podcast this morning and there is a major Microsoft vulnerability with exploit code already in the wild!http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973472What is real interesting about the vulnerability is that it affects not just Office, but Microsoft ISA server which is used heavily by

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-92152718768947585092009-07-06T20:06:00.002-04:002009-07-06T20:10:06.791-04:00Honey, I'm going to work for MI6 ....

You can't tell anyone but feel free to put it on Facebook...A friend forwarded me this article today and I just chuckled out loud. If there was any reason for "user awareness" training, this is it!http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1197562/MI6-chief-blows-cover-wifes-Facebook-account-reveals-family-holidays-showbiz-friends-links-David-Irving.htmlEnjoy!

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-39570243157185622032009-07-06T10:24:00.003-04:002009-07-06T10:28:38.788-04:00Day 3, 4, and 5 - Twitter vulnerabilities

Took a little downtime for the holiday weekend!Here are the latest! What's really interesting about all the vulnerabilities to date is the speed of which the 3rd party vendor has fixed them. Most were fixed within 24 hours.http://www.twitpwn.com/

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-79077880584105607122009-07-03T09:34:00.001-04:002009-07-03T09:38:07.700-04:00Day 2 - Twitter vulnerability

It's the second day of Twitter vulnerabilities. As promised, here it is:http://www.twitpwn.com/From the article, looks like the HootSuite patched it very quickly!Enjoy!

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-44648194364867688272009-07-02T09:37:00.002-04:002009-07-02T10:07:57.105-04:00Defense in Depth and why it is necessary!

Defense in depth is a strategy in which multiple layers of defense are put in place to protect your key systems. It is a layering technique in which you deploy multiple safeguards in your network beginning with your perimeter and moving inward towards your most protected assets. The key word here is multiple. You cannot rely on a single safeguard to give you the protection you need.This all

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-36574806924605047042009-07-01T10:24:00.002-04:002009-07-01T10:33:09.712-04:00Day 1 - Twitter vulnerability

As promised, I would blog about the "vulnerability a day" regarding our favorite social media application.http://www.twitpwn.com/2009/07/motb-01-multiple-vulnerabilities-in.htmlThis one is very interesting as it talks about XSS vulnerabilities in the 3rd party url shortener bit.lyHappy reading!

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-482905283402502009-06-29T10:51:00.002-04:002009-06-29T11:12:54.355-04:00HIPAA, is it really being enforced?

If you had been up close and personal to what happened to me last week, you would definitely say NO!I was visiting a blood lab that is affiliated with a major Harvard Medical School teaching hospital a few days ago to give a blood sample that was requested by my primary care physician. I walk into the lab and the first thing I encounter is a sign in sheet where they ask you to write down your

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-79608580810830629712009-06-25T09:30:00.002-04:002009-06-25T09:38:58.862-04:00Latest Twitter hack

Interesting read about the latest Twitter hack and how it infected both Mac and Windows machines.http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9134750The malware once it is installed will change your DNS settings and re-direct to the spammers' web site.How do you keep from being infected? Being mindful about what url's you click on when following someone!Until

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-58165377915018883632009-06-24T15:56:00.002-04:002009-06-24T16:11:11.238-04:00Wi-Fi and ATM machines

I thought I was in the middle of a bad dream when I first read this article. Apparently, it is indeed a reality.BT(British Telecom) wants to install wi-fi on ATM machines in the UK. http://www.itpro.co.uk/611896/bt-brings-wi-fi-to-cash-machines?CMP=NLC-NewslettersI only have one question.Who is the "genius" who thought of this one? Let me guess. It was someone in the marketing department who

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-47350207893167619322009-06-16T11:10:00.003-04:002009-06-16T11:35:03.266-04:00Port 8000, it's not just for legitimate apps anymore

I was reading the annual security bulletin that is put out by Kaspersky Labs. Usually, vendor bulletins are full of lots of pretty graphs and marketing rhetoric, but this one is a little different.The section on Malware Evolution caught my eye. It talks about the usual attacks, but there is a small report on the top ports used by malware. I know the top ports report usually isn't breaking news

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-63964394485448639922009-06-16T10:21:00.003-04:002009-06-16T10:36:22.956-04:00"A vulnerability a day....."

I was reading the "Ones and Zeros" blog that is written by Ryan Naraine and published by Kaspersky Security Labs. Looks like the social networking applications have become the next big target for all the nasty vulnerabilities like XSS and Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF). It was all just a matter of time! Beginning July 1, a security researcher is going to be publishing vulnerabilities in

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-10198006451345399192009-06-12T11:45:00.002-04:002009-06-12T12:05:05.884-04:00Web browser security - test results

I was just reading the latest version of Haking9 magazine (http://hakin9.org/prt/view/about-the-mag.html) a leading IT security magazine and there was a short blurb about the recent web browser tests and how they fared against XSS (Cross Site Scripting) attacks. XSS has been around since the year 2000. It is a web vulnerability that allows code injection from malicious web sites into your

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-71986922071520342522009-06-04T12:34:00.002-04:002009-06-04T13:11:03.461-04:00Data breach investigations for 2009

This week I attended the 2009 Data Breach Investigations Road Show sponsored by Verizon Business. I know that usually these type of sessions are all about the sponsor selling their services. Yes, that was partly true, but they did give out a report on data breaches and I must say I found the data very interesting! Here is a little taste for you.67% of all breaches occur as a result of

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-43320533500084898602009-05-28T10:06:00.003-04:002009-05-28T10:47:53.221-04:00Are my "secret" answers, really secret?

A few people have asked me in the last few weeks if the answers to their secret questions (those questions you get asked when you forget your password to a web site) can be guessed easily. If you are asking yourself that question, you already know the answer and don't need me to tell you. We are in the age where your soul, or at least your background, likes/dislikes, family history etc. is bared

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-64774278005736236092009-05-15T15:03:00.002-04:002009-05-15T15:29:20.721-04:00Twitter - how not to be a target for spammers

Several other security blogs that I read on a daily basis were all talking about how spammers were able to troll people's Twitter posts for personal e-mail information. Once they found the e-mail address in a person's innocent post, they would send spam or phishing e-mails hoping you will click on the link inside of the e-mail, you become infected and part of their botnet, and the rest they say

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-60843972306745873822009-05-13T14:32:00.002-04:002009-05-13T14:50:28.937-04:00Threat Update! Why patching is important!

I was just on the monthly malware Threat Update call with the SANS Internet Storm Center. There are lots of updates this week for Microsoft Powerpoint and MAC OS. So, if you haven't yet done so, install your patches.Why should you patch? The short answer is just because. The longer answer, to keep your operating system protected from the latest exploits out on the Internet so your computer

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-1448143157591647392009-05-12T14:05:00.002-04:002009-05-12T14:29:24.911-04:00Are there any women out there?

Answer is...Yes, there are.Recently, I found out about a group of women in the Boston area called Boston Girl Geeks, http://www.bostongirlgeeks.com. This is a networking, social group of women in the Boston area who love technology and to get their "geek" on. You can also check out the national site at http://girlgeekdinners.com. I am so excited to see groups like this out there. In some

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-48315915072185398742009-05-04T13:45:00.002-04:002009-05-04T14:05:06.102-04:00Twitter gets hacked!

I thought the title would get your attention. How did the hacker do it? Social Engineering. What is it? Well, it is when a crafty, sly person who calls you on the phone and/or interacts with you socially and gleams personal information from you. The hacker then uses this information to try to break in to your work, e-mail or bank accounts. In the case of Twitter, the hacker was able to find

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-63347549384769398522009-04-27T13:35:00.002-04:002009-04-27T14:07:56.015-04:00I'm buying a Mac, do I need to also buy Anti-Virus?

A friend of mine just asked me this question a few nights ago. I told her the same thing, in short, nope. You do not need anti-virus if you own a Mac. If you are in the pre-buy stage, scratch it off the list of additional software you need to purchase. Why? The Mac OS is based on the Linux Operating System, first developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991. (You can read about the history of Linux

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-30854024979095363122009-04-23T10:42:00.002-04:002009-04-23T11:21:26.799-04:00All in One?

I belong to several network security groups and often asked by folks if they should buy the "All in One" network security devices that are firewall and IDS, and in some cases, Anti-Virus management all rolled up into one device. These are often referred to in the industry as a "Unified Threat Management" devices.My answer, if you are going to deploy the device in small, remote office or home

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-61664567259953854482009-04-17T11:55:00.002-04:002009-04-17T12:33:59.313-04:00To CISSP or not CISSP, that is the question?

Several folks in the industry have asked me if obtaining the CISSP certification is worth it. For those of you who do not what a CISSP is, let me explain. It is an industry certification for network security professionals. It is vendor neutral, meaning the exam tests your knowledge of information security theories and methodologies, not how you would configure and deploy a specific vendor's (

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-90475603720506293422009-04-09T20:21:00.002-04:002009-04-09T21:36:50.215-04:00What is a vulnerability scan?

A vulnerability scan is an automated scan of your network that identifies vulnerabilities aka "weaknesses" present in your infrastructure. Why should businesses perform this kind of scan?As a result of several new federal, banking (PCI) and state regulations, such as 201 CMR 17.00 in Massachusetts, companies that process personal information and/or store that information for future use, must

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-21787619333840327432009-04-08T09:33:00.003-04:002009-04-08T10:00:36.248-04:00What is malware?

Most importantly, why should the everyday user worry about it?Malware is software that is designed to infiltrate a user's computer, often without the user even knowing it's there. Malware includes things like computer viruses, trojans, worms and spyware. Once the software is installed, it runs "in the background" quietly searching your filesystem for any kind of personal information that can be

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069096917456357937.post-23416870361234266362009-04-07T19:54:00.004-04:002009-04-07T20:24:44.477-04:00Shopping for new Anti-Virus?

Springtime is about renewal, a time to say "out with the old and in with the new." Before you go ahead and renew your annual anti-virus subscriptions, ask yourself this one question; "Am I really well protected?" If you think you are just because you purchased the software from one of the biggest US anti-virus companies, think again. SRI International, a non-profit research institute, evaluates

H Ax.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03477299592468890868noreply@blogger.com1