As security threats multiply and proliferate, so seemingly do the number and style of firewalls designed to thwart them. At Network Computing, we most recently took a closer look at Web Application Firewalls, which pick up where classic network firewalls leave off. While a network firewall keeps out intruders, a Web application firewalls protects the [...]
The Right Firewall for the Job
April 28th, 2006 · No Comments
Ideal intrusion defense combines processes and people
April 28th, 2006 · No Comments
A global IT service provider with 39,000 employees and thousands of computing devices is sure to be a tempting target for digital desperados. But which attack scenarios are most likely to keep the security chief up at night? Dave Bixler, CISO for Siemens Business Services Inc., a subsidiary of Munich-based Siemens AG, lists three:
# Spyware;
# [...]
The Critical First Steps in a Successful Incident Response Program
April 28th, 2006 · No Comments
The beginning of an incident can be as subtle as a user making a call to the help desk to report a “sluggishness” that cannot be explained on his or her computer or it can be as chaotic as every alarm and pager in the Information Technology department sounding at once. Whether it is noticed [...]
Safeguarding Against Social Engineering
April 28th, 2006 · No Comments
Security has never been as important as it is today. Since the World Trade Center attacks carried out on September 11, 2001, the United States government, along with many other governments, considers homeland security a top priority and has been conscientiously working on ways to improve it. The growth of online commerce in the past [...]
Using OpenBSD
April 28th, 2006 · No Comments
Many people responded to the call for OpenBSD and OpenSSH donations by purchasing an OpenBSD CD set. Those CDs are beginning to arrive in the mail, and when they do, how are you going to use them? If you’re a software enthusiast who has never used OpenBSD before, you might enjoy installing it by yourself [...]
Government-Funded Startup Blasts Rootkits
April 28th, 2006 · No Comments
A startup funded by the U.S. government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is ready to emerge from stealth mode with hardware and software-based technologies to fight the rapid spread of malicious rootkits.
Komoku, of College Park, Md., plans to ship in the summer a beta of Gamma, a new rootkit detection tool that builds on a [...]
Linux Performance Tuning
April 28th, 2006 · No Comments
This is probably the first thing you want to know. When a distribution is packaged and delivered to clients, it is designed to be fully compatible with most of the computers available in the market. This is a very heterogeneous set of hardware (hard disks, video cards, network cards, etc.). So distribution vendors like Red [...]
Hey, Westchester! A Firewall Is Not Encryption
April 24th, 2006 · No Comments
A stupid, stupid law has been passed in Westchester County: Sometimes righteous technical indignation overcomes me and I must, like the mad prophet of the airwaves in Network, tell you to throw open your DVD drive doors and launch Windows and shout, “I’m firewalled as hell, and I’m not going to encrypt it any more!”
Months [...]
Why Linux Threats Mean Business
April 24th, 2006 · No Comments
Linux is expanding rapidly beyond its traditional base of enthusiasts, finding rising popularity as a server platform for corporations. This paper highlights the threat to businesses caused by the interaction of unprotected Linux computers with Windows and other platforms and the vulnerability of mixed IT environments to complex threats. As more networks migrate to Linux, [...]
On sentry duty in your in-box
April 24th, 2006 · No Comments
Two years after the introduction of a caller ID-like system for e-mail, Microsoft believes it now has the arguments to sway businesses to adopt the spam-fighting technology.
At a Chicago conference on e-mail authentication on Wednesday, Microsoft plans to talk about the success it’s having with Sender ID on its own hosted e-mail services, such as [...]