Security

Fri, October 30, 2009 - Few security technologies have received as much attention over the past few years as Data Leakage Prevention (DLP) solutions have. The concept behind them is exciting, offering the ability to scan traffic on your network and in your systems, and assign rules-based protections to the data that you want to protect. Someone e-mailing out a copy of customer records with SSNs? The DLP system will block it or encrypt it on the fly. Someone trying to copy IP to a USB drive? Alert management and block the action. It can be a great way to protect your most critical information assets, but as many have found, it is not an end-all, be-all solution to your data leakage problems.

Tue, October 27, 2009 - According to Winston Churchill, there is no worse mistake in leadership than to hold out false hopes. One area where false hopes have long abounded is information security, and it's happening again.

Wed, October 21, 2009 - Full disk encryption (FDE) systems use strong encryption algorithms to automatically protect all data stored on the hard drives of PCs and laptop computers. Users can access the data via an authentication device, such as a password, token or smart card. This enables the system to retrieve the key that decrypts the disk. On many systems, functions such as key management, access control, lock-outs, reporting and recovery are all managed centrally.

Fri, October 16, 2009 - There was a little bit of everything this week -- Sidekick users got a nasty surprise, Cisco made another acquisition, Oracle had its big user conference while questions lingered regarding the effect its plan to buy Sun will have, Biz Stone insisted he doesn't want to sell Twitter, and the world prepared for the launch of Windows 7 next week even as administrators grumbled their way through a monster patch Tuesday.

Wed, October 14, 2009 - We can blame it all on this dastardly economy, but even in good periods, qualified individuals find it difficult to land a job as an executive.

Mon, October 12, 2009 - Intrusion-detection tools might seem up to the job of stopping SQL injection attacks, but they aren't.

Thu, October 08, 2009 - Much of today's cyber crime is supported by bad-actor sites that enable questionable and criminal activities. A look at McColo, ZlKon, HostFresh and other "sinister" players.

Wed, October 07, 2009 - A new era of computing is at hand, and botnet herders and malware writers of the world are ready to pounce. Too few users are taking notice, even though security warnings surrounding wireless and mobile technology and cloud services are on the rise.

Tue, October 06, 2009 - Defense in Depth is arguably the most time-tested principle in security and applies to the physical security as well as online. It builds on a concept of a hardened "core" where one places their "crown jewels." This core is then surrounded by castle walls and motes, with ever-increasing generality of defense.

Fri, October 02, 2009 - Independent business service companies have become a rare breed after Monday's news that Xerox is buying Affiliated Computer Services. Xerox follows Dell and Hewlett-Packard, fellow hardware companies that see revenue in selling machines as well as services. In Internet news, a more diverse management body will run the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), ending the U.S. government's close oversight of the organization. Finally, two of Microsoft's latest software products, Windows 7 and a rudimentary version of its online collaboration applications, are reviewed.