Security

DNS Flaws

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:32:24 -0400

Aren't there enought IDIOTS in teh world without these jerks make the internet more dangerous then it is. His hacker name fits the flake is a FLAKE!!!!!

Stolen Tape - Data Breaches

johnfranks999 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:54:26 -0400

Sheesh - more breaches. I urge every business person and IT person, management or staff, to get hold of a copy of "I.T. Wars: Managing the Business-Technology Weave in the New Millennium." Our CEO has read it. Our project managers are on their second reading. Our vendors are required to read it (they can borrow our copies if they don't want to purchase it). Any agencies that wish to partner with us: We ask that they read it. Do yourself a favor and read this book - then ask your boss to read it - then ask your staff and co-workers to read it.

Researchers tout newfangled tool to predict network vulnerabilities

Layer 8 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:47:01 -0400

It seems like that for as many network security threats there are , there tends to be an equal number of new methods to stop them. Today we find a promising new tool from researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that uses security metrics and network pathways to predict attack risks that could ultimately help IT folks keep ahead of network security battles. For a moment anyway.

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Oh boy...here we go again..

david.oberry — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:27:44 -0400

You make my head hurt sometimes Richard! This is gonna be real quick and so I am sure there will be holes and even if there are not I am sure you will purposefully misinterpret things to create them! ;) 1. It is not a security solution at all. There is not a single aspect of any NAC product that protects the network from the malicious user. Huh? The aspect of what becomes reputation services and therefore what gives you access to what resources is not a security concept? That is just the very top level of that really. Much more can be said... 2. It is not a zero-day protection. During the next outbreak NAC will do NOTHING to protect the network. This really depends on what the agent is at the client-side.

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Terry Childs

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:39:01 -0400

OK so Terry gave them the passwords. So what is it he is charged with, "Failure to give the passwords to someone who thought he should give them to him in a timely manner?" Seems like the "terrorist tactics" all belong to the IT Management team and the DA.... Clearly, the San Francisco DA will want to make a big deal about this, but I doubt it will work out well for the city, the DA or Terry in the long run.... Ms. Harris are you reading this?

Usernames

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:35:40 -0400

Don't forget that some banking sites use things such as Social Security numbers or Account numbers as user IDs... Huge security risk.

Show me a successful deployment?

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:31:44 -0400

Can anyone? Looks like a lot of marketing and not much product...

Anatomy of a Data Breach

rsherstobitoff — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:22:52 -0400

In 2007 and 2008 the industry has seen an upsurge in data breaches affecting millions of consumers and causing corporations to pay heavily in fines.

Despite the increase in the number of data breaches via illicit means, internal controls seem to fail when it comes to the assurance that critical assets remain uncompromised. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center a total of 336 breaches have been reported in 2008 alone, putting the overall number at 69% greater then this time last year . This is a concern for security teams especially given the fact that a lack of dedicated resources exist to combat and revert this trend.

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From Traditional Anti-Virus to Security-as-a-Service

rsherstobitoff — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:51:02 -0400

Over the past five years, the anti-virus market has experienced tremendous growth as many new technologies have emerged in response to current conditions.

What was once a market consisting of very few players has evolved into a multi-billion dollar enterprise consisting of dozens of companies with huge assortment of anti-virus products varying in focus and quality.

According to analysts, the global anti-virus market is forecasted to surpass $58 billion by 2010 with the introduction of new technologies in the areas of data loss prevention, virtualization security, security-as-a-service and many others.

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Is the time right or a neat gimmick?

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:49:11 -0400

While this application is interesting will it ever become mainstream? Or for that matter will biometrics ever become mainstream? This application, much like fingerprint door locks, themostats, USB keys, and other comsumer devices are neat but but really lack a compelling reason to buy other than they are neat. Biometrics found its roots in law enforcement and has made its way to federal security programs but outside of that it is still struggling (ref: biopay folding up tents). Enterprises still strugle with the cost/beneft. Not to mention because biometrics found a place in law enforcement and other "bad guy" applications, consumers have been, and remain, weary of their use.

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Financial Services Industry

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:52:03 -0400

Privacy regulation needs to be re-examined from top to bottom. For example, currently banks are allowed an opt-out arrangement, but other financial services industry players, let's say insurance industry, are required to follow op-in procedures. But bank affiliates are not required to follow the banking rules that that just creates more loopholes. If there is no effective enforcement mechanism, then all the regulation in the world will be wasted.

text/plain

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:24:02 -0400

text/plain

Spam King pulls prison vanishing act

Layer 8 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:20:51 -0400

Seems the Spam King is also an escape artist. Eddie Davidson this week just walked away from a federal prison camp in Colorado where he had been serving 21 months for his massive spamming activities.

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Bank Web sites full of security holes, University of Michigan survey finds

Alpha Doggs — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:08:11 -0400

Three out of four bank Web sites examined by the University of Michigan had at least one security vulnerability that could leave customers' at the mercy of cybercrooks (10 of the Worst Moments in Network Security).

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Regulatory Compliance & The Real Risk of Undetected Malware

rsherstobitoff — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:22:59 -0400

With the emergence of regulatory laws borne out of experience from a variety of embarrassing security breaches, today’s corporate leaders face a myriad of repercussions. These range from serious fines to jail time when found not in compliance with regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLB), and Payment Card Industry (PCI), etc.

These regulations are designed to protect the privacy of individuals and to ensure the proper internal controls are in place to maintain confidentiality and integrity of sensitive information.

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Hype or the Matrix Reloaded: The Government Hacked!

rsherstobitoff — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:15:41 -0400

Recently there has been a lot of buzz concerning the latest reports on Government entities being hacked and in some cases their web sites are being defaced. With the increase in sophistication and change in motivation I would not be surprised if some of these attacks were successful. Web mafias and other foreign organized crime syndicates are of prime concern for businesses alike. With the advancement in malicious code and the increase in vulnerabilities discovered, targeted Trojans are being designed to penetrate defenses. In fact there is such a high volume of new and unique malware released on a daily basis that it creates a sustained denial of service.

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What's next. I know Escription is totally web based. It just a matter of time

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:00:03 -0400

before medical records go who knows where. I think we should pull back from any medical information being web based.

While I agree that it is a good idea to encrypt laptops using TrueCrypt (which has no enterprise key management) is not a viable

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:57:38 -0400

While I agree that it is a good idea to encrypt laptops using TrueCrypt (which has no enterprise key management) is not a viable solution for many companies. Also just because you have a laptop doesn't mean that it needs to be encrypted. You need to look at what else you have in place that can help protect your data and utilize those resources before jumping into a full out FDE deployment. FDE may be the best answer and then again it may not. I wrote about this a week or so ago on my blog. http://andyitguy.blogspot.com/2008/07/don-bring-gun-to-knife-fight.html

Cisco pink slips its famous PIX firewall July 28: AlgoSec aims to make the transition painless and hassle-free for customers

Brad Reese — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:49:39 -0400

This coming Monday - July 28th, Cisco is quietly giving the boot to its scandalously and outrageously successful PIX firewall. AlgoSec is one company that is offering Cisco customers a migration service. According to information on their website, AlgoSec's service enables enterprises upgrading from PIX to ASA to:

	Control professional service costs associated with the migration.
	Receive an independent third party *proof of correct migration* audit.
	Automate the error-prone and labor-intensive manual task of rule-by-rule comparison.
	Proactively ensure business continuity by validating that critical traffic will keep flowing.

View the AlgoSec Cisco PIX to ASA migration service Register for a free 30-day evaluation of the AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer (AFA). According AlgoSec's website, you'll also get automatically completed PCI and SOX compliance reports.

"Firewalls are often the organization’s first and continued line of defense," said Dr. Avishai Wool - AlgoSec Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder. "When migrating from one platform to another, especially when their interfaces and configuration language options are different, as is the case with PIX and ASA, it can be very daunting for organizations to ensure a smooth transition."

"At AlgoSec, we strive to provide enterprises the ability to intelligently automate what were until now manual functions." "Our migration solution for those enterprises moving from PIX to ASA does just that." "It provides enterprises a way to quickly and cost-effectively guarantee that the migration was as planned and maintain the integrity of their security policy."

AlgoSec firewall analyzer summary page: According to AlgoSec, the screenshot above of the AlgoSec firewall analyzer summary page is displaying the risks identified during the analysis. Risks are color coded with red being the most severe and the numbers marking how many times that risk is present. Each risk has a link that drills down to the particular industry standard that identifies it as a risk and recommendations on how to remediate.

Standard by which risk is measured and how to remediate: According to AlgoSec, after clicking on the risk on the summary page the screenshot above displays the standard by which the risk is measured and how to remediate.

The actual rule associated with the risk: According to AlgoSec,, the screenshot above delves even deeper, showing the actual rule associated with the risk to enable IT to remediate.

Overview comparing policies between PIX and ASA firewalls: According to AlgoSec, the screenshot above is an overview comparing policies between two firewalls, a PIX and ASA firewall. It provides an overview with everything being a hyperlink that you can drill down to. It details which firewalls, IP addresses, number of rules, services and hosts (for example) and provides an automatically generated network connectivity diagrams for the two firewalls. Additionally, it shows at the top the amount of traffic, definitions and topology and how many risks you are exposed to. Keep in mind that because it is a hyperlink, if you are interested in seeing the risks you can click and drill down and receive guidance on remediation. Restating once again according to AlgoSec, the above screenshot is an overview because AlgoSec can also show if traffic is blocked when you compare old policy to new and what the other implications are.

You may also wish to investigate: End of Sale Q&A for Cisco PIX Products and Migration Guide from Cisco PIX 500 to Cisco ASA 5500 Series as well as Migration from PIX 500 Series Security Appliances to ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances and finally Cisco PIX to Cisco ASA Security Appliance Upgrade Program Related story: How to troubleshoot hardware issues with the Cisco PIX 500 series firewall

Don't YOU wish that the AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer (AFA) was your idea? http://www.BradReese.Com Search 55,498 current Cisco Job openings worldwide!


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Whatever happened to the common naming effort

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:05:14 -0400

The threat talked about here is real and bad, I agree that users will be users and most will not recognize the threat. Another problem I see here is the number of names used for the same threat. Three vendors were listed, three different names were lsited: Trend Micro calls the malware "Troj_Medpinch.a," Secure Computing named it " "Trojan.ASF.Hijacker.gen" and Kaspersky calls it "Worm.Win32.GetCodec.a." What Does Sophos, et al call it? Talk about Trend Micro calls the malware "Troj_Medpinch.a," Secure Computing named it " "Trojan.ASF.Hijacker.gen" and Kaspersky calls it "Worm.Win32.GetCodec.a." Talk about Babylon!

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