I hope no one that reads this belongs to Sears (or K-marts) SHC community. I really hope you don't. If you do you're in for a potentially big shock. Normally at this point I would laugh at people for not reading the fine print. Unfortunately it's looking like that wouldn't have helped in this case. To be honest I haven't yet had the time to ( Read more... )

Recently I have written a few entries highlighting security concerns, especially physical security. I've talked about security policies and why every business should have them, after all your security is only as strong as your worst employee. So while I was searching for interesting news I came across a story that highlights the need for security ( Read more... )

We all love virtual machines. Ok, not all of us, but they are the “way of the future.” Virtual servers cut down on hardware costs, cooling costs, maintenance costs, and a slew of other things. Not only that, but their cool! One machine that can run your web server, app server, storage server, directory, printing, and whatever else you can think ( Read more... )

A new rootkit is making the rounds that you should be aware about. Rootkits by themselves are nothing new or exciting, but this particular one is using an attack vector that was common during the old MS-DOS days!
( Rootkits and worms and trojans, oh my!... )

You have heard me talk about how easy it is to break wireless encryption, and yes, it is easy. Every time I write an article that mentions this someone invariably asks me if I can tell them how to break some type of wireless encryption. If they're my friends, and they have a legitimate reason I'll do it for them and not tell them how. If its a ( Read more... )

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and your security is only as strong as your worst employee. Employees have been, are, and will remain the single biggest threat to network security. Yes, crackers remotely breaking into our network is big and scary and we need to do whatever we can to stop it. However, if you think its easier to do ( Read more... )

SAFE Act 2007, what a clusterfark. Securing Adolescents From Exploitation-online. This bill was rushed through the House of Rep's, and when I say rushed, I mean rushed! It was sent through the House of Rep's using a mechanism that is supposed to be reserved for non-confrontational bills. On top of that it passed almost unanimously. If I ( Read more... )

Wireless security is one of my favorite soapbox's. Whenever I teach an A+ class or a Net+ class I always spend a few minutes talking about the theory behind cracking WEP and WPA, and how easy it is, to drive home the point that wireless connections are just not secure without advanced encryption and authentication (something a RADIUS server would ( Read more... )

I while ago, as I was teaching an A+ class, the topic of how hard drives store information came up. I was successfully sidetracked (as I'm sure my student hoped I would be) into a brief discussion on the mechanics of hard drives. Of course, once we started talking about that I was forced (forced I tell you) to get up on my soap box about data ( Read more... )

Long title, but accurate. I will attempt to make sense of the OSI seven layer model to networking. Ill explain it in non networking terms then go back and expand a little on it. I wont get in to too much detail, but you should have a working understanding by the time were done here ( Read more... )