|
RSS News Feeds
-
Janco
-
IT Productivity Center
- ejobdescription
- psrinc
- IT-Toolkits

-
DRP
Template




|
Disaster Recovery, IT
Service Management, IT Job Description, Sarbanes Oxley, and IT Salary
Full news feed

July 22nd, 2008
SPAM and Disaster Recovery Planning
SPAM is an never ending problem that continues to evolve. Disaster
plans need to take this into account. Once the recovery starts, one to the
common things that are lost are user spam filters.
The first record of e-mail spam dates back as far as 1978
and, although spam began in earnest in 1994, the recent history of the spam
"problem" actually began about 2002. In early 2002, spam represented about 16%
of all e-mail sent over the Internet; by early 2008, spam represents between 87%
and 95% of all e-mail.
Clearly, the key to stopping spam will be technology-based
solutions, not legislation or legal prosecution of spammers. However, not all
anti-spam technologies are created equal. Some are better than others either in
spam capture efficiency and/or in generating a minimal number of false
positives. While conventional spam-filtering technologies can stop a large
proportion of spam, spammers continue to battle against even the cutting edge of
these technologies, necessitating newer and better techniques to stop the
problem. more info
July 22nd, 2008
Drive Support for IT Service Management to Remote Sites
Overall service management needs to inclue remote sites. In order to
accomplish that you should:
-
Understand all applications in
use. Many remote sites have legacy applications that have not
been brought into the office.
- Understand Bandwidth requirement. Before
deploying any technology to remote offices that will increase the WAN load,
understand each sites traffic profiles.
- Create disaster plans for each site. What will
each site do if they lose their primary line or phone connectivity?
- Understand remote sites data silos. Critical
information often ends up stored on local servers or, worse, on local
machines, because of convenience or ignorance.
- Do not dictate from on high. Bringing
remote sites into the mix and listening to feedback and concerns helps
to focus priorities and set the foundation for collaborative
technologies.
more info
July 17th, 2008
Breach Protection and Identity Management
Organizations
are being challenged by growing user populations of employees, customers,
contractors, suppliers, and partners each requiring access to increasing numbers
of IT applications and processes. This has spurred the need for technology that
can manage identities while securing controlled access to resources based
on rights and privileges. Additionally, regulatory mandates such as
Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA and Gramm-Leach-Bliley in the US, EU data privacy
regulations and banking industry Basel II in Europe, J-SOX in Japan and Payment
Card Industries standards on a global basis has affected the way organizations
manage their business processes. Compliance challenges are further complicated
by requirements to audit and scrutinize user access to data and applications
based on user attributes. What can be done?
Password management is the
gateway to managing identities and therefore is often considered to be the
initial step in identity and access management related projects.
more info
June 27th, 2008
Security at What Cost?
Electronic Frontier Foundation and Asian Law Caucus, two civil
liberties groups in San Francisco, filed a lawsuit to force the government to
disclose its policies on border searches, including which rules govern the seizing and copying of the
contents of electronic devices. They also want to know the boundaries for asking
travelers about their political views, religious practices and other activities
potentially protected by the First Amendment. The question of whether border
agents have a right to search electronic devices at all without suspicion of a
crime is already under review in the federal courts.
The lawsuit was inspired by some two dozen cases, 15 of which
involved searches of cellphones, laptops, MP3 players and other electronics.
Almost all involved travelers of Muslim, Middle Eastern or South Asian
background, many of whomÂ… said they are concerned they were singled out because
of racial or religious profiling. more info
June 23rd, 2008
Most Data Breaches Caused By IT Administrators and Business Partners
Inside security breaches create more security violations than
those of outsiders say a security breach analysis study published by a major
telephone carries.
-
External breaches pose the greatest
threat (73%), but achieved the least impact (30,000 compromised records
-
Insiders breaches pose the least threat (18%), and
achieved the greatest impact (375,000 compromised records - plus 50% of
these are as a result of IT Administrators
- Business partner breaches posed a mid-sized threat (39%) but compromised
187,500
While these are rudimentary numbers, the relative risk scores are reasonable
and discernable. It is also worth noting that the business partner numbers rose
over the duration of the study, making partner crime the leading factor in
breaches. This is likely due to the ever increasing number of partner
connections businesses are establishing, while doing little to nothing to
increase their ability to monitor or control their partner's security
posture. more info
June 11th, 2008
87% of Data Breaches are Avoidable Says Verizon
Data breaches are a fact of life with the advance of Wi-Fi, 3G, and remote
computing as it is done in todayÂ’s flexible business environment.

Data breaches and network intrusions occur because the personal
information compromised includes data elements useful to identity thieves, such
as Social Security numbers, account numbers, and driver's license numbers. Some
breaches do not expose such sensitive information; however, they still expose
individuals to identity theft and business to a compromise of their electronic
assets and that must be disclosed under Sarbanes-Oxley and various state
laws.
According to Verizon, nearly nine in 10 corporate data breaches could have
been prevented had reasonable security measures been in place.
The Verizon "2008 Data Breach
Investigations Report" spans four years and more than 500 forensic
investigations involving 230 million records, and analyzes hundreds of corporate
breaches including three of the five largest ones ever reported.
They found that 73 percent of breaches resulted from external sources versus
18 percent from insider threats, and most breaches resulted from a combination
of events rather than a single hack or intrusion.
Recommendations for Enterprises
Simple actions, when done diligently and continually, can reap big benefits,
the study notes. Key recommendations include:
- Align process with policy. In 59 percent of data breaches, the
organization had security policies and procedures established for the system,
but these measures were never implemented. Implement, implement, implement.
Create a data retention plan. With 66 percent of all
breaches involving data that a company did not even know was on their system,
itÂ’s critical that an organization knows were data flows and where it resides.
Identify data and prioritize its risk to the organization.
- Control data with transaction zones. Investigators concluded that network
segmentation can help prevent, or at least partially mitigate, an attack. In
other words, wall off data when and where appropriate.
- Monitor event logs. Evidence of events leading up to 82 percent of data
breaches was available to the organization prior to actual compromise. Data
logs should be continually and systemically monitored and responded to when
events are discovered.
- Create an incident response plan. If and when a breach is suspected, the
organization must be ready to respond, not only to stop the data compromise
but to collect evidence that enables the business to pursue prosecution when
necessary.
- Increase awareness. Only 14 percent of data breaches were discovered by
employees of the victimized organization, even though employees are the first
line of defense in safeguarding data. Educate them to be aware.
- Engage in mock-incident testing: Making sure employees are well-trained to
respond to a breach. Run drills and test peopleÂ’s abilities, judgements and
actions during a mock crisis.
A complete copy of the "2008 Data Breach Investigations Report" is available
at http://www.verizonbusiness.com/resources/security/databreachreport.pdf.
more info
June 3rd, 2008
ID Theft By Those Close To You
ID Theft is not
just by strangers in Eastern European countries. A recent arrest shows how an Ivy League
economics graduate and his girl friend who looked like the Mr. and Mrs. American
couple stole the identities of friends, co-workers and neighbors.
They enjoyed an luxurious life style that included trips to the
Caribbean, Hawaii, and Europe. In a
very brief period they stole over $115,000 and were in process of trying to
steal over $120,000 when they were arrested.
They used simple techniques like
breaking into apartment to get information on neighbors, dumpster diving, and
getting mail box keys for their apartment complex. They applied for credit cards
and then intercepting the cards when they arrived via the mail. They also had fake driverÂ’s licenses
and an industrial machine that made identity cards. more info
May 29th, 2008
Free Wi-Fi May Become a Reality
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to vote on a program
to auction a "Free WiFi" spectrum.
The winner of the 25Mhz piece of spectrum in the 2155MHz band would be
required to deliver free wifi Internet access. The operator could choose to use
any technology, but in that range, WiMax or many of the mobile technologies
would make sense.
The FCC believes this is a good idea and demonstrates the FCC's
commitment to supporting initiatives that have a positive impact on the next
phase of broadband innovation. This will give consumers greater choices to
access the Internet said a FCC spokesperson.
The FCC has developed the plan based on proposals from several companies. In
2006 one company proposed that the FCC give the company the spectrum so that it
could offer free wireless Internet access to users. The company planned to fund
the network through advertising and said that it would give the FCC 5 percent of
its gross revenue. The FCC's current proposal would simply auction the spectrum
to the highest bidder and require the free services.
The current proposal also includes a requirement for a content filter that
would aim to prevent minors from accessing adult content over the free network.
The final plan could also include specified data rates for the free service.
more info
May 26th, 2008
Data Breach and Network Intrusion Tools Released by IT Toolkits.com
Data breaches and network intrusions occur because
the personal information compromised includes data elements useful to identity
thieves, such as Social Security numbers, account numbers, and driver's license
numbers. Some breaches do not expose such sensitive information; however, they
still expose individuals to identity theft and business to a compromise of their
electronic assets and that must be disclosed under Sarbanes-Oxley and various
state laws.
Janco has defined a set of tools which enterprises
of all sizes can use to be prepared to protect against breaches and intrusion,
know when it occurs, and provides the ability to respond quickly when it does
happen.
The Data
Breach and Network Intrusion Detection Tools are the tools that
are needed and contain:
-
Security Manual
Template
-
Security Audit
Program
-
Network Event
Viewer
-
Smart Disk
Monitor
-
Text Log
Monitor
-
Internet Service
Monitor more info
May 24th, 2008
US Tax Court Warns of Phishing Attack
The US Tax Court has posted a warning on its site
about a Spear Phishing attack. The site says:
The United States Tax Court has received
many telephone calls regarding an e-mail which purports to
originate from the Court being sent by a member of the Tax Court's
practitioner bar. This message is an example of Spear Phishing, which is
an e-mail spoofing attempt that targets a specific organization. The
Tax Court is not disseminating any e-mail notice to
anyone who currently has a case before this Court. If you
receive an e-mail with a subject line that includes the text, Notice of
Deficiency # followed by a series of numbers or US Tax Petition, along with a
malformed docket number following the format #000-000, and a sender address of
noreply@ustaxcourt.org,
complaints@ustaxcourt.org, or
notice@ustaxcourt.org,
please ignore/delete the e-mail and do not
click any link within the e-mail
message. more info
|





Other News Links
CTO Toolkits.com
e-janco.com
IT
Productivity.org
IT-Toolkits.com
ejobdescription.com
psrinc.com
psrorders.com
newsgroupworld.com
ntcity.com
disaster-planning-template.com
disaster-recovey-planning.org
disaster-recovery-planning.com
disaster-recovey-planning-template.com
|