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  • Lifting rocks and seeing what dangers lurk beneath

    I'm still getting acquainted with my new company. As a security manager, that means I'm seeking out all the risks that are lurking in various functional areas.

    Written by Mathias Thurman • 25 Jan. 11 03:43

  • Reinventing storage virtualization

    The initial approach to storage virtualization, which has been around for years, was to address it in the storage-area network because the SAN sat between the storage and servers, and would cause the least disruption to these systems. However, after nearly a decade, this approach has not taken off while server virtualization has become widely accepted. What needs to be changed to make storage virtualization as ubiquitous as server virtualization?

    Written by Hu Yoshida • 02 Oct. 08 10:26

  • Major Sites Fall Victim to Web Hijack

    Security company Finjan Wednesday reported it has found more than 1,000 sites infected by an attack toolkit called "Asprox," which exploits discovered flaws in a vulnerable site's programming to add hidden attack code. The attack code in turn searches for flaws on a browser's PC, and if any such holes are found it will download malware onto the computer.

    Written by Erik Larkin • 17 July 08 09:29

  • Hack a million systems - earn a job

    It has been a number of years since the fantasy that hackers will be offered a job by those who they hacked was even a potential reality, but there are reports that this might still be the case in New Zealand.

    Written by Carl Jongsma • 16 July 08 16:12

  • Can ITIL save storage?

    I have a nightmare vision of storage administrators becoming clones of the mail carrier Newman from the TV sitcom Seinfeld, who once bemoaned the endless pressures of his job, crying, "The mail! It just keeps on coming and coming!"

    Written by Jim Damoulakis • 14 July 08 08:20
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    7 skills for IT fame and fortune

    With the economic downturn on everyone's mind, assumptions about job security come under question, and everyone starts reexamining their skills. There are lots and lots of valuable jobs performed in IT, but some skills are valued even more highly than others. With all the upheaval we're experiencing in IT, many new skills are in high demand or rapidly increasing in value. Here are my Top 7 skills that could help you not only keep that job, but secure an even better new job, positioning you to work on the next generation of IT applications and software products in the era of Web-delivered online applications.

    Written by Mitchell Ashley • 02 July 08 10:31

  • Solid state disk revolution looms

    We've all experienced it: that sense of frustration whenever the disk drive LED on your laptop turns solid green for a seemingly interminable period. While enduring one such interruption recently, my thoughts turned longingly to solid state drives and their emergence as a force to be reckoned with both at the low end and high. Several recent news items underscore this fact.

    Written by Jim Damoulakis • 04 June 08 08:43

  • System hardening effective weapon against unknown security threats

    Many Information Security practices have outcomes that are difficult to quantify. How do you prove that your measure is effective at preventing whatever malicious activity is out there from being effective against your system?

    Written by Carl Jongsma • 12 May 08 15:11

  • In the cloud: what startups need to succeed

    With Google's recent launch of its App Engine, and with the likes of IBM and Amazon having staked claims, cloud computing is clearly a major development in the IT landscape. The benefits are obvious, enabling enterprises to scale rapidly with a level of performance previously available to only the largest companies -- all without adding equipment, software or staff.

    Written by Ken Elefant • 06 May 08 08:48

  • Fat, fatter, fattest: Microsoft's kings of bloat

    What Intel giveth, Microsoft taketh away. Such has been the conventional wisdom surrounding the Windows/Intel (aka Wintel) duopoly since the early days of Windows 95. In practical terms, it means that performance advancements on the hardware side are quickly consumed by the ever-increasing complexity of the Windows/Office code base. Case in point: Microsoft Office 2007, which, when deployed on Windows Vista, consumes more than 12 times as much memory and nearly three times as much processing power as the version that graced PCs just seven short years ago, Office 2000.

    Written by Randall C. Kennedy • 15 April 08 09:16

  • Upgrading to solid state

    Now that loose SSDs (solid state drives) are available, you may be wondering how best to take advantage of the technology. Here's a breakdown of where retrofitting current machines with solid state could reap worthwhile rewards.

    Written by Mario Apicella • 27 March 08 11:52

  • AMD's ready to scale you up

    Architectural traits reaching back to Pentium remain present in the Intel-powered servers of today. The limitations of those servers aren't likely to be noticed as long as the routine of IT and commercial server buyers is to add capacity by scaling out, purchasing new two-socket servers. But the time will come when adding a rack server, or a rack of servers, is no longer the wise person's path to increased capacity. Smart planning will lead you to handle bigger workloads without more servers.

    Written by Tom Yager • 27 March 08 11:44

  • Users are better off with an independent Iomega

    I am not sure who the bigger winner is after this week's announcement that Iomega rejected EMC's takeover bid: Iomega or customers. Based on EMC's past attempts to enter the consumer storage market space, one would think that consumers are better off because Iomega remained independent.

    Written by Jerome Wendt • 14 March 08 10:19

  • Trend Micro sucker punches Barracuda

    Intellectual property, or IP, in the form of patents is, in theory, how we reward those who break new ground, explore strange new technologies, geek out new algorithms and new gadgets, and boldly go where no techie has gone before. In practice, the whole field of IP has become a complete mess with patents being awarded for things that no sane person would call "novel" -- once a key requirement for patentability.

    Written by Mark Gibbs • 04 Feb. 08 08:32

  • Control user installs of software

    I've written many times over the years, including as recently as last week, that letting users execute and install their own software will always allow viruses, worms, and Trojans to be successfully installed. Traditionally, I've recommended that users not have admin or root access, that they let system administrators choose what software is allowed and what is blocked. But this recommendation breaks down for several reasons.

    Written by Roger A. Grimes • 28 Jan. 08 07:27

  • Cisco confirms ability to spy on remote calls with VoIP

    Cisco confirmed it is possible to eavesdrop on remote conversations using Cisco VoIP phones. In its security response, Cisco says: "an attacker with valid Extension Mobility authentication credentials could cause a Cisco Unified IP Phone configured to use the Extension Mobility feature to transmit or receive a Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) audio stream."

    Written by Linda Leung • 03 Dec. 07 07:20

  • Watch out for e-mail hijack scams

    I received an interesting e-mail the other day. It was an advertisement for a Web site (i.e. spam) that supposedly offered Swiss watches for sale. Now I get a lot of this type of spam every day, but there was one thing that set this one apart -- it was from me!

    Written by Chuck Yoke • 14 Nov. 07 14:10

  • Top five security-menace predictions for 2008

    If this year will be remembered for high-profile data breaches, then what troubles are in store for 2008?

    Written by Ellen Messmer • 14 Nov. 07 14:14

  • Aussies worth watching

    CoolRock Software, GTS Interactive, Myriax, RP Data, Scientific Analytics, and SpectrumData

    Written by Len Rust • 05 Nov. 07 15:19

  • What's in the next ICT wave?

    In our technological age there is a special fascination with directions of technologies and their perceived impacts on our lives in the future. The Internet has been a driving force. The technologies to build systems to make them faster, capable of handling and moving large and larger amounts of information, have developed to help drive growth. New applications are appearing all the time to entice organisations into new ways of using IT.

    Written by Len Rust • 16 Oct. 07 11:44
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