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Scareware - Not a just a fashion statement anymore

2010-04-05 16:01

Scareware is the latest type of malware (MALicious softWARE) labeled by the media, not my poor sense of style. These are nasty little messages try to frighten you into browsing infected websites, installing infected software, and even giving up your credit card numbers. We have discussed this type...

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Security Breach: the human factor

2010-02-15 13:51

A few weeks ago, it was reported that one of our local school districts was the victim of a security breach. This breach resulted in wire transfers totaling almost $3 million from their bank accounts to various foreign banks; reportedly 20% of the school's annual budget. While the school district...

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Defensive Depths

2010-02-01 13:17

With the new year, it's time to get back to basics and review some key concepts in the security field. One term we often bandy about is "defense in depth" as a means to secure your information and it has nothing to do with deep sea warfare. The term is taken from military parlance and can be traced...

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Budgeting for Disaster

2009-12-01 11:49

As the year winds to a close, thoughts are turning to the coming holidays: turkey, pies, snow shoveling, and perhaps a new budget. So how exactly does one plan for the unexpected, or budget for disasters? By definition disasters are very bad: bad enough that we should be insured against them....

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Virtual security in a real world

2009-11-20 09:23

Virtualization has become a force to be reckoned with for organizations of all sizes and shapes. The flexibility and consolidation options available in virtualized environments give this technology an unusual distinction: it appeals to both the engineers and the accountants. But as with any new...

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Avoiding the Storm Clouds

2009-10-06 10:58

As cloud computing becomes more commonplace and vital to our operations, it's imperative to keep in mind the security implications of running your business from “the cloud". Moving expensive and hard to maintain programs to the cloud can be an attractive alternative to large one time...

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Lock up your servers!

2009-08-25 15:44

One aspect often overlooked when securing our information is physical security. The goal of physical security is to control who can walk up to the information and touch it. The idea is to prevent unwanted information disclosure, loss, or corruption, the same as when securing the information across...

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Untethered fun in the sun...

2009-06-10 14:49

As summer approaches, the dream of working while sitting on the beach comes to the fore. While I doubt many of us will be that lucky, the technology to enable this has been with us for some time and most of us use it every day: WiFi. WiFi (or Wireless Fidelity) is any of the widely deployed...

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Social Insecurity

2009-04-30 10:29

Every day, our communications are becoming more interconnected. Whether it's receiving work and home email on your phone, updating your Linkedin status at work, or accessing work files from home, the line between home life and work life is more blurred than ever. While all of this interconnection...

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Boom! April fools!?

2009-03-26 11:52

As the warm weather begins to set in, something besides April showers may be approaching. A malicious program called Conficker (a.k.a. Worm_DownAD.AD, Trojan.Win32.Pakes.lxf, W32.Downadup) has been propagating throughout the internet and making headlines. This malware (malicious software) has...

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