Linux Security Week: March 26th 2007

U.S. networks pumped out the highest percentage of attacks during the second half of last year, with China running a distant second, according to a report released Monday by security firm Symantec. The U.S. accounted for 31 percent of malicious activity originating from computer networks, while 10 percent came from China and 7 percent from Germany, Symantec said in its Internet Security Threat Report.

The speaker is George Gerchow, the Technology Strategist for Configuresoft and a active member of the Center for Policy & Compliance, a research and advisory group designed to address the issues of managing security within strict metrics.

To stop data leakage, try a two-punch strategy that combines outbound content-monitoring tools with digital rights-management appliances.

A disgruntled employee here, a careless one there, and just about any enterprise can find itself facing a mountain of trouble from confidential information made public. Help is at hand. Armed with increasingly sophisticated outbound-content monitors, information security officers finally have the weapons they need to conquer the threat of data leakage.

news/network-security/protection-from-the-inside-out

It might not seem as if a building security guard and a network administrator have much in common. But they do--and the distinction between the two is blurring more every day.

It's true that the people who control building access from security desks and those securing computer networks both watch traffic and walk perimeters to safeguard an organization's assets. But now, technology, tighter security controls, federal regulations and potential cost benefits are bringing the two traditionally separate worlds together--and the convergence is driving industry alliances that may have seemed unusual in the past.

news/network-security/a-new-day-for-business-security

Honeypots have largely been relegated to use by academia and antivirus vendors because most enterprise IT teams figure they're too expensive to run and could land their companies in legal trouble. But honeypots aren't as scary as all that, according to an expert on the topic who spoke at the InfoSec World Conference & Expo in Orlando Tuesday.

news/network-security/how-to-make-a-honeypot-network-security-system-pay-off

Novell introduced the latest version of Sentinel, its award-winning security information and event management solution. Representing a significant update from previous versions, Sentinel from Novell version 6.0 offers new capabilities for automating real-time monitoring of the enterprise security environment, identifying and remediating security incidents and documenting regulatory compliance.

news/network-security/novell-delivers-next-generation-security-information-solution

After legal and regulatory victories, Internet voice remains a consumer play, as businesses remain skeptical.

Though Internet voice providers are overcoming some regulatory and legal hurdles, the major barrier standing between them and the mainstream corporate market is still a glaring lack of security, analysts say.

news/network-security/voip-still-faces-security-hangups

A breadth of anti-forensics tools -- most of them free -- is making it easier for the bad guys to cover their tracks in malware and data theft attacks.

"The bottom line is most criminals are not the brightest bolts in the box and they tend to make mistakes, which forensics has been able to use to its advantage," says Paul Henry, vice president of technology evangelism for Secure Computing. Henry will discuss the increasingly popular anti-forensics tools at a session at InfoSec World in Orlando this week. "But a smarter individual can [today] easily find tools to cover his tracks."

NSA has developed and distributed configuration guidance for operating systems. These guides are currently being used throughout the government and by numerous entities as a security baseline their systems.

news/server-security/nsa-operating-systems-guides

It turns out that, after years of engineering work and collaboration efforts with strategic partners such as IBM, Red Hat's March 14 release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 had the misfortune of coinciding with the company's release of a whopping 11 security advisories.

news/vendors-products/red-hat-release-coincides-with-host-of-related-application-kernel-fixes

The Top 10 threats security professionals should keep their eye on this year

If there is one thing that we have learned in the Internet age, it is that security professionals and hackers are in a constant battle to protect and exploit vulnerabilities. As security solutions are developed in one area, hackers move on to look for weakness in others.

Humans use body characteristics to recognize each other. Some characteristics don't change over time and some do. What characteristics do we use for identifying people? Are they accurate? Can we depend on them in our daily life?