June 16th, 2010 by Al

Today marked a rare occurence, in which I need to address repressed issues. This allowed me to work from my home office. Once the issues were address, I turned my attention to my system, an iMac 27″ desktop. I’ve mentioned this before, but today I needed to update 2 critical applications.

I run VMWare Fusion, which allows me to load different operating systems. Version 3 promised to fix a few problems and increase performance. VMWare bundled McAfee SecurityCenter with it, which anyone knows, if you’re going to run Windows, you must have a reliable strategy for protecting this operating system and your critical files.

I paid for the upgrade and downloaded VMWare Fusion. The upgrade was flawless, then I proceeded to upgrade the VMWare Tools and moved on to McAfee. I went through the same ritual, but ended up frustrated. You first download an executable, then execute it, which connects to their server and begins the upgrade piece. It kept failing, citing a connection problem. It stated that if the connect was good, perhaps the server was unavailable and try back.

Heh.  Try back? You take my money and want me to try back later?

Okay, so I did give them the benefit of the doubt, and tried back. Much later.

When I did try it again, it gave me the same results, so decided to contact support. Their interface required me to install an application for chat and soon I was chatting with a nice fellow in India. He gave me some pointers and finally asked if he could remotely access my computer. I denied him at first but then relented. Soon, my mouse pointer went wild with windows closing and new ones appearing until the final box appeared. He then unchecked a box (proxy setting) then applied the setting, finally selecting okay. He then ran the subscription verification and the x was cleared. The SecurityCenter was now indicating my computer was protected once again.

Elapsed time: 9 minutes.

What a great experience! Time saved? Invaluable!

I feel silly, but I don’t care. You can’t save them all Hasselhoff!

Goes to show you, even experts can use the help at times, and it’s even better with outstanding people that care on the other line..

July 9th, 2009 by Al

Working on a client PC this morning and discovered the system needs over 27 system updates. Many of which are security related. In order to install the security software, the system must be completely updated. Folks, system security is nothing to take lightly. July 7th, Microsoft notified the community of another security hole in their Internet Explorer browser. This should give you an indication that unless the value of your data is “zero” you should be keeping up with not only system updates, but making sure your security software data files are up to date.

If you need help with me, shoot me an email or call for an analysis.

June 16th, 2009 by Al

System Security Tip #4

Increase the security of your server: Understanding Servers and Administration – Best Practices

Before we talk about this, lets get an understanding of what a server is, what types there are and how this affects you, the business owner.

In a peer topology, a group of workstations are connected via a common network (i.e. wireless or Ethernet) and may interact with each other with productivity applications such as email clients, chat clients or web interfaces. Another common interaction within an office would be file sharing. But, this interaction would yield many copies of the same file, risk corruption, accidental deletion and other headaches. So, a file server may be employed, that controls access rights, modify writes and version control. It acts as a central repository, easily secured and backed up.

This is only one type of server. A server is a special computer designed to serve up applications or other services as well. Some of these are critical to business. Like perhaps accounting software, booking software or customer relationship databases, all which has some impact on your business. When you have a server like this, it is critical you have some plan for it’s security. After all, the data contained represents a multitude of labor, hours that you paid for.

You have to ask yourself, “How would my bottom-line be affected if this server went down and what affect would there be on the people I employ?”

Large enterprise computing architects design with this in mind and plan as well for their ongoing support, maintenance and security. They design a safe, clean environment complete with alternate power and cooling. Also taking into account, their physical security by monitoring who has physical access to the server. This is important. As soon as you have at least 2 people working on a server, that work represents time and effort bought and paid for by the company. It should be protected and that protection begins with employing good physical security and a good Server Administrator.

A good Administrator knows their system and is proficient with the specific techniques necessary to protecting your IT investment. They are self-starters, wary and on the lookout for threats and should be looked at as “advisors” but they in turn should be well versed in your business operations, not only diligently spending your money. They should take into account your business goals and objectives while making suggestions on future technology investments.

Absolutely critical in server security is having a checklist to ensure your security goals are being met.

For Example:

√ Verify the Administrator account has a strong password

√ Disable unnecessary services

√ Disable the Guest account

√ Enact an account lock-out policy

These are only a few of the many a good System Administrator employs. They are your first line of defense and aid in reducing serious risk to your data. They should be viewed as advisors that will aid in helping you understand the risk and threats, while possessing strong traits that helps them understand your business goals and objectives.

It should be noted, that assessments are an ongoing process. Because threats to your computing environment exist and persist unceasingly, having a strategy that deals with this is in your best interest. A strategy that includes “Monitors and Alerts” will help your Administrator focus on the greatest threats and is why strong support services are vital to your server security.

June 15th, 2009 by Al

Firefox 3.0.11 closes critical holes

The release of Firefox 3.0.11 has eliminated eleven vulnerabilities in 3.0.10, with four of the vulnerabilities classified as critical out of the nine problems listed in the security advisory. One of the critical issues in the advisory actually covers three issues which can at least crash the browser and could allow for arbitrary code to be executed. The developers, to be on the safe side in such cases, classify the set as a critical vulnerability.  ~ The H Security

If you’re running this version, you should get updated as soon as possible. Anytime an exploit allows arbitrary code execution it’s a very bad situation. It allows others to use your PC for a variety of reasons, perhaps as an agent, or worse, to harvest your sensitive data.

For example:

The example listed in the Bugzilla report shows how PayPal cookies could be stolen.  ~ The H Security

<You can read more here>

June 14th, 2009 by Al

System Security Tip #3

Increase the security of your computer’s Information: Understanding Cyber Threats

Cyber threats to a control system refer to persons who attempt unauthorized access to a control system device and/or network using a data communications pathway. This access can be directed from within an organization by trusted users or from remote locations by unknown persons using the Internet. ~ US – Cert

Connectivity has become a way of life for most of us, and I must admit I am just as guilty of complacency in recognizing the reality cyber threats. Most of us are mobile, taking our laptops everywhere we go. This presents some risk to our computer security when operating in the field, most especially on wireless networks where you can’t control the security.

But some may say, “But I don’t have anything of value on my PC..” True perhaps, but that won’t stop someone from exploiting a vulnerability in order to use your PC as an agent for some other ill-manner use, often illegal.

Today, I ran some checks using utilities that test the system for known exploits and was surprised to learn that there were some issues to address. It’s true, contrary to what Apple has boasted on TV, Mac OSX has some security issues. Luckily, my system is up-to-date with it’s patches so the issues were small and easy to fix.

The Tip here is that you should be familiar with your operating system and utilities enough that it allows you to close connections you don’t need or use. I know Windows includes firewall software as does Mac OSX in the operating system. Get to know it, make sure it’s configured correctly and if you don’t know or want to know, hire someone to help you. It’s that important.

Stay tuned for the next installment of my System Security Tips.

June 14th, 2009 by Al

System Security Tip #2

Increase the security of your computer’s Information: File Encryption

An increasingly popular security measure now is file based encryption. Depending on the OS, it can be simple to set up. My MacBook Pro is equipped with “FileVault” and it works by encrypting the home directory and does so on the fly.

A couple of things to remember:

•    The files are encrypted using your login password
•    If you forget your login password and don’t know the master password, your data is history.

I bring these to mind because most often, the user is also the administrator.

File based encryption is viable option for protecting your data, so it’s worth looking into. Adding this to the 3 Steps in the previous blog will greatly improve computer data security.

June 13th, 2009 by Al

System Security Tip #1

Increase the security of your computer’s data: 3 Easy Steps

• Require any user of your computer to log in. It will persuade them to log in to use the computer and prevents tampering in your personal account. Always a good practice.
• Use strong, secure passwords. Avoid using simplistic passwords. They are easily guessed. A good practice is 7 characters minimum, mixing upper/lower case and numerals.
• Secure your computer when idle. 2 common ways are locking screen savers and having your computer logs you out automatically.

These aren’t exactly rocket science but serve as a basis for good practical system security, especially when the system is not in a physically secure environment.

Bonus Step!

• Reduce the use of the Administrator accounts and the Root user. Make sure to create a basic user not the adminstrator or containing those privileges. Limit the number of accounts with administrator or superuser privileges.

You can see here that it doesn’t take much to get a good start on your systems security. But it does require diligence on your part. By getting to know your computer’s operating system you can certainly improve your condition and progress towards securing your data.