In case you missed a previous post or two on the topic of why end users should not have administrative rights over their PCs, BeyondTrust has released a very compelling report on this issue. But first, let me ask the reader a few questions. (more…)
Archive for the ‘System Administration’ Category
Still Think You Want Those Admin Rights Over Your PC? Think Again.
Monday, May 10th, 2010Google Drops Internet Explorer (IE) 6. So Should You.
Thursday, February 11th, 2010Last week, I received this in an email from Google:
In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance… we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.
It’s about time, and not just for those reasons. (more…)
Further Evidence That Personal Internet Use Should Be Restricted at Work
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009This week’s Data Security Podcast had two items that really piqued my interest. The first was an article about an Ohio hospital which suffered data loss due to a malware infection. The malware was sent by the boyfriend of a hospital worker. Apparently he intended to follow his girlfriend’s movements on the Internet on her home PC. What he did not count on was her opening her email at work, and subsequently infecting a hospital computer. Quoting the PC World article,
“Between March 19 and March 28 the spyware sent more than 1,000 screen captures … via e-mail. They included details of medical procedures, diagnostic notes and other confidential information relating to 62 hospital patients. He was also able to obtain e-mail and financial records of four other hospital employees as well…”
This incident goes a long way to show that the biggest threat can often come from inside. Yes, while the boyfriend was the root cause, had the hospital employee not been allowed to access her personal email from work, her system would not have been infected in the first place.
In a separate news article, Panda Security reports that a hacker site is offering to crack Facebook accounts for the low low price of $100. Setting aside the question of whether the site is a “legitimate” hacking site (who’s to say they won’t just take your $100 and walk away?), I found it interesting that a Facebook account is now worth 3 times the street price of a social security or bank account number, which my sources say are going for $20-35 a piece.
Hardware Review: Astaro Security Gateway ASG110/120
Friday, September 18th, 2009The Astaro Security Gateway is a product we have been using for a few years with various clients as a UTM (Unified Threat Management) device. It offers a number of features that they require, including network security, email security, and web surfing security. (more…)
Likewise + Ubuntu offers a Quick, Cheap, Easy, Secure Email, Web Browsing, Word Processing Solution
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009Readers of my personal blog or listeners to the Fresh Ubuntu Podcast will know that I have long been a proponent of Linux as an alternative to Windows, and now, more than ever, this should be a reality at your organization. What’s changed? Last year, Ubuntu, the leading desktop Linux distribution today, addded a package called Likewise-Open, from Likewise Software, Inc., to their software repositories. This means that, with just a few clicks, it is possible to make a Linux desktop computer log in to your existing Windows Active Directory system, without having to make separate user accounts for it. (more…)
Software Review: Rubber Ducky System Monitor
Saturday, August 1st, 2009Today I am reviewing a tiny, free, handy piece of software for end-users: Rubber Ducky System Monitor by MimarSinan International. The program is a tiny application which gives even a novice user a simple, easy to read display which tells them how busy their system is and identify potential problems. (more…)
How do Web Content Filters Work?
Friday, July 17th, 2009We sometimes get support requests from frustrated clients who are in some way prevented from accomplishing a task because of system security policies. Unfortunately, they sometimes think that we have done this deliberately to make their job difficult. One of my jobs as a security professional is to explain to my clients just what security measures we take to protect them, and why. Today, I’ll try to explain how web content filters do their job and why they are important. (more…)
FOG – A Free Computer Cloning Solution
Friday, July 3rd, 2009Symantec Ghost is a useful application for what’s known as “imaging” or “cloning” computers. It allows you to copy a single computer’s hard drive contents to multiple machines at once so you have a base Windows install that’s exactly the same on all of the machines. The only difference is the uniquely identifying information about the machines (computer name, Hardware address, etc.).
Recently one of our client’s Ghost subscriptions came up for renewal. While Ghost does what it’s designed to do well enough, we were wondering what other options there were out there in the world. Enter FOG. (more…)
Why Electronic Greeting Cards Are Bad
Friday, June 26th, 2009Electronic greetings cards are a fad that, sadly, has not yet passed and is still quite popular. These things are bad for several reasons, which I’ll outline in today’s post. (more…)
You Can Never Have Too Much Memory
Friday, June 12th, 2009This will be a short post on the virtues of keeping your computer hardware current. Even today, I still see older computers which would be perfectly capable of doing their job, but because of a lack of enough memory, they grind along at a glacial pace, causing significant employee productivity loss.
How can you tell if your machine could benefit from a memory upgrade? First off, if you hear your computer’s hard drive running hard, or see the hard drive indicator light on a lot, particularly if you have multiple applications running, that’s a good sign. Another is to use the Task Manager, a utility included with all versions of Windows, to see how much memory your computer is using. The best time to do this is to during the middle of your work day, when you have the most applications running. In Windows, simply press Ctrl-Shift-Esc and you should see something like the image to the right. Pay attention to the “Available” number under “Physical Memory.” If this number is lower than, say, 256,000, your machine could probably benefit from a memory upgrade.
Techspeak alert! Note that if you have a standard, 32-bit version of Windows (2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008, or 7), the maximum memory that your system can use is 4GB, minus the amount of memory used by your video card. So if you have a fancy video card for gaming or CAD or some other applicaiton which requires a high-end card, however much memory is on that card counts against the total amount in your system. If you find that you need more than 4GB of memory in your system, then you need to run a 64-bit version of Windows to use it, otherwise your computer will simply see 4GB as the maximum available, unless your computer supports Address Window Extensions to do some backflips to allow it to see more than 4GB of memory.
