Facebook’s Security Standards Improve; Not Just for Minors

May 9th, 2008 | By Kristen Romonovich | No Comments »

The attorney generals of 49 states have negotiated with Facebook to implement new safety and privacy rules in an effort to increase the level of protection for minors. Yesterday’s announcement is reminiscent of the agreement the states made with MySpace back in January. (Texas has withheld agreements with both social networking sites. Facebook will roll out its Key Principles Of Social Networking Safety which include cooperation with law enforcement, technology to protect minors, with additional ... Read more..

The May Alert is now Online

May 9th, 2008 | By Kristen Romonovich | No Comments »

CSI members can follow the links below: Open Invitations to Disclose Web Vulnerabilities Gaining in Popularity Legal teams and security teams play nice together at Microsoft, PayPal RSA Round-Up The focus of RSA was on ID and information, not infrastructure Don’t Give Away Privacy! A Degausser FAQ Merchants Minimize the Storage Of Credit Card Information Policy: In order to prevent the credit card information necessary to initiate a transaction from falling into the wrong hands, Company X does not store full credit card ... Read more..

Security Soapbox Derby Round-up

May 8th, 2008 | By Kristen Romonovich | No Comments »

CSI SX's Security Soapbox Derby gave attendees and speakers the chance to speed-pitch their big security ideas, and I was impressed with what they unveiled. They produced shock, laughter and the ah-ha moments that went above our expectations. These new ideas may or may not change the future of the security industry, but they did begin an enlightening dialogue that could lead into something more. Lisa Lorenzin (principal solutions architect at Juniper Networks) proposed we ... Read more..

Go Green, but Go Carefully

May 5th, 2008 | By Sara Peters | No Comments »

I know what this means: it means that companies looking to reduce their carbon footprint are going to start virtualizing their data centers in earnest. My inner environmentalist wants to say "virtualize this!" but my inner security geekess just can't bring herself to wave that sign or wear that skimpy T-shirt here. This is a bit of a crisis of identity for me, because seriously... I've got an impressive environmentalist pedigree. Why, I was ... Read more..

Hasta la Vista, Vista?

May 5th, 2008 | By Kristen Romonovich | No Comments »

Vista started off with compatibility problems and bugs beginning with its launch. But even a recent update, Service Pack I, doesn’t make Vista faster. Most users' complaints are in regards to how much slower even a new computer will run if its operating system is Vista vs. XP. Another complaint is Vista’s user account controls which question the user if he or she really wants to download that file. Instead of users valuing this feature ... Read more..

Why NAC and Why Not NAC?

April 30th, 2008 | By Kristen Romonovich | No Comments »

Lisa Lorenzin’s CSI SX session “Why NAC and Why Not NAC?” tackled the question to see if NAC is right for your organization. She is the principal solutions architect for Security Solutions, Juniper Networks. To provide an overview of Network Access Control, you can think of it as authenticating users to access all or parts of your organization’s network. Before NAC, firewalls were the only gates to the kingdom. But with progress, we now have ... Read more..

CSI SX: Land of Question Marks and Light Bulbs

April 28th, 2008 | By Sara Peters | No Comments »

We're in the thick of day two of CSI SX, and I'm pleased to report it's living up to the name "Security Exchange"--lots of conversation, lots of batting ideas back and forth, lots of informal debate in the session rooms, spilling out into the hallways, flowing into reception halls, and strange though it may sound, even following into the casinos and bars. I shan't attempt to recreate those conversations here, but I will share a few ... Read more..

Microsoft Locking Down Security, Compliance and the Remote User

April 23rd, 2008 | By Kristen Romonovich | No Comments »

Yesterday I attended a session “Locking Down Security, Compliance and the Remote User” at Microsoft Corporation hosted by Microsoft, Intellinet, and Softchoice. They informed IT executives how Microsoft Forefront and System Center can be solutions to a business’ IT infrastructure. CIO Magazine published the results of a Gartner prediction: “Through 2010, companies that do not implement new, more-stringent remote worker policies and network access controls, along with management tolls, will see remote worker costs increase ... Read more..

Microsoft to Web Researchers: We Won’t Sue You

April 21st, 2008 | By Sara Peters | 1 Comment »

I'm tickled pink to report that today at Toorcon, Katie Moussouris, security strategist for Microsoft, announced that Microsoft will not pursue any legal action against security researchers that find and responsibly disclose vulnerabilities within Microsoft's Web sites. I briefly met Moussouris a couple of weeks ago following my talk at RSA, "Will Your Web Research Land You in Jail?" She told me that she'd had to push for the crystal clear "we will not sue ... Read more..

Security Soapbox Derby!

April 18th, 2008 | By Sara Peters | No Comments »

You might have noticed on the CSI SX schedule a little thing we're calling the Security Soapbox Derby. We know that by the end of CSI SX, many attendees and/or speakers will wander the Mandalay Bay with light bulbs hovering above their heads, and we know those light bulbs may contain the cool new ideas that will change the security landscape. We expect that those security visionaries may be desperate to share their fresh idea, ... Read more..