Security products have evolved with the use of the Internet. When web sites were largely static it was enough to tell users which URLs to avoid because the content was undesirable (porn etc.). As the web became a means distributing malware and perpetrating fraud, there was a need to identify bad URLs that appeared overnight…
DetailsWe all knew it was coming. As more and more networks are created and the IP address space is subdivided more and more the global routing table that backbone routers have to store in memory grow. Many older routers only have 512K of memory. If the size of the table exceeds that, the routers start…
DetailsThis is an update to the article about identifying LinkedIn scammers when they request a connection. In that article we listed six ways to identify fake accounts: 1.Look at that URL. If it indicates that this is a new account (anything over 300 million right now) be very suspicious. Other than your kids do you know…
DetailsNetScout, a vendor of network management tools, has filed a suit against Gartner claiming that Gartner has a “pay-to-play” business model. The suit states that Gartner made false and defamatory statements regarding NetScout, causing substantial injury to NetScout. It says that NetScout suffered the consequences based on its placement in Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant (MQ) report Network Performance Reporting and Diagnostics…
DetailsIn its 17th year, the annual Black Hat security conference was bigger than ever, with more than 8,000 registered attendees, 147 vendors exhibiting in the expo hall, and more workshops. The conference’s size and the fact that the conference had moved from Caesars Palace to Mandalay Bay are fairly cosmetic changes. The tenor of the…
DetailsWay last April, a time when the world seemed a more peaceful place, Leon Panetta and Richard Clarke were quoted warning of impending Russian cyber attacks in the wake of an escalating response from the West to Russia’s intransigence in the Ukraine. While there have certainly been a spate of defacements that are two sided…
DetailsThis past February I participated in an amazing three day innovation and ideation lab pulled together by Farnam Jahanian, Assistant Director, Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, National Science Foundation (NSF), with a lot of help from an organizing committee drawn from some of the most intelligent technology people around. The task at…
DetailsAccording to a report in Foreign Policy, former NSA head Keith Alexander has ideas. Ideas he wants to patent and turn into a business. Admittedly, Alexander has had exposure to countering network borne attacks. In particular, he was in charge of the team at NSA that detected the presence of the Agent.btz worm on the…
DetailsThe House Committee on Homeland Security passed three cybersecurity bills with broad bipartisan support on Monday. The Critical Infrastructure Research and Development Advancement Act of 2013 amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The bill directs the Department of Homeland Security to develop a strategy for developing technology to be used in protecting critical infrastructure…
DetailsOk, maybe it’s not a marriage but more along the lines of living together. In a previous article, I spoke about moving to a Continuous Monitoring security model, which focuses on monitoring outbound traffic. As we move to completing our monitoring infrastructure, I’ve been pleased with the results so far and excited by the challenges discovered…
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