Doing security at a university is both interesting and scary. Because you have to provide both an open environment for research and instruction, and enterprise level security for the business of the university, you really need to think way outside of the boxes that are available on the market. It occurred to me that many…
DetailsThe number of breaches that have occurred in the past 12 months (Target, U of MD, etc.) serve as a warning that traditional defense mechanisms are not working. I ask audiences of security professionals that I address at conferences and other venues if they would let me ping machines inside their net from my site.…
DetailsThere are tellers of tales and debunkers of myths. An organization needs both. An example: the March of Dimes needed people to have the vision of eradicating Polio. Its very transition from being called the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis to becoming the popularly known March of Dimes needed the contributions of folks who could…
DetailsOne would think that working in a very prestigious university would simplify the job of the security department. All you would have to do is tell people what was required and those people, with very large IQs, would understand and follow these simple (or not so simple) rules: Don’t click on stuff Don’t open attachments…
DetailsYou know you’ve reached a point in your career when you get asked to give a talk on how IT has evolved over the past 10-15 years. I guess it’s a polite way of saying that you’ve been around for some time in the industry. Well, I was asked to do a talk on how IT Security…
Details(This is the sixth installment in an on-going examination of the first principles of data privacy and security. The first installment can be read here. The second installment can be read here. The third installment can be read here. The fourth installment can be read here. The fifth installment can be read here. These principles, often represented in regulations and privacy…
DetailsVA Tech is one of the few institutions in the US that runs a full production, dual stack IPv4/IPv6 network. We’ve been running this dual stack network since 2005. All of Google, Facebook traffic goes out through IPv6 first. We haven’t experienced any major malfunctions in our IPv6 network since we went live with it.…
Details(This is the fifth installment in an on-going examination of the first principles of data privacy and security. The first installment can be read here. The second installment can be read here. The third installment can be read here. The fourth installment can be read here. These principles, often represented in regulations and privacy practices, form the foundation for…
DetailsCONTROL: Minimize the number of users with domain or local administrative privileges. Such users should use a separate unprivileged account for email and web browsing. This control is misunderstood and doesn’t solve the sensitive data protection problem. The real issue today is not “a machine has been compromised”. It’s “data on a machine has been exfiltrated…
Details(This is the fourth installment in an on-going examination of the first principles of data privacy and security. The first installment can be read here. The second installment can be read here. The third installment can be read here. These principles, often represented in regulations and privacy practices, form the foundation for how an organization should treat the…
DetailsI think that there is some confusion about the concept of privacy in a public setting. It appears to me that some people really believe that they can walk around, let’s say on the campus where they work or go to school, and that their trip will be unnoticed. Let me tell you a story.…
DetailsI was recently invited to speak to senior executives about traveling with electronic devices. I designed a presentation consisting of 11 slides and guessed it would take about half and hour to do. Was I wrong! It turns out that the topic generated a lot of questions and discussion. Much of which I thought would…
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