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08 Feb 2011Findings from the Fort Hood shooting underscores today’s incident response reality
You may have heard about this in the news over the weekend: apparently the Army psychiatrist turned Islamic extremist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in November 2009 could've been prevented had the FBI and Army been communicating with one another.Sadly the same poor communication exists in the corporate world. Along the same lines of this incident, based on what I see in my security assessments I can confidently ...
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02 Jan 2011
Security complacency & leadership – focus on both in 2011
Happy New Year! Here are a couple of recent pieces I wrote for Security Technology Executive magazine I thought would be good to get things rolling for 2011:Don't lose sight of what's importantFour traits of successful information security leadersMy wishes to you and yours for a healthy and prosperous year ahead!...
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20 Dec 2010
Possible bomb at Newark, ratchet up security!!??
I heard a news story this morning about the possible bomb that was found at Newark Airport. The reporter went on to say that TSA is "ratcheting up security" and searching bags with more scrutiny in the event the threat is real.What I want to know is (and can't seem to find the answer to): why is it we "ratchet up security" when a such threat is detected rather than ...
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13 Dec 2010
Metrodome collapse video: nothing’s really secure
Check out this video of the Metrodome collapsing over the weekend. Let this be a reminder that no matter:how much engineering goes into a systemhow much attention to detail the contractors pay during constructionhow much insurance coverage you havehow detailed and "water tight" your contracts arehow many fail-safe features are available "just in case"...that bad things can and will happen. Be it in a building or on your network there's ...
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29 Nov 2010
The best way to survive an accident
In life and in business I truly believe there are no accidents, just bad choices. This reminds me of a Lexus commercial I saw a while back that touted how safe their vehicle was. The announcer said "The best way to survive an accident is to avoid it in the first place." Regardless of what you believe about accidents, we do have to look at information security this way. Such ...
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18 Oct 2010
Is this quote one of the contributing factors to lax infosec?
Novelist Robert Heinlein once said "In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it."I suspect this is a large contributing factor to the lack of information security - and subsequent data breaches - in business today.Feel like you need a jump start on goal setting? Check out this piece I wrote on the subject:Eight steps to accomplishing your ...
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11 Oct 2010
Got compliance? Here are some tips for moving ahead.
Tired of "compliance"? Me too. But, it's still one of those necessary (arguably sometimes unnecessary) evils we must deal with in business today.Here are some new pieces I've written for the fine folks at SearchCompliance.com that will hopefully be of some benefit to you and your business.:Priorities for your sound regulatory compliance management policyPut compliance management back into server virtualizationAchieving compliance is about more than secure data encryptionWhat compliance professionals ...
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28 Sep 2010
In the unlikely event you experience a security breach…
If you've experienced a data breach - or if you're into thinking long term - want to plan ahead in the event one does occur, here's an Entrepreneur Magazine bit from a PR specialist on how to handle a crisis.It doesn't have to be difficult but you can pretty much bet it will be if you don't have a plan. For further reading, here are some pieces I've written about ...
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31 Aug 2010
NetScan Tools LE – a must-have for investigators
Have you ever had a need to run a program and get a relatively small amount of data just to do your job but end up getting caught in the complexity of the application and not getting what you need after all? That's happened to me a bunch.Well, NorthWest Performance Software (makers of a long-time favorite of mine: NetScanTools Pro) has a new tool that helps resolves this problem called ...
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25 Aug 2010
500 million and counting…
I just received a press release from Beth Givens at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse stating "500 Million Sensitive Records Breached Since 2005". 500 million+ known records that have been compromised in 5.5 years in the U.S. alone due to people in organizations large and small making poor choices about information security and privacy! Simply amazing.If you haven't seen the Chronology of Data Breaches, check it out. It's fascinating. The problem ...
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Resources
Client Testimonials
“A business associate referred our company to Principle Logic when we were seeking a resource to perform vulnerability /penetration testing for our external and internal networks. We found Kevin Beaver to be professional, well informed, and easy to work with. His testing did not disrupt our networks, and his progress updates were timely.
His final report was very thorough and included security recommendations for our network environment. The executive leadership was so impressed with Kevin’s security expertise, they have extended their agreement to continue to perform periodic testing. We highly recommend Kevin Beaver and Principle Logic as a resource for network security testing.”
(IT managed services firm)
Kevin has written/co-written 12 books on information security including one of the best-sellers of all time:
