• 24 Jul 2012

    Interesting quote on human psyche that relates to infosec

    I just saw the following quote from publisher Malcolm Forbes that underscores the very essence of the problems we see in information security, business and life in general:"Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are."Indeed, so many people want to control or break down (they're one in the same) others because their own lives are out of control. They simply don't believe in themselves. Like ...

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  • 07 Jun 2012

    The weakness of vulnerability scans that people (sadly) ignore

    Those of us who live and breathe information security on a daily basis understand that vulnerability scans are only part of the information security assessment equation. We can't live without them but as I've outlined here we by all means cannot rely on them completely.I was just speaking with a colleague about this and came up with an analogy for our overdependence on external vulnerability scans in the name of ...

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  • 21 May 2012

    Real-life example of people not seeing the big picture

    The inability to think long-term, to see the bigger picture consequences of our choices, is no doubt at the root of most information security problems. Here's an example of what I'm talking about...what's wrong with this car?No, this isn't a race car with Hoosier racing slicks...it's a street car owned by someone working or shopping at a Wal-Mart who has chosen to drive with improper equipment. Like many people who ...

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  • 10 May 2012

    Quote on reasoning with the unreasonable and why character is critical

    Be it executives with their heads in the sand over security or know-it-all propeller heads who can't see the big picture of business risk, I've found that you just can't reason with the unreasonable. Here's something that Robert Schuller said that underscores the issue and helps us understand why being the bigger person is most important:"People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people will ...

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  • 03 May 2012
  • 15 Mar 2012

    Flaws, compliance and the Cybersecurity Act of 2012

    Here are some new pieces I've recently written that you may be interested in...big things in security we need to have on our radar: Six Security Flaws on Your Network Right Now Find the Most Flaws By Balancing Automated Scans with Manual Analysis Compliance is just the beginning New and not-so-new security twists in the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 Enjoy! Be sure to check out www.principlelogic.com/resources.html for links to all ...

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  • 08 Feb 2012

    What’s it going to take for police departments to secure their websites?

    Here's yet another story about a police department website being compromised by criminal hackers. When a regular citizen's home address is exposed, that's one thing. But when the addresses of police chiefs are published online, that opens up an entirely new set of risks for their personal safety. Sad. Hey, at least the police chiefs I know are armed and well-trained experts. Would be pretty foolish to try and attack ...

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  • 06 Feb 2012

    My new material on Web application & website security

    Here are several new pieces I've written on Web site/application security. Lots of angles and considerations:There’s more to web security than meets the eyeWeb passwords are often the weakest linkTo validate or not, is that the question?Protecting FTP services running on your Web serverThe critical Web-based systems that are going untested and unsecuredGood Web Security Tools and Why They MatterWhy you need intruder lockoutWeb security is like the layers of ...

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  • 27 Jan 2012

    You cannot multiple security by dividing it – Infosec’s relationship with Socialism

    I'm not much into urban legends and the like but came across this bit the other day and it really made me think. What a great analogy that impacts all of us both personally and professionally with some interesting information security and compliance tie-ins that I see all the time:An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had ...

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  • 25 Jan 2012

    Complacency, meet APT – How basic oversights lead to complex malware infections

    Low-hanging fruit – that is, the missing patches, default passwords, lack of full disk encryption and so on present in practically every environment – is something I’ve ranted about time and again because there’s no reason to have it on your network. Why? Well, for one thing, rogue insiders may just exploit it for ill-gotten gains. But even worse, low-hanging fruit can be the target of malware exploitations that you’re ...

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