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20 Jan 2012Executives could learn a lot from Supernanny
We all have a lot to learn from Jo Frost, the Supernanny. In particular, when it comes to information security, IT management, employee computer usage and so on, business executives could benefit a ton. Here's how it'd go:Create a set of rules.Enforce your darned rules!...
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05 Jan 2012
My Web app security epiphany: The Lysol Effect
I just had an epiphany in the bathroom. I know, I know...bear with me.I thought to myself, Why is it people use Lysol to cover up, um, smells and such in the bathroom?? Sure Lysol kills the problem at the source but, goodness gracious, there are other means of consideration than to merely cloud up the bathroom covering up something that probably shouldn't be there in the first place! Know ...
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03 Jan 2012
Damballa’s Fight Against Advanced Malware
Malware being out of sight and out of mind often creates the perception that risks aren't present. Just because there’s no perceived risk, doesn’t mean it’s not there. Heads buried in the sand over the real malware threat leads to breaches that most organizations aren't prepared to handle. Having worked on a project involving an APT infection, I’ve seen first-hand how ugly this stuff can get.Endpoint protection isn’t enough. Analyzing ...
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16 Dec 2011
AlgoSec & what happens when you don’t look for flaws from every angle
I recently had the opportunity to see how well AlgoSec's Firewall Analyzer performs in a real-world security assessment. Long story short, Firewall Analyzer found a weak password on an Internet-facing firewall that would've gone undetected otherwise. A traditional vulnerability scanner didn't find it nor did two different Web vulnerability scanners. Nothing was uncovered via manual analysis either.Only AlgoSec's Firewall Analyzer found the weakness...no doubt a flaw that would've been exploited ...
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12 Dec 2011
Why uninterruptible power supplies have higher quality than Web apps
I recently purchased an APC uninterruptible power supply for my office and noticed something peculiar in the packaging. It was a small piece of paper that says "QUALITY ASSURANCE TEST". It has the time, date, operator ID and other identifying information for the specific piece of hardware.As you can see in the image, this QA test sheet has 33 unique tests that were performed on the unit presumably before it ...
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09 Dec 2011
Reactive security at its finest
I've been hearing on the news about Georgia State University (@GeorgiaStateU) installing 50 new security cameras. No doubt, universities in downtown Atlanta (one of the highest-crime cities in the nation) are not fairing so well with security these days so somebody needs to do something, no?Well, Georgia State's solutions was to install more security cameras. Is this security theater at it's finest? Not totally, but it is security theater like ...
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08 Dec 2011
Are CIOs not doing their jobs?
In the past week I've come across three different articles on how CFOs are getting more involved in IT. For example, in last week's Atlanta Business Chronicle feature CFOs take on increasing roles in IT department stated: "CFO involvement with IT has been largely driving by the need to upgrade reporting functions and the general inability of many legacy systems to provide the kind of data the C-suite needs." According ...
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07 Dec 2011
BitLocker, Passware…heads in sand everywhere!
Three times in the past three weeks. That's how many conversations I've had people who have blown off any sort of technical or operational weaknesses associated with Microsoft BitLocker when using it as an enterprise full disk encryption solution. They're well-documented. I highlighted these issues in my recent whitepaper The Hidden Costs of Microsoft BitLocker as well.I've said it before and I'll continue saying it: I've sung the praises of ...
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06 Dec 2011
School staff members and porn – Why you should care
Here's an interesting read on government employees trying to make an extra buck by serving up pornography on their high school-issued computers. What a lovely story.Don't think this kind of behavior is random. I've seen this very thing at the university level during a security assessment I did early on in my information security consulting venture.You see, one thing I do during my internal security assessments is connect a network ...
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05 Dec 2011
What happens when third-party patches are ignored
The majority of people I speak with claim they have no means for patching third-party software. As Kelly Jackson Higgins mentions in her recent Dark Reading blog post regarding the rash of Java exploitations, when third-party software goes unmanaged, bad things can happen.It's great that Metasploit has a a module for Java exploitation - something that'll not only benefit me in my security assessments but will also help bring to ...
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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:
