free tools

New Aircrack Just Released

If you’re like me, you’re always hunting for the free tools out there you can add to your arsenal to keep (or in my case, test) the security of your network. Just out, a great addition to my toolset, is a new update to the well-known tool, aircrack-ng

Why have such a tool, used by the bad guys? Because it’s used by the bad guys to get into your network. It’s updated to crack more protocols, including WPA/PSK. It was one of the first tools to provide a way to crack WEP.

I have about three hundred tools in my toolkit, and only three of them are commercial tools. I’ve had to build a spreadsheet to keep up. I also use Backtrack running in VMWare. You can download VMWare’s free product, the VMWare Viewer, if you have an image (like Backtrack) you just want to run.

I also noticed, while on Vmware’s site, that you can download VMWare server for FREE. They’ll give you some serial numbers, and you can try out all sorts of tools in safety.

It’s good to know how things work.

Check out this Article on Wireless

I don’t usually promote other articles - it’s kind of “cheating,” but short of copying and pasting the entire article, I’ve got to send you in the direction of Lisa Philfer’s article on “Five Steps to Eliminate Rogue Wireless Access.”

It’s really well written, and as an added bonus, points you toward some cool FREE tools for wireless monitoring. Not just the standard Wireshark, Kismet and Netstumbler, but a page full of neato tools by Xirrus.

When vendors offer up these types of tools, it makes me MUCH more likely to visit and examine their paid products.

She’s got some great suggestions for watching out for and dealing with rogue access points, not just the usual vendor shill. Bravo!

Looking for Some Good (and FREE!) IT Policy Templates?

Thanks to an email, I’ve come across a great website to offer you when it’s time to go looking for some good policy templates.

SANS, the be-all end-all of security training, has organized a website that offers us free policy and standards templates, as well as a course, if you need it.

You’ll need to scroll down a bit to get to all the templates. There are also some nifty security awareness posters and some explanations for the difference between policy, standards, and procedures.

I downloaded over two dozen document templates. There’s some really good stuff here for Admins and Auditors.