intellectual property

Oct 9 2008   3:00PM GMT

Alternatives to e-mail attachments - SharePoint is risky!

Posted by: Troy Tate
administration, Networking, Firewalls, Storage, Security, DataManagement, intellectual property, email, Data security, Policy, SharePoint, Exchange, design, website, risk, policy enforcement, vulnerability

I’m looking for some help on this topic and have posted a question to the ITKE community. Hopefully someone out there has had some experience with this service for your organization and can provide some valuable insight.

One group I participate in is a mailing list from SANS. If you have not attended a SANS event or education, then you should try to get to one of their events. They are one, if not, the premier non-vendor related security and systems administration group in the IT industry. I posed the same question to this peer group and have had some very good responses. Some suggestions for solutions have come back and include:

Microsoft Office SharePoint (http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/default.mspx)

OpenText – Livelink (http://www.opentext.com/2/sol-products/sol-pro-llecm10.htm)

Webex Connect – (http://webex.com/enterprise/index.html) (There are other flavors for small & medium business)

 Accellion -  http://www.accellion.com)

 

These are very interesting solutions and I will certainly be looking at all potential candidates. One thing that bothers me about the SharePoint option is its security capabilities. SharePoint is typically Microsoft Active Directory integrated. This has major security implications and in fact CSO magazine has posted a recent article on this topic. I recommend that you read the article and understand what risks the SharePoint solution may open for your organization.

Why Security Pros Hate Microsoft SharePoint

Microsoft’s SharePoint collaboration platform is all the rage in today’s business world, especially since third parties gained the ability to plug security holes. But managing it can still be a nightmare for IT security shops.

I am still looking for more references and ideas for this solution, so please share what you are doing for your organization and it will be much appreciated by me and other readers.

Aug 22 2008   8:02PM GMT

Poor Spelling = Identity Lost

Posted by: Troy Tate
administration, Networking, forensics, Security, Browsers, web, reporting, WWW, intellectual property, CA, certificate authority, malware, SSL, design, website, howto, network analysis, online identity, risk, awareness, blog, vulnerability, MITM, man-in-the-middle

Well, I am not the best speller and I know that is true for most people. I have recently discovered how this human weakness can get you into trouble and cause identity loss as well as potential financial loss.

This issue has recently come to light with some of the Black Hat presentations. The actual presentation can be found here. This example actually refers to SSL VPN attacks but consider what would happen if an attacker was able to create a man-in-the-middle SSL proxy using a typosquatting domain name. For example, what if you typed https://www.mybnak.com/myaccount into your browser. The actual address should be https://www.mybank.com/myaccount. This is just a simple typographical error right? Hmmmmm… maybe not!

Consider if an attacker purchased the domain name mybnak.com. They then were able to get an SSL certificate or create a self-signed one that to an uneducated user looked ok. Have you ever seen a message like the following?

How many of you (come on, admit it now) have clicked on this or know someone who would click on this without thinking a second time? Say you did click on Yes and proceeded. The website you go to looks exactly like the one where you intended to go! This is because the address you mistyped into your browser actually goes to an SSL proxy and you just said you trusted the website. You have now fallen into the man-in-the-middle attack.

This looks like the following picture:

This attacker now takes all the traffic you send it, reads it, saves what it wants, repackages it, sends it to your intended destination and returns information back to you (keeping copies of what information is returned) without you knowing that someone is between you and your intended bank. Phishers do use a similar mechanism although a savvy consumer might actually see that the address in the address bar does not match their intended destination at all. In my example, YOU mistyped the address!

Well if this does not scare you into making sure you can type addresses or keep accurate bookmarks then read some of the following and make up your own mind:

Mozilla SSL Policy Considered Bad for the Web

SSL VPN might not be as secure as you think

Black Hat 2008 Aftermath

But, on the other side of this argument consider this story about how a MITM attack saved Columbian hostages.

The internet is not a place to be ignorant about your surroundings. Users must be vigilent and savvy about its use. Maybe there should be internet driver testing and licences?

Thanks for your time. Let’s be good network citizens together & practice safe networking!

Aug 22 2008   3:46PM GMT

Trolls on ITKE - I think not!

Posted by: Troy Tate
administration, Networking, Security, web, reporting, internet, CIO, WWW, IT education, intellectual property, design, website, online identity, risk, awareness, blog

Here’s an interesting blog entry I came across this week. I have great respect for John Postel mentioned in the article. He contributed immensely to the design of the protocols on which we depend on for data networks. I really like his Robustness Principle. “Be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others.”  This is a good statement for life but can be a challenge to address in the IT world. The article and follow-up postings have a lot of nuggets of great thought. Maybe add your thoughts to Mr Schwartz’s post or add some thoughts below here.

Have you had to deal with a troll? What were your challenges and how did it end up? What are your suggestions for handling this global issue?

It is quite amazing if you take a minute to think about it how the global internet provides a whole new environment for crime and abuse. There is no single legal body that can deal with this environment. There are no borders (although countries like China try to control what information crosses theirs).

I do want to commend ITKE for seeming to keeping the trolls away from this useful internet resource. I know it is a challenging job but the TechTarget folks are doing a great job! Let’s thank them for all their hard work by keeping up the knowledge sharing.

Thanks for your time. Let’s be good network citizens together & practice safe networking!

Aug 21 2008   8:08PM GMT

IT Equipment search & seizure at the US borders

Posted by: Troy Tate
administration, Networking, forensics, Security, Monitoring, reporting, internet, CIO, Mobile, DataManagement, IT education, WAN, intellectual property, Data security, government, Policy, design, online identity, risk, research, policy enforcement, awareness, blog, data loss

I have recently been hearing some rumblings about this issue. I work for a firm with international locations and have travelled out of the country myself. So, this is a personal issue.

What I am referring to is the situation described in this article by David Jonas of The Transnational: Airport Laptop Seizures Debated in Washington. I know that I should have nothing to worry about if I do nothing wrong like any law abiding citizen of the world. However, what about the risk to an organization’s intellectual property?

Look at the comment …the laptop seizure policy is not analogous to physical searches of persons and belongings at airports: “Not only does the government get access to an unprecedented wealth of material with a laptop border search, but the government now has the ability to copy, store and analyze that information at its leisure. In traditional border searches, travelers carried their suitcases with them once they cleared customs. With laptop border searches, the government can keep everything in the computer in perpetuity.” So, who is responsible for the data once it is out of the traveller’s hands? What is the care & duty of the government with regards to a company’s intellectual capital?

This issue seems like a bureaucratic (and maybe totalitarian leaning - think “Big Brother”) nightmare! Who would be considered the appropriate person to review the data on a device? What is their liability if the device or data is damaged during their review?

I know I don’t have an easy answer to these nagging questions and it will take much better minds and skills than mine to work through the protection and liability issues for an organization. What mechanisms do you use to protect equipment and data during travel? Maybe this situation is a boon to shipping organizations. More people may be shipping their gear ahead of them when travelling across the border or use equipment at a remote site and transfer data across a network.

This situation is definitely one to watch and be concerned about as world citizens.

Thanks for your time. Let’s be good network citizens together & practice safe networking!