Monitoring

May 13 2008   4:06PM GMT

To be done: an acquisition/merger checklist

Posted by: Troy Tate
howto, CIO, DataCenter, DataManagement, email, Microsoft Windows, Networking, LAN, WAN, Security, antivirus, malware, Monitoring, anti-virus, metrics, reporting, research, tools

An acquisition or merger is not a frequent event for my organization. However, it seems like in the past year or so we have worked on a number of these activities. So, it seems like it may be time to create a formalized checklist for the IT department items that need to be addressed during an acquisition.

To get the ball rolling, I am listing some items that I consider to be important to the infrastructure/security folks like me. I know this list is not exhaustive or complete. It is a work in progress and will need to be refined for each event since they are all different. Some of these may be done in the due-diligence but the rubber hits the road during the implementation.

So, without further ado:
Absorbing a new acquisition - to do list (general & incomplete)

• Private WAN connectivity - 30-90 days or more lead time depending on location
• flexible IP addressing scheme to absorb devices on new network(s)
• Internet firewall changes - ports, source addresses, NAT, etc.
• DNS ownership and management
  • changing registrars
  • changing DNS nameservers - use a dig tool to get information concerning current configuration - MenAndMice
• Network hygiene - how clean are the devices and what personnel habits need to be changed?
• Device inventory - what effort will it take to do this?
• Software licensing inventory
• What about handling loss of staff & knowledge?
  • Documentation of processes, procedures, configurations?
• Phone list sharing
• E-mail addressbook sharing
• E-mail system integration
  • anti-spam/anti-virus
  • calendar sharing
• ERP process integration
• Resource access permissions
• Financial reporting integration - accounts payable, receivable, tax, etc.
• Staff reporting structure
• Other HR activities - benefits, payroll, etc.

I welcome your insight and experience on the many other activities you feel is important to address during a merger/acquisition.

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

May 9 2008   6:20PM GMT

Did you see this? - a live honeynet

Posted by: Troy Tate
anti-virus, Data security, howto, CIO, DataManagement, Sandbox, Security, antivirus, forensics, malware, Monitoring, research, honeynet, honeypot, botnet, SQL Server

I just came across the Shadowserver Foundation. According to their mission:

The Shadowserver Foundation is an all volunteer watchdog group of security professionals that gather, track, and report on malware, botnet activity, and electronic fraud. It is the mission of the Shadowserver Foundation to improve the security of the Internet by raising awareness of the presence of compromised servers, malicious attackers, and the spread of malware.

This is a great resource to find out what’s happening “in the wild” and to help sell security protection to your organization. This is real stuff happening in the real world. For example, take a look at how detailed the blog entry is on the winzipices.cn SQL injection / malware attack. This gives you enough information to fight the threat and feel confident you understand it.  Well done to the Shadowserver Foundation!

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

 

May 9 2008   12:51PM GMT

Did you see this? - the viral bitgirl

Posted by: Troy Tate
howto, troubleshooting, Networking, LAN, WAN, forensics, Monitoring, metrics, Performance, reporting, tools, humor, packet capture, wireshark, network analysis

I have always had an appreciation for Laura Chappel of www.packet-level.com fame and her quirky sense of … hmmmmm.. sense?? hahaha… well… she does have a great sense of humor and a heightened sense of awareness with respect to those bits and bytes flowing across our wired and wireless networks.

Laura Chappell has now gone viral after her “initial concern about being somewhat infectious”. She has launched the BitSpitters video series - fast answers to fast questions. The BitSpitters videos are hosted on YouTube right now - feel free to link to her BitSpitters page at www.wiresharktraining.com/bitspitters.html to always get the latest. After seeing the initial response from viewers, it seems more folks are interested in the humorous “How Do I Look Smarterest?” style so according to her recent Wireshark U newsletter she will be putting out some more ‘unique’ short videos for your viewing pleasure - and her newsletter has the following warning: “just wait until you see the ‘beach scene’ coming up! [Don’t even get that ‘bathing suit’ thought in your head!]“

In case you want more packet level and data networking education, I HIGHLY recommend her Master Library which you can purchase through WiresharkU. For a short time only, she is offering an dditional 50% off already discounted price. Coupon code: NLMAY Expiry: May 31, 2008.

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

May 6 2008   12:47PM GMT

Researching Network TAPs - an end to network blindness? (part 3)

Posted by: Troy Tate
Networking, LAN, WAN, Monitoring, Network TAPs

I have now gotten back around to working on this activity. In case you have forgotten what I am working on, please review part 1 and part 2.

I have ordered the Datacom Singlestream SS102 Link Aggregation Tap. I placed the order last Friday. On Monday, my supplier said that it could take more than two weeks to receive this product. I was surprised by the lead time required for this device. I was first told that it could take 4 weeks for the product to ship. I am in more of a hurry than that and was about to change to a different higher-cost product to pressure the supplier to have a quicker delivery.  The conversation seemed to have worked.

My alternative choice was the Network Instruments nTap. However, it was almost a 50% premium over the Datacom solution. The link I need to monitor is not a high speed link so I really do not need the memory buffer that NI’s equipment offers. I was just willing to consider it if I could receive and implement the solution quicker.

I will let you know how the product works and any issues I encounter during implementation.

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

Apr 29 2008   5:11PM GMT

I can’t get no technical (support) satisfaction

Posted by: Troy Tate
CIO, DataCenter, Linux, Microsoft Windows, troubleshooting, Networking, Security, Monitoring, tools

My apologies to the Rolling Stones for munging their classic song.

How many times have you encountered a situation in your organization where something needs to be done yet either IT is not able or willing to support your business related efforts. There are lots of reasons for this to happen in the business world.

One division of our business is electronics manufacturing solutions where we assemble parts designed by the customer. I recently encountered a situation where a customer has some onsite testing gear to measure QA data on devices we manufacture for them. The testing gear was not for our engineers but for the customer. According to the supporting engineer, his IT department was not interested in supporting these test devices. So, the engineer was asking my organization to support the test hosts.

Well, our side of the story now… these test devices run linux as the operating system. My IT organization typically does not support linux because our focus is on Microsoft Windows systems. So, here’s the conundrum… who supports this engineer and his manufacturing requirements? The test hosts are owned and designed by the customer, yet the hosts are at my organization’s facility.

Tough situation for sure! Right now our answer is to do our best effort in supporting this engineer and the engineer is going to talk to his in-house IT department to see if they will support his requirements. It seems to be a shame that this engineer cannot find support from his own organization. He really could use this when in the end, these test systems are there to support the quality of his organization’s product.

What are your thoughts on this situation? Does your IT organization have to support third-party systems within your facility? If so, what protections have you put into place for your organization?

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

Apr 18 2008   1:16PM GMT

Did you see this? - Georgia requires security metric reporting

Posted by: Troy Tate
Data security, DataManagement, Security, Monitoring, NIST, reporting, metrics, government

I saw this news release recently and wondered what standard metrics Georgia government agencies will be reporting and how they will be gathering the information. Are there any Georgia readers out there? How are you addressing this activity for your agency?

News Release

Gov. Perdue Signs Executive Order Strengthening Georgia’s Information Technology Security

Mar 20, 2008, News Report

Gov. Perdue today signed an executive order to protect state data by standardizing information security reporting.

“This executive order is a critical part of the larger plan I announced in December 2007 to transform the state’s technology and shore up the underpinnings we found lacking,” said Governor Sonny Perdue.  “As I stated then, technology is the foundation of a well-run, modern-day enterprise.  This action will go a long way toward addressing our security gaps and giving the state the secure IT infrastructure it requires to responsibly serve Georgia’s citizens.”

==============================================

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

Apr 10 2008   6:39PM GMT

Did you see this? - The Great SPAM diet

Posted by: Troy Tate
anti-virus, blogging, online identity, spam, Security, antivirus, malware, Monitoring, email

McAfee, Inc. Launches Global S.P.A.M. Experiment

Fifty Volunteers around the World Say ‘Yes’ to a Diet of Spam for 30 Days - Started April 1, 2008

McAfee, Inc. announced the launch of its global S.P.A.M. (Spammed Persistently All Month) Experiment. For the month of April, 50 participants from around the world - ranging from homemakers, government executives, and students to retirees - will surf the Web, make online purchases and register for promotions. Participants have been provided with a clean laptop without spam protection and a new email address. Beginning today, they will blog about their experiences daily at this website.

S.P.A.M. Experiment participants are from ten countries spanning the globe, including Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Let’s be good network citizens together & practice safe networking!

Apr 8 2008   2:21PM GMT

VoIP, IPT, QOS, COS, on and on - Oh My!

Posted by: Troy Tate
howto, DataCenter, LAN, Monitoring, VoIP, Performance

Well, well, well, so you want to implement voice over IP or IP telephony. You have heard it is going to give you some great cost savings and make your life easier. Hmmmm… upon further thought, the idea of implementing this technology frightens you and I totally understand why.

I have implemented VOIP at four of my sites now. One in Europe that is a small office serviced by a Cisco CallManager Express implementation. My Asian site is a full CallManager cluster solution. My two sites in North America are implemented in a different configuration yet. One of the North American sites has the CallManager cluster like Asia and the second North American site is a SRST (Survivable Remote System Telephony) managed by the other North American site.

So, as you can see, my organization has a good amount of experience in this area and I hope to share some of that with you and help you through this process if you should require this technology in your environment.

Let’s start with some of the reasons some folks say IPT should be implemented.

• Capital investment costs: This really depends on the solution that you choose. Remember all of the necessary infrastructure elements that are required to support IPT. IPT implementations may add 30% or more in infrastructure equipment replacement or additions.

• Voice service costs savings: The home consumer may see some cost savings (think Vonage), but the enterprise may already be receiving long distance rates in the two cents per minute or less range. However, other operational costs may offset the savings that IPT appears to offer. More to follow on other costs/issues in a future blog entry.

• Operational savings: This may be the “real deal” when it comes to cost savings to an organization. IT becomes the owner/operator of the system as it shares the data network infrastructure and operational management.

Some future elements to follow in our discussion will include capacity planning, troubleshooting, partner selection. The volume of information to share is almost endless.

Your continued interest is greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time. Let’s be good network citizens together & practice safe networking!

Apr 4 2008   1:40PM GMT

Did you see this? - Sandbox behavior

Posted by: Troy Tate
Data security, Security, Monitoring, tools

Many of our organizations use “standard” anti-virus like the Symantec, McAfee, Panda, Trend-Micro products. Virus signatures are still valuable, don’t get me wrong, but it seems like there are newer detection methods out there that are challenging this time-tested technology. Heuristics have gotten stronger. The new kid on the block now seems to be sandboxing or behavioral analysis.

An advertisement came across my desk the other day for one of these solutions that caught my eye with its tagline. The tagline read:

If a car crashes and it takes six seconds for the airbag to be released, would you feel safe? No? Then you think like us at Norman.

Hmmmm… is that challenging the old school way of doing anti-virus? What is the new way? Take a look at:

Norman Sandbox analyzer from Norman Data Defense.

Is anyone using this type of technology? What has been your experience? Does it make sense to move to something like this from the tried-true old-school signature-based anti-virus?

Let me know by adding some comments to this blog.

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

Apr 2 2008   6:22PM GMT

Researching Network TAPs - an end to network blindness? (part 2)

Posted by: Troy Tate
LAN, Performance, Networking, WAN, Monitoring, Network TAPs

As expected there are several different manufacturers and models that can handle this task. The reseller I spoke with suggested three different devices from two different manufacturers.

Network Instruments nTAP - This is the particular device that initially captured my interest in this type of solution. More information can be found here

Datacom Systems Singlestream aggregation tap - More information on the 10/100 aggregation tap can be found here. Details on a gigabit tap can be found here.

The prices I received on these devices went from around $1000 to $1500 to $2000. As you can see, there are lots of choices. I have requested a demo model of the $1000 device and will see if it will meet my needs. More to come!

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