March, 2009

And you thought conficker was dead

The conficker worm that infected millions of computers starting last October was believed to be at bay. Not so according to Vincent Weafer, vice president of Symantec's security response group. Computers infected with this worm are being updated with a stronger variant. The variant is designed...

Protect your ssh server with DenyHosts

If you have an SSH server that is accessible from the internet then you should look at the DenyHosts application to protect your servers and networks. DenyHosts protects your servers by parsing your ssh log for failed attempts at ssh login. The log where this is recorded varies by distribution....

Open Virtualization Format (OVF) released

The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) released the finished version of the Open Virtualization Format (OVF). The OVF is a set of metadata tags that can be used to deploy virtual environment across multiple virtualization platforms. Using OVF users can download a virtualized application...

Virginia releases first open source text book

Virginia has released a beta version of the nation's first open source text book. The book is a collaboration by state departments of Technology and Education as well volunteer educators, engineers and scientists. The book was developed using web based resources to quickly update information...

How safe is your seach engine?

Crackers are increasingly attempting to influence the behavior of search engines to get them to misdirect users to malicious sites says security firm Marshal. Unknowing users are asked to download an...

Government scholarships for studying cybersecurity

The US Government give you a full scholarship for college if you want to become a cybersecurity specialist. The scholarship covers room and board, books and tuition. The obvious question here is "What do I have to give them in return?" Two years of government service at a federal agency in a...

Are you using myOpenID? (They launched a WordPress plugin)

myOpenID is an open source third party authentication tool allowing users to have one login across multiple websites. myOpenID is developed my JanRain. Making life even better OpenID works with many websites where you may already have an identity. These include...

Seven must have skills for a server room manager

I ran across this article in which Celerity Works Mike Lisagor who is the author of The Enlightened Manager discusses the seven skills a server room manager must have.

Seven Skills Increasingly the...

IRS a little lazy on scanning servers for malware

A recent report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) noted that the IRS scans about 89% of it's servers weekly for malware and viruses. That should give you a warm and fuzzy feeling. Apparently they believe that employee workstations pose more of a threat. All...

Want to know how the Federal Government uses virtualization?

I have often wondered how the really big technology users, like the Federal Government, utilize various technologies such as virtualization. Now we can all get a first hand look by watching an eSeminar presented by Government Computer News. They are presenting Anil Karmel, a solutions architect...