Security

Traditional virtual desktop infrastructures simply shift the administrative burden from endpoints into the datacenter. Citrix' XenDesktop separates applications, user profiles, and the operating system in a virtual desktop infrastructure to heighten the user experience while sharply reducing IT handling costs.

How many people do you have working to protect your data, systems and networks? The way you're counting them, it's probably not enough.

Last week a Microsoft exec revealed that Vista's User Account Control (UAC) scheme was designed from the ground up to keep people safe by constantly annoying them. Microsoft needs to learn that security through annoyance isn't the way to keep users safe --- or to keep them as customers.

This company uses a Web interface to its systems, and it's accessible from any PC. The idea is to allow employees to access their company mail when away from the office -- or so this pilot fish assumes.

Like everyone else, I know that identity theft is on the rise and that it can really wreak havoc in people's lives. Those commercials with actors posing as identity thieves were funny but I believe they also helped illustrate that anyone could fall victim.  The case of David Hodge is a good example of how much aggravation identity theft can bring about. I read about Hodge's experience here in "Identity thieves tax the system".

I think the need for streamlined communication between public agencies and private organizations is especially critical while security is threatened. Whether it's the private sector or the public sector that is being victimized (or both simultaneously), response to a threat is improved with good exchanges among the parties. This is especially true when it comes to international cyberattacks - pretty much the way cyberattacks run nowadays, the scope of the internet being what it is.  

I'll admit that I'm not a Marvel Comics fan (color me Vertigo), but this one's got me genuinely stumped: Apparently Iron Man is now fighting the dark forces of Linux...

Most of us know the importance of having (and keeping up-to-date) anti-virus software for our systems, but there are other important tools available. Even experts are sometimes not clear on exactly which products would serve them best, but I think most would agree that anti-virus alone isn't enough.

Just a minute, Michael Chertoff. I'm not disagreeing with your contention that America needs its best and brightest to contribute to the cybersecurity effort. And no one sane would claim that the threat from Those Who Would Harm Us is not great and will not grow. But I'm not moved in quite the way you might have hoped by your talk at RSA...

You will never go wrong if you take official forecasts and plan and prepare as if the event is at least one category higher than predicted.

You can't blame security personnel for extending their reach when it comes to protecting their company's data. According to this Computerworld article "IT 'Big Brothers' trying to keep internal users under control" by Jaikumar Vijayan, not everyone agrees that company insiders should be included as strongly as security threats.

I once asked if 2007 was going to be the year of NAC. It wasn't. Now as it becomes a feature in Windows, what happens to the specialty shops?

The Feds have no objection to rural banks moving from T1 landlines to this secure wireless network.

Trouble ticket comes to this pilot fish at a university computing center -- raising a carefully reasoned question about passwords.

Whoa, I wasn't too happy when I read this Associated Press article "Report: IRS computers leave taxpayer info at risk" by Jim Abrams. It's bad enough I've got to file my tax return like all law abiding citizens, but to learn that Treasury watchdogs don't feel confident about my data remaining secure once it gets into the hands of the IRS, well that just adds insult to injury.