Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Blog..blog...blog
blog blog, blog...one of the most powerful new tools to get noticed in the search engines is to have your own blog. Google, Go Daddy and many more say it constantly, have a blog and use it even if just a bit. Ask us how to set this up and we will help you.
Rossini cyber security
Did you know that Rossini.com servers have both spam and virus filters in place being your first line of defense against those nasty bugs and spammers out there? This is part of what you pay us for! I have been asked by some who do pay us a fee heh don't I have a credit and to that I say your fee is your web page hosting, your virus protection, your spam protection, your e-mail flowing, your web page up constantly 24/7, your files backed up nightly, weekly and monthly, your web page submitted to the main search engines and a lot more. Behind the scenes is a team of professionals working for you!
Fed cyber security
An interesting article on cyber security:
Lawmakers voice concerns over cybersecurity plan
Too little too late?
Page: 1 2 3 Next >
By Robert Lemos, SecurityFocus → More by this author
Published Tuesday 4th March 2008 12:46 GMT
Members of the House of Representatives sought details on Thursday of a $30bn plan to secure federal government systems and upgrade network defenses to ward off attacks from foreign nations and online criminals.
Known as the Cyber Initiative, the Bush Administration project would dramatically reduce the number of interconnections between federal government networks and the internet and put more advanced network security in place to monitor data traffic for signs of malicious attacks.
While the five to seven year project could dramatically improve the network defenses of government agencies, lawmakers questioned whether the initiative will be too little, too late, and whether the resulting network monitoring could undermine privacy.
"It's hard to believe that this Administration now believes it has the answers to secure our federal networks and critical infrastructure," Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said in prepared remarks at the opening of the hearing on Thursday. "I believe cybersecurity is a serious problem - maybe the most complicated national security issue in terms of threat and jurisdiction. This problem will be with us for decades to come."
The US government gave short shrift to cybersecurity issues at the beginning of the decade. While the Bush Administration released its National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace in 2003, the final document significantly softened the government's stance on securing critical infrastructure, which is primarily maintained by private companies. The Administration also collected most of the cybersecurity capabilities into the Department of Homeland Security and then failed to fund the efforts.
While Congress established the position of Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity within the DHS in 2005, the Bush Administration failed to fill the leadership role for more than a year, finally appointing Greg Garcia, a former information-technology lobbyist, to the post.
In the last two years, however, the Bush Administration has focused more intently on securing government networks. The US computer emergency readiness team (US-CERT) has deployed a network-traffic analysis system, EINSTEIN, to monitor 15 agencies for possible computer intrusions.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology has created the National Vulnerability Database and worked with other agencies to create important standards for configuration management and vulnerability detection.
The Office of Management and Budget, along with NIST, is spearheading an effort to get all desktop computer systems within federal agencies to use the Federal Desktop Core Configuration - a standard, secure configuration for Windows XP and Windows Vista.
Lawmakers voice concerns over cybersecurity plan
Too little too late?
Page: 1 2 3 Next >
By Robert Lemos, SecurityFocus → More by this author
Published Tuesday 4th March 2008 12:46 GMT
Members of the House of Representatives sought details on Thursday of a $30bn plan to secure federal government systems and upgrade network defenses to ward off attacks from foreign nations and online criminals.
Known as the Cyber Initiative, the Bush Administration project would dramatically reduce the number of interconnections between federal government networks and the internet and put more advanced network security in place to monitor data traffic for signs of malicious attacks.
While the five to seven year project could dramatically improve the network defenses of government agencies, lawmakers questioned whether the initiative will be too little, too late, and whether the resulting network monitoring could undermine privacy.
"It's hard to believe that this Administration now believes it has the answers to secure our federal networks and critical infrastructure," Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said in prepared remarks at the opening of the hearing on Thursday. "I believe cybersecurity is a serious problem - maybe the most complicated national security issue in terms of threat and jurisdiction. This problem will be with us for decades to come."
The US government gave short shrift to cybersecurity issues at the beginning of the decade. While the Bush Administration released its National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace in 2003, the final document significantly softened the government's stance on securing critical infrastructure, which is primarily maintained by private companies. The Administration also collected most of the cybersecurity capabilities into the Department of Homeland Security and then failed to fund the efforts.
While Congress established the position of Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity within the DHS in 2005, the Bush Administration failed to fill the leadership role for more than a year, finally appointing Greg Garcia, a former information-technology lobbyist, to the post.
In the last two years, however, the Bush Administration has focused more intently on securing government networks. The US computer emergency readiness team (US-CERT) has deployed a network-traffic analysis system, EINSTEIN, to monitor 15 agencies for possible computer intrusions.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology has created the National Vulnerability Database and worked with other agencies to create important standards for configuration management and vulnerability detection.
The Office of Management and Budget, along with NIST, is spearheading an effort to get all desktop computer systems within federal agencies to use the Federal Desktop Core Configuration - a standard, secure configuration for Windows XP and Windows Vista.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
What we do.......
Sometimes, you forget to tell people what you do. Sometimes you get all wrapped up in every day life and business and you forget to tell others what got you where you are.
Rossini.com offers:
Web page creation
web page design
graphic art capability
Logo creation
multi media creation
brochure creation
programming
consulting
web hosting
E-mail hosting
E-mail newsletter creation
E-mail marketing
Search engine marketing
Pay per click marketing
Sales consulting
and much more.......
As you can see we offer a lot and understand a lot. We offer years of experience and knowledge.
Well I wonder if anyone is reading this? It would be nice if someone said they were.
Joe
Rossini.com offers:
Web page creation
web page design
graphic art capability
Logo creation
multi media creation
brochure creation
programming
consulting
web hosting
E-mail hosting
E-mail newsletter creation
E-mail marketing
Search engine marketing
Pay per click marketing
Sales consulting
and much more.......
As you can see we offer a lot and understand a lot. We offer years of experience and knowledge.
Well I wonder if anyone is reading this? It would be nice if someone said they were.
Joe
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Spam is getting criminal attention
This article is from McAfee!
Experts confirm spam link to criminal conduct
Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 1:49pm by David DeWalt
In a recent speech before the Direct Marketing Association, Eileen Harrington, the Deputy Director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection said that the most problematic spam now is tied to criminal conduct.
This statement really resonated with me and confirms what we've been seeing for a while now. Spam is now much more than a nuisance that clogs up corporate networks; it is a key weapon used by cyber crooks to target unsuspecting consumers and this makes it a major threat to individuals and businesses alike.
When it comes to managing spam, the mantra has traditionally been just don't click on it! But the problem now is that cyber crooks are getting smarter. The bad guys are employing sophisticated and more localized social engineering techniques that many people simply don't realize that the emails they are receiving are spam.
We're seeing the "quality" of the content both in terms of language and presentation increasing and making it more difficult for unsuspecting users to tell whether it's legitimate or not. This is a trend our researchers identified in the latest global Sage report.
The bad guys may have gotten smarter, but so have the good guys, and we can beat them. Consumers need to be careful, and businesses need to take a holistic approach to their technology solution.
And while there is no silver bullet to stop cyber crime, I applaud the Federal Trade Commission for highlighting the issue of spam and the steps it is taking in the global fight against cyber crime.
Experts confirm spam link to criminal conduct
Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 1:49pm by David DeWalt
In a recent speech before the Direct Marketing Association, Eileen Harrington, the Deputy Director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection said that the most problematic spam now is tied to criminal conduct.
This statement really resonated with me and confirms what we've been seeing for a while now. Spam is now much more than a nuisance that clogs up corporate networks; it is a key weapon used by cyber crooks to target unsuspecting consumers and this makes it a major threat to individuals and businesses alike.
When it comes to managing spam, the mantra has traditionally been just don't click on it! But the problem now is that cyber crooks are getting smarter. The bad guys are employing sophisticated and more localized social engineering techniques that many people simply don't realize that the emails they are receiving are spam.
We're seeing the "quality" of the content both in terms of language and presentation increasing and making it more difficult for unsuspecting users to tell whether it's legitimate or not. This is a trend our researchers identified in the latest global Sage report.
The bad guys may have gotten smarter, but so have the good guys, and we can beat them. Consumers need to be careful, and businesses need to take a holistic approach to their technology solution.
And while there is no silver bullet to stop cyber crime, I applaud the Federal Trade Commission for highlighting the issue of spam and the steps it is taking in the global fight against cyber crime.
A McAfee interesting article!
Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 1:36pm by Charles Ross
Leave it to the Air Force Institute of Technology to develop technology that detects patterns in email/web usage that could offer leading indicators of insider security threats.
The technology is called Probabilistic Latent Semantic Indexing (try saying that a couple times fast). It sifts through email and web traffic logs to identify trends in human behaviors that could ultimately lead to malfeasance. For example, an employee who becomes distant with colleagues over email and increases communications with outsiders could be a sign of dissidence. If you’re keeping tabs on this topic, this is an extension of the research MIT is doing around “Reality Mining”.
Researchers will argue they are not concerned with the content of data, but rather data about data (i.e. deltas in creation time, volume, etc.) to draw conclusions. However, this seems a bit flawed with this security guy.
I’m all for finding new ways to find the bad guys especially if good data exists to prove a wrong doing. But, making security predictions based on historical trends of human behavior seems a bit like guess work at best. In my opinion, there is too much inherent variability in human behavior for even the savviest computer and slick algorithms to predict what comes next. If people were truly rational, security would be a heck of a lot easier.
When it comes to preventing insider threats, I believe a basic understanding of human psychology is far more effective than directing machine learning at the problem. People with access to do bad things, combined with a motivating factor and the right opportunity pose a threat to organizations. No arguments there.
While it is difficult to control motives, we certainly can address the access and opportunity sides of the problem. Limiting access, managing data and monitoring usage are critical components to any successful security program, but sadly these are often areas of most neglect. We can’t solve humans, but we can institute pragmatic process and technology to limit them.
Leave it to the Air Force Institute of Technology to develop technology that detects patterns in email/web usage that could offer leading indicators of insider security threats.
The technology is called Probabilistic Latent Semantic Indexing (try saying that a couple times fast). It sifts through email and web traffic logs to identify trends in human behaviors that could ultimately lead to malfeasance. For example, an employee who becomes distant with colleagues over email and increases communications with outsiders could be a sign of dissidence. If you’re keeping tabs on this topic, this is an extension of the research MIT is doing around “Reality Mining”.
Researchers will argue they are not concerned with the content of data, but rather data about data (i.e. deltas in creation time, volume, etc.) to draw conclusions. However, this seems a bit flawed with this security guy.
I’m all for finding new ways to find the bad guys especially if good data exists to prove a wrong doing. But, making security predictions based on historical trends of human behavior seems a bit like guess work at best. In my opinion, there is too much inherent variability in human behavior for even the savviest computer and slick algorithms to predict what comes next. If people were truly rational, security would be a heck of a lot easier.
When it comes to preventing insider threats, I believe a basic understanding of human psychology is far more effective than directing machine learning at the problem. People with access to do bad things, combined with a motivating factor and the right opportunity pose a threat to organizations. No arguments there.
While it is difficult to control motives, we certainly can address the access and opportunity sides of the problem. Limiting access, managing data and monitoring usage are critical components to any successful security program, but sadly these are often areas of most neglect. We can’t solve humans, but we can institute pragmatic process and technology to limit them.
Vista takes a plunge!
The boss is retiring, Crazy Stevie's in charge, and our prices are INSA-A-A-A-NE!!
By JOHN MURRELL
In the year since its introduction, Microsoft has moved more than 100 million copies of Windows Vista into the market, and just on the numbers, you'd have to call that a success. But the vast majority of those sales have gone to a captive audience, the folks buying new PCs with Vista preinstalled. Meanwhile, among the existing base of Windows XP users, there's been a broad reluctance to brave the upgrade path (see "No chance we could relabel it Windows Classic and find a quiet exit strategy, I suppose"). The hardware demands, the performance issues, the incompatibilities with peripherals, the sour reviews all contributed to giving XP users a new appreciation for the old OS. But of all the things holding back upgrade sales, price seemed to be the least of them. It was, however, the easiest to fix.
Late Thursday, Microsoft announced it was cutting the retail prices on the upgrade versions of Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions (the Basic price holds steady). The Premium edition drops from $159 to $129, and Ultimate goes from $299 down to $219. What does not change are the prices Microsoft charges computer makers (another captive audience), so most consumers won't see any benefit. All of which left analysts a little baffled, both at the markdown itself ("I can't remember a big price cut like this," said Chris Swenson of the NPD Group. "It's very unheard of.") and its focus on upgraders ("It's sort of an odd move," said Gartner's Michael Silver).
But with the new prices coinciding with Vista's first major update, Microsoft is seeing an opportunity, however small. Said Brad Brooks, corporate vice president for Windows Consumer Product Marketing, "Over the past year, we conducted promotions in several different markets combining various marketing tactics with lower price points on different stand-alone versions of Windows Vista. While the promotions varied region to region, one constant emerged - an increase in demand among consumers that went beyond tech enthusiasts and build-it-yourself types. The success of these promotions has inspired us to make some broader changes to our pricing structures, to reach a broader range of consumers worldwide." Well, we'll see, but in any case, it's good to hear that there have been no major changes in the traditional relationship between price and demand.
By JOHN MURRELL
In the year since its introduction, Microsoft has moved more than 100 million copies of Windows Vista into the market, and just on the numbers, you'd have to call that a success. But the vast majority of those sales have gone to a captive audience, the folks buying new PCs with Vista preinstalled. Meanwhile, among the existing base of Windows XP users, there's been a broad reluctance to brave the upgrade path (see "No chance we could relabel it Windows Classic and find a quiet exit strategy, I suppose"). The hardware demands, the performance issues, the incompatibilities with peripherals, the sour reviews all contributed to giving XP users a new appreciation for the old OS. But of all the things holding back upgrade sales, price seemed to be the least of them. It was, however, the easiest to fix.
Late Thursday, Microsoft announced it was cutting the retail prices on the upgrade versions of Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions (the Basic price holds steady). The Premium edition drops from $159 to $129, and Ultimate goes from $299 down to $219. What does not change are the prices Microsoft charges computer makers (another captive audience), so most consumers won't see any benefit. All of which left analysts a little baffled, both at the markdown itself ("I can't remember a big price cut like this," said Chris Swenson of the NPD Group. "It's very unheard of.") and its focus on upgraders ("It's sort of an odd move," said Gartner's Michael Silver).
But with the new prices coinciding with Vista's first major update, Microsoft is seeing an opportunity, however small. Said Brad Brooks, corporate vice president for Windows Consumer Product Marketing, "Over the past year, we conducted promotions in several different markets combining various marketing tactics with lower price points on different stand-alone versions of Windows Vista. While the promotions varied region to region, one constant emerged - an increase in demand among consumers that went beyond tech enthusiasts and build-it-yourself types. The success of these promotions has inspired us to make some broader changes to our pricing structures, to reach a broader range of consumers worldwide." Well, we'll see, but in any case, it's good to hear that there have been no major changes in the traditional relationship between price and demand.
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