Posts Tagged ‘security’

Jun
06/08

Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 August 2008 04:28
Written by JJ
Friday, June 6th, 2008

What do you want to hear about?

In addition to our Black Hat Blogging time between now and early August, I’m declaring June ‘Ask JJ’ month. I frequently get questions emailed from readers, either in response to a previous post, or with questions on a new subject. It occured to me that others probably have the same questions, so I figured a month of Q&A free-for-all would be a fun way to address all those burning IT and security questions you’ve been bottling up inside…

The plan is to collect questions in June and post replies in July, or perhaps in earlier if I can manage to squeeze in a few extra hours in the day.

What to ask? Whatever YOU want to know about- just ask! If you read my blog, you know my specialties are in network security, NAC and 802.1X as well as general networking and standards and wireless technologies and security. You can ask about a technology, a product, a vendor, even my ‘opinion’, if you really want to hear that.

You can ask other stuff too… If it strikes my fancy and I think it’s interesting enough, I’ll research it and get an answer, or perhaps invite a guest expert to respond. And if it’s not so interesting I may just ignore it, so be prepared for that too.

How to ask? Oh we’re full of options here. Either post a reply/comment to this topic, or use the email form on my blog at www.SecurityUncorked.com to submit a request by email. You can include your name and/or contact info or not- up to you.

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Tags: jj, Q&A, security | Posted under Industry Insider | Comments

1 Comment

May
22/08

Wireless: Using Light APs Across a WAN

Last Updated on Tuesday, 31 January 2012 05:19
Written by JJ
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

I get asked this question a lot….. “Can we have our wireless controller at the central office and APs at the other offices?”

The answer to this is usually “yes and no”. I know, helpful, right? (more…)

Tags: access points, light ap, security, Wireless | Posted under Network Niblets, Wireless | Comments

1 Comment

Apr
14/08

RSA Day 3: Thursday with JJ at the Expo

Last Updated on Saturday, 28 January 2012 07:12
Written by JJ
Monday, April 14th, 2008

RSA Conference, San Francisco
Day 3: Thursday, April 10th

Thursday was a little different, I got up early and got a few ‘real’ work things done (you know, those things) before heading off to meet Mike Fratto for a project he’s working on. More on that later. (more…)

Tags: Codebreakers Bash, photos, RSA 2008, security | Posted under Events |

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Apr
01/08

Trouble in the Neigborhood

Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 August 2008 04:14
Written by JJ
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

Another J! True Story (yes, with a typo in the title ;)

Yesterday, the emails and group posts were flying around like crazy. Our little neighborhood has a private Yahoo Group for residents to communicate and connect- I’ve been overjoyed to have the online venue and it certainly proved useful these past couple of days.

We live at the end of a cul de sac, with a lovely wooded area occupying the space past our fenced-in back yard. Past the woods is a main street they’re in the process of widening. (I know, grrreeat). A couple of weekends ago, two adult men (who were obviously out of place) came up behind our house out of those woods. Our lab/rottie mix (who looks like a full Rottweiler) took notice and wasn’t happy.

So, as any good dog owner would do in that situation… I let her out to have at it. The yard is fenced, so there was no danger of anyone (them or her) getting hurt. But- it was enough to scare the crap out of them and their lackadaisical walk quickly turned into a swift gait the other direction. I couldn’t help but giggle a little.

Mission Accomplished. For now anyway.

I didn’t think much about it until yesterday when my inbox lit up with posts to our online neighborhood group. It seems there have been several similarly suspicious situations (say that 3 times fast) occurring at various times of the day and night in our little corner of Earth. Mostly, what we (the neighborhood) deemed a childish prank has now turned into a full blown ‘security’ issue. (You knew that word was coming!)

It started with harmless prank doorbell-ringing, but the offense list has grown to include instances of beating and kicking doors in the wee hours of the morning. Other neighbors have noted recent instances of someone coming onto their back deck and tapping on the back door, only to have disappeared before the home owners could make it downstairs. Each time the culprit takes off if -or before- the occupant can respond. There have been only a couple of partial-sightings, where another neighbor caught a glimpse of the incident, and it has been confirmed that these are not kids. From the posts yesterday from a handful of folks, I’d say there were at least a dozen or so instances already documented.

So that leads me to wonder… are they merely childish pranks… or are these adults scoping out a neighborhood and testing to see who’s home… ?

Either way, midnight window-tapping and 3:00am kicks at your front door (which evidently left dents) are nothing to dismiss. We’re asking the local Police Department to increase the frequency of their drive-thrus in the area. And, I’m thinking of having the group organize a neighborhood camera system.

For now, our 75-pound, four-legged black and tan security system helps me feel a little better about it all.

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Tags: jj, life, personal, security | Posted under J! True Stories |

2 Comments

Mar
02/08

Security ‘In the Bag’?

Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 August 2008 03:45
Written by JJ
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

Another J! True Story…

I recently refinanced a house, and had paid a visit to my local bank branch to get a certified check for the closing. It’s a process that takes a few minutes, so as I waited at the counter, I began looking around and checking out all the happenings at the bank. It was pretty quiet, one other customer at the other end of the counter, and a bank rep adjusting some brochures hanging from a display.

As I looked around, a middle-aged Hispanic woman walked in… with a fairly crinkled McDonald’s bag in hand. No purse, no bank pouch, nothing else. It immediately struck me as odd- to walk into a bank, empty-handed except for this drive-through souvenir. This bag had lived out its useful life, so I assumed she brought it from the car to chunk it.

But she didn’t. And when she walked past the trash can and approached the counter, I knew what was coming.

Out of the crinkled fast food sack, emerged a large zip lock bag containing – something – about the size of a deposit booklet or stack of checks. Maybe there was a stash of cash amongst the contents, I’m not really sure. I tried not to stare but I was thoroughly amused at this shenanigan… and extremely curious.

I returned to my previous thought- how was this secret op mission she devised supposed to conceal the contents? Is an overtly re-used McDonald’s bag less obvious than a purse or small bank bag? All the rest of us females entered with purses and envelopes… only 1 entered with a Secret Sack. Had I been a thief planning to pounce on an opportunity, would the Secret Sack not be more interesting than a basic purse? Probably- that’s what I thought anyway.

The Secret Sack definitely made the patron feel safer about carrying around the contents, but from an outside perspective, I found it obvious and counter-productive. Instead of throwing a would-be perp off the trail, I suspect it would have served as bait. In her mind though, security was ‘in the bag’. Maybe now, instead of ‘Black Bag Ops’ we can call them ‘Golden Arch Ops’?

Remind you of any IT Security Policies you’ve seen? I can think of a few… And from now on, we will call them – you guessed it- Golden Arch Security Policies.

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Tags: J! True Stories, physical security, security | Posted under J! True Stories |

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