smart thinking about IM security issues

Grok Headline matches for smart thinking about IM security issues

some smart thinking about Linux software
dependencies and packaging

some smart thinking about Linux software
dependencies and packaging 06/17/2004 07:25 PM
Havoc "no permalinks" Pennington has some smart thinking about Linux software dependencies and packaging. I think you have to go even further and consider each Linux distribution to be a separate operating system which application developers must port to, test, and support. And there's still the problem of apps that are included in some distributions but not in others.

Shark Tank: At least SOMEBODY is
thinking about security

Shark Tank: At least SOMEBODY is
thinking about security 12/04/2003 12:07 AM
It's the monthly joint meeting of this company's desktop and server support departments, and everything is fine, says a pilot fish on the server side. That is, until the desktop guys announce a new project.

Domestic Security: Some Complex Thinking

Domestic Security: Some Complex Thinking 03/29/2005 11:30 PM

The Idea: Maybe the reason we can't agree on how to deal with terrorism is that we're all using illogical, inappropriate and overly simplistic thinking. If we used 'complex thinking' would we stop arguing and start getting somewhere? It is likely that the Department of Homeland Security (which is now the largest state-run organization on the planet) will go down in history as the poorest investment in human history -- an operation that has churned through trillions of dollars (possibly enough to eradicate world poverty and a dozen of the biggest killer diseases on the planet at the same time), and accomplished absolutely nothing. The insidious nature of such 'security' programs is that no one can ever say for sure they haven't or might not yet prevent a catastrophe -- US government intelligence is now a black hole that sucks up money and from which nothing ever escapes. A recent article by John Tirman argues that progressives have missed a great opportunity to stake out an alternative strategy for security that would be modestly less expensive than the conservative strategy that has been used since Bush took office, more effective, and provide a host of other social and environmental benefits in the process. The gist of his argument is shown in the first three columns below. I've added as a fourth column the preventative strategy that I have argued for on these pages, which has also been advocated in a number of European newspapers. SECURITY AGENDA Conservative Progressive - Domestic Focus Progressive - International Focus Domestic Security Strategy Offensive: Preemptively attack foreign nations that might threaten domestic security Defensive: Improve domestic infrastructure to enhance preparedness Preventative: Improve global infrastructure to reduce animosity Spending Priority Defense, 'intelligence'-gathering, prisons and interrogation Domestic health, education Humanitarian and infrastructure aid globally and domestically Investment in Direct Security Massive and unprecedented Significant Negligible Response Strategy Bolster police and emergency services, suspend civil liberties as expendable Bolster police and emergency services but balance against need to protect civil liberties No response: The world is too big to protect against all such threats, and civil liberties are sacrosanct (that's what we're defending) Treatment of Domestic and Border-Crossing Minorities Persecute, prosecute and deport without due process Heightened bureaucracy but with due process Treated like everyone else Principal Political Means of Galvanizing Support Emotional: Fear-mongering Rational: Reasonable measures commensurate with the threat Emotional: Show how these people live abroad and you'll understand their desperation Approach to Protecting Energy Supply Increase security at power plants & refineries, seize foreign oil supplies, eliminate environmental restrictions on exploration Shift to renewable energy sources and hence decentralize sources of supply Shift to renewable energy sources and hence decentralize sources of supply Approach to Protecting Public Health Increased security at major health facilities, disaster and evacuation plans, bioterror 'research' Upgrade, network and decentralize public health infrastructure Upgrade, network and decentralize public health infrastructure Approach to Protecting Transportation Increased security in transportation hubs, ban identification of vehicles carrying hazmat Improve mass transit and restrict transportation of hazmat Reduce transportation needs by encouraging 'buy local' and restrict transportation of hazmat Effect: Preparedness for Another Domestic Attack By their own reports, not at all prepared Would be modestly better prepared Not even attempting to prepare My recent study of complex systems (and the politics of international terrorism are nothing if not complex) and the approaches to dealing with them have given me pause. All of the agendas above are designed for complicated systems, not complex ones. They all presume to have a monopoly on understanding of the cause-and-effect relationships behind acts of terror. The very terms 'deterrence', 'preemption' and 'prevention' are rooted in complicated systems theory, and are meaningless and perhaps even dangerous when applied to complex systems. They are all about trying to understand and exercise control over a system that is simply unknowable and uncontrollable. Perhaps this is why neocons and all previous imperialists have striven to impose homogeneity over global culture, with the unattainable objective of making us all so much alike that civilization becomes a predictable, merely complicated system. Diversity is a dirty word to conservatives. Progressives support diversity as a matter of principle, but have been notoriously poor at understanding its implications -- resulting in bizarre behaviours like 'political correctness', which no one seems to like. Here's a quote from Dave Snowden talking over on AOK about another social issue where conservatives and progressives disagree completely and have tried to impose policies based on different cause-and-effect oversimplifications. The issue is capital punishment: Order in complex systems emerges from the interaction of multiple identities over time, within boundaries around attractors. If we want to see change then it will arise from multiple bottom-up initiatives which change the context and make certain types of negative pattern unsustainable. To take a political example, capital punishment has become largely an unsustainable approach for European governments over the last fifty years, but the same phenomenon has not yet impacted on the bulk of the US (or several regimes who the US regard as uncivilized). In Europe this is a pattern that has emerged from multiple interactions: cases of the wrong people being convicted, a gradual change to liberalization in multiple fields of human thinking which create a framework within which leaders and politicians are able to operate. For some reason this has not happened in the US despite similar evidence plus the general data on racial/social bias on who actually gets killed (lets not use the word execute: it hides the reality). With the notable exception of the film Dead Man Walking most interactions in US society create a different type of entrainment which is the opposite of the European position. From a personal perspective I feel a physical sense of horror at the whole idea that you can take a human being and kill them in some public ritual, but that is partly because of the society in which I grew up, the political influences of a family deeply committed to politics and an historical age which allowed that thinking to take place. Now this is not an argument that Europe is more enlightened that the US because it isn’t (although it is more liberal), it's an argument that many different things are connected and social systems arise from multiple interactions which cannot be directed top down, and it would not make a scrap of difference if you changed the mind set of senior leaders because their patterns personal and collective will respond to the emergent patterns of the societies in which they operate. The Grameen bank case that I quote in the article is a great example of complex thinking – its bottom up, no one changed leaders to some model of thinking, someone just went out and did something simple which created change – the more people do that the more chance the world has. Apply this thinking to the Schiavo case and it will make your head spin. The article cited above explains the Grameen bank case as follows: The Grameen Bank was created in Bangladesh to provide small loans to poor people. The name Grameen comes from the Bangla word for village. This is a market which the conventional banking system finds unattractive. Most commercial and private loans are based on credit scoring, an ordered concept in which the characteristics of good and bad debtors are identified and used as predictors and therefore controls for future lending. This increases the cost of lending as the various processes have to be administered, and small loans this become uneconomic. In the Grameen Bank everyone who took out a loan was required to be a part of a self regulating borrowers’ group in which each member of the group had to take responsibility for the debts of the others. This simple rule which costs little to administer produced a 97% repayment rate comparable with best achievements of the large banks; there are now over two million clients of the Grameen bank and the approach has proved both scalable and portable. I find the Grameen Bank an inspiring case, and an illustration of the great benefits that complex or unordered thinking can bring. Managing the starting conditions not an idealized end state can produce lower cost more effective solutions. Complex thinking is not a nice to have in modern management, it is a fundamental necessity. It is a new and exciting way of thinking about the world Some of the techniques for 'complex thinking' he suggests: Manage by monitoring for the emergence of pattern to sustain or disrupt, rather than managing by objective, to plan or to a model; Focus on effectiveness (with requisite diversity and allowance for inefficiency for adaptability) rather than efficiency; Explore don't exploit; Strive for resilience and adaptability not stability; Measure the stability of 'barriers' and 'identities', and the attractiveness of 'attractors', rather than using reductionist measures like ROI; Simulate emergence to see the patterns of possibility, rather than analyzing and relying on 'experts'; Understand that our different 'identities' make decisions based on personal experience and stories representing collective knowledge (we usually think of individuals making decisions based on enlightened self-interest). So how might we apply 'complex thinking' to domestic security? Rather than trying to solve causality, or rank and address all of the potential security risks, how could we discover and 'disrupt the patterns' of acts of terror? Does this imply that until/unless we can discover the patterns, it's a waste of time and money doing anything? Decentralizing targets and diversifying sources of supply would seem to be a good way to build resilience into critical systems. What else could we do? If we acknowledge that the barriers we have erected at borders are unstable (and next to useless for combating terrorism, while particularly effective at disrupting commerce and tourism), are there other barriers we could use instead? Are there 'attractors' we could put in place that would draw those with an axe to grind against the West elsewhere (Iraq seems to be an unexpectedly good attractor these days)? What kinds of simulation could we run that might help us see what the impact on terrorist activity might be of various interventions -- would building good schools in the Mideast help or hurt for example? And what kind of stories can we surface and tell that would inform the decisions of those inclined to loathe us and act on that loathing?

Fundamental re-thinking network security

Fundamental re-thinking network security 02/18/2004 07:59 PM
In my time as a security professional, I have been faced with hundreds of scenarios in which someone asks me the question that goes something like this: “I have this network that has all of these specific services and needs,...

SQL Security Issues

SQL Security Issues 04/24/2004 10:35 PM

Can An Apple A Day Keep Security Issues
At Bay?

Can An Apple A Day Keep Security Issues
At Bay? 06/03/2004 06:42 AM
By Mathew Schwartz, Security Wire Perspectives (via MyAppleMenu)

Other News: Security Issues

Other News: Security Issues 09/27/2004 09:27 AM
We link to several articles about serious security threats and the Mac's position vs. Windows.

Are we just living with Security Issues?

Are we just living with Security Issues? 12/30/2003 01:22 AM
Since August 17th, we have had thousands of computers hit with the Nachi or Blaster worms. Over the past few months, we have only seen an increase in the number of hosts infected. It seems as though the Internet IT...

Smart Guest Book Security Issue

Smart Guest Book Security Issue 08/30/2004 12:00 PM

Direct and Related Links for 'Smart Guest Book Security Issue'

“Critical: Moderately critical Impact: Exposure of sensitive information Where: From remote Solution Status: Unpatched Software: Smart Guest Book 2.x A security issue has been reported in Smart Guest Book, which may allow malicious people to gain knowledge of sensitive information. The problem is that the database file “SmartGuestBook.mdb” by default is accessible by anyone. This may disclose various information including the administrative username and password by downloading the file from an affected web site. Solution:…

Apple issues Mac OS X security patch

Apple issues Mac OS X security patch 05/21/2004 06:49 PM

Microsoft Issues Security Patches

Microsoft Issues Security Patches 11/11/2003 10:17 PM
PC Magazine Nov 11 2003 9:32PM ET

Yahoo issues security patch for IM

Yahoo issues security patch for IM 08/13/2004 12:45 PM
Web giant releases fix for vulnerability stemming from open-source graphics code.

Security Issues in Rediff Bol Messenger

Security Issues in Rediff Bol Messenger 01/01/2004 04:31 AM
S G Masood (Jan 22 2003)

The continuing saga of IE Security
Issues

The continuing saga of IE Security
Issues 04/09/2004 07:57 PM
I have a simple question. Why can't a company that has 50 billion dollars in reserve cash fix their damn...

abuse & security issues > Israel

abuse & security issues > Israel 03/29/2005 08:40 PM
Gadi Evron (Mar 29 2005)

Notes and Tips: Security Issues

Notes and Tips: Security Issues 06/10/2004 09:59 AM
Here's one more note about Mac OS X security vulnerabilities following the latest Apple update.

Microsoft issues security update

Microsoft issues security update 07/03/2004 10:00 AM
USA Today Jul 3 2004 2:31PM GMT

Security issues of using shared code

Security issues of using shared code 08/02/2004 03:25 PM

Direct and Related Links for 'Security issues of using shared code'

“If you’ve ever written a lot of code, you’ve probably found yourself thinking, ‘Someone must have already tackled this problem.’ You may even have gone a step further and done a Google search for relevant code that you might be able to incorporate into your project. But have you ever stopped to think about the security ramifications of using this type of code? If not, you should!…

Cisco issues another security warning

Cisco issues another security warning 04/16/2004 01:13 PM
The networking giant warns customers of a security vulnerability associated with its Cisco 3000 VPN Concentrator.

It now appears that all of OS's have
security issues

It now appears that all of OS's have
security issues 12/12/2003 06:52 AM
Jaguar and Panther equally vulnerable .. Macs are not Invulnarable .. this rather weak article .. this recent story

abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/ZDM/mac_vulnerablility_pcmag_0 31211.html
track this site | 5 links

phpBB Issues Security Update

phpBB Issues Security Update 12/19/2004 03:07 PM

Company to license smart-card security
tools

Company to license smart-card security
tools 04/19/2004 12:13 AM
CNET Apr 19 2004 4:16AM GMT

Apple issues iChat security fix
(MacCentral)

Apple issues iChat security fix
(MacCentral) 09/17/2004 10:47 AM
MacCentral - Apple Computer Inc. on Thursday released its third security update in recent days. Security Update 2004-09-16 fixes a security issue with Apple's iChat application that allowed Remote iChat participants can send "links" that can start local programs if clicked.

Mac or PC? Windows' security issues help
some users choose

Mac or PC? Windows' security issues help
some users choose 09/21/2004 10:11 PM
USA Today Sep 22 2004 2:19AM GMT

Microsoft issues seven security patches,
two critical

Microsoft issues seven security patches,
two critical 07/13/2004 05:08 PM
Software updates released today by Microsoft include fixes for previously unknown flaws in the Windows OS, including critical holes in the Windows Task Manager and HTML help features.

Apple issues revised security update

Apple issues revised security update 09/13/2004 09:42 PM
Apple has released a revised version of last week's Security Update 2004-09-07, which fixes problems with Safari & FTP server in the original security update. The new update is now available via the Software Update panel and can be installed over the previous update.

Sybase ASE Multiple Security Issues
(#NISR05042005)

Sybase ASE Multiple Security Issues
(#NISR05042005) 04/05/2005 05:38 PM
NGSSoftware Insight Security Research

Microsoft issues April security updates

Microsoft issues April security updates 04/13/2005 11:59 AM
Computer Shopper Apr 13 2005 3:48PM GMT

Apple issues QuickTime security patch

Apple issues QuickTime security patch 05/06/2004 10:03 AM

Apple Will Be Patching Jaguar Security
Issues

Apple Will Be Patching Jaguar Security
Issues 10/31/2003 04:07 PM

@Stake issues security advisories for
Jaguar

@Stake issues security advisories for
Jaguar 10/29/2003 02:47 PM
Internet security firm @Stake issued three security advisories for Mac OS X on Tuesday...

@Stake issues security advisories for OS
X Jaguar

@Stake issues security advisories for OS
X Jaguar 10/29/2003 02:45 PM
Security consulting firm, @Stake issued three security advisories for Apple's Mac OS X operating system late last night. The advisories affect Mac OS X 10.2.8 and lower and do not appear to affect the company's recently released Panther operating system. In fact, @Stake is recommending users upgrade to Panther as a fix for the problems.

New Online Ventures Get Help With
Internet Security Issues

New Online Ventures Get Help With
Internet Security Issues 08/19/2004 02:11 AM
MSTBIE, an online business solutions provider, today has announced their partnership with Geeks In A Flash! providing new business with additional options for ensuring the safe and successful launch of their online business ventures. [PRWEB Aug 19, 2004]

NIST Issues Windows XP Security Guide

NIST Issues Windows XP Security Guide 07/06/2004 01:22 PM

Paper maker documents key IT security
issues

Paper maker documents key IT security
issues 03/28/2005 06:16 AM
James Cupps, a former network engineer and information security officer for the U.S. Navy, is now on his second tour of duty with Sappi Fine Paper North America, a division of a $4.7 billion South African manufacturing company. Cupps, the North American division's information security officer and Sappi's global security lead, recently shared his thoughts with Network World Executive News Editor Bob Brown.

Opera Problems -- Security Issues, New
Version

Opera Problems -- Security Issues, New
Version 03/14/2003 12:25 AM

Report: Security Issues Hamper
E-Commerce

Report: Security Issues Hamper
E-Commerce 06/24/2005 09:02 PM
Enterprise Security Today Jun 23 2005 6:27PM GMT

Windows-Based PCs Plagued By Security
Issues

Windows-Based PCs Plagued By Security
Issues 12/28/2004 03:41 PM
Red Nova Dec 28 2004 8:09PM GMT

Cisco issues wireless Lan security alert

Cisco issues wireless Lan security alert 12/04/2003 09:38 AM
vnunet.com Dec 4 2003 8:48AM ET
Grok Description matches for smart thinking about IM security issues
GrokA matches for smart thinking about IM security issues

smart thinking about IM security issues

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