Be careful with old/backup files on your Web server

If you're running an ASP-based site on an IIS server (of course), check for any old or backup .asp files that have been renamed with a .old, .bak, or similar extension. If present, the pages won't be rendered and delivered as the original ASP files would be. Instead, the actual source code is revealed. Not good for business.

Oh, this could just as easily happen other platforms. I just had Microsoft on the brain and wanted to get this out there.

Be careful co-mingling passwords

With all things being electronic today and us having to manage a hundred different computer accounts between home and work, here's one of those 'haven't thought of before' security issues that can come back and bite hard when the opportunity arises.

First, have one set of common passwords you use for business purposes...You know - the account password(s) you use on the network, email, local computer, PGP, your HR portal - you name it. Sure, in an ideal world, we'd have separate passwords for every single account. That's not reality. All of us have re-used the same password on different systems....at least at some point.

Second, have another set of common passwords you use at home for things like Amazon.com, eBay, your personal email account, online banking, etc. When you're at home, at friend's houses, or just goofing off on vacation, you're likely to be using less secure systems and communications channels which increases the chances of password exposure.

Sure, it may be convenient to co-mingle work and personal passwords, but in the end it will only serve to increase the odds for an incident and exposure where you don't need it - either professionally or personally.

Most importantly - make it policy (I know...it'd be next to impossible to enforce - but still) and then get the word out to your users. They're you're biggest vulnerability in all of this after all.

RSA during Spring Break! What were they thinking?

I just received my fancy conference booklet for RSA 2008. If you didn't get one, you'll likely start seeing/hearing more and more buzz leading up to the show that's scheduled for April 7-11 this year.

Since RSA's normally in February, I started thinking about this timeline and it hit me. That week happens to be Spring Break for the Atlanta metro area and likely a *lot* of the U.S. What were they thinking!?.

I can understand people wanting to get away on business - especially to this show. I even have an incentive myself since I can get in for free on a "press" pass. But missing my child's entire Spring Break over it...??

Maybe their motivation was for attendees to drag along the entire family to hang out in 'Frisco for a week ...Whew, not my (or my family's) idea of fun.

Maybe I'll see you on the beach instead!

Commonly overlooked safeguard for laptops

They're cheap and easy to use but lots of people don't think about them until it's too late. I'm talking about laptop locks like what the folks at office/computer stores and the folks at PC Guardian sell:












They're not 100% foolproof -nothing in security is. But they add an excellent layer of defense in public places, hotel rooms, your own office, and even the trunk of your car beyond what endpoint security and drive encryption can do to keep those precious laptops locked down. Much better to invest in these and require your employees to use them than end up on the Chronology of Data Breaches!

Want a new laptop? You can have mine...

Don't use Windows Vista....don't buy a new computer with it installed, don't upgrade to it in your enterprise, don't install it on your personal system. Stay FAR FAR away from Windows Vista.

Back in December, I forked out way too much $$$ for my dream laptop...The one that had what I needed was HP/Compaq 8510P with all the options. I wanted to go with another brand anyway since I've had lots of problems out of my Dells and IBMs in the past. I elected to have Vista pre-installed since I had heard good things about its usability, and, well, I need to keep up with the times especially with the work I do. BIG mistake.

Long story short, I wasted over 40 hours (that is, half) of my Christmas holiday time off fighting with my new laptop - just trying to get Vista and my apps loaded properly. Nothing seemed to work right *and* I was stuck with the 32-bit limitation of Vista not being able to see the entire 4GB of RAM I paid to have installed. So, thinking that if I just installed the 64-bit version of Vista, I'd get to use all of my RAM and maybe it'd run a little faster. Well, I made the silly mistake of (re-)installing Vista 64-bit (two maybe three times total).

Ever since that time (over a month ago), my brand new and expensive HP/Compaq 8510p has been completely unstable. Firefox crashes all the time, VMWare isn't working right...Internet Explorer is VERY unstable...Heck, Vista won't even boot the first time - most of the time. It just hangs at the ticker screen. To fix it, I have to take my battery out of the laptop (presumably resetting all the hardware) and then power it back on and the OS loads eventually. Oh, and plugging my external hard drive into the Firewire port causes a blue screen of death about 60% of the time. It even locks up constantly for no reason at all...All I can do is sit there and wait.The pains go on and on and on and on.

I even have this nice flickering at the bottom of my screen now where the taskbar jumps out every few seconds...just enough to create an enormous distraction when I'm working.

Since I've had my computer (6 weeks), I've easily lost 35-40 hours of time troubleshooting Windows Vista and Compaq hardware problems.

Maybe Vista Service Pack 1 (that's now delayed even further) will help me..??

I really do think there's something about me and computers...First it started out with all of my security testing tools clogging up Windows XP. So I started doing all of my testing in a VMWare session. That seemed to fix a lot of my problems....until I decided to become one of the idiots who thought Vista would be a good idea. If I could eliminate computer problems from my every day work, I'd be at least twice as productive.

Outside of the bells and whistles that I wanted, I don't even like my new laptop...In fact it hurts use it. Interestingly, HP included some in-your-face info about "safety", "ergonomics", and "proper usage of their product". Well it turns out that typing on my system for more than a few seconds absolutely kills my hands. I go back to my old system and the pain goes away. At the end of every work day, I have very limited fine motor skills - like having trouble reaching for and changing stations on the radio in my car. Wow - they've really come a long way in laptop technology!!

So...I was just kidding about you having my laptop....not only do you NOT want it, I wouldn't do that to you!! Plus, you likely won't have time to come claim it because it's probably to end up out the window soon. Or, back at HP.

Well, now that I got that off my chest, I need to start drumming up a letter to HP's VP of Customer Service to see what they'll do for me before my hands fall off from using their product.

My security content from this week

No articles published this week but here's a new information security podcast I recently recorded for SecurityInfoWatch.com:
Wireless Security Basics for Physical Security Pros

For all of my past information security tips and tricks be sure to check out www.principlelogic.com/resources.html.

Enjoy!