Cameron Sturdevant

My loss of privacy all started at a company-sponsored health and wellness fair in October. I got my blood pressure tested and my flu vaccine and I entered a drawing for an iPod Shuffle being given away by AC Transit. I occasionally take the transbay bus to work at the Ziff Davis Enterprise office at […]

Organizations that already have a stable, secure image for desktop and laptop computers can ignore this story. Everyone else can now implement the Federal Desktop Core Configuration for Windows XP and Vista, which provides a good framework for ensuring secure civilian desktop and laptop configurations. In particular, IT managers at small and midsize organizations can […]

A Uniform Desktop Is a Secure Desktop NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technololgy) provides a baseline reference image for the FDCC at its Web site, fdcc.nist.gov. A Uniform Desktop Is a Secure Desktop – Password Policy The FDCC requires passwords to change every 60 days and have a minimum length of 12 characters, among […]

I’ve just returned from Madison, Wisc., where I worked with the good folks at WiscNet, the state research and education network provider, to conduct a look at three DNS (Domain Name System) appliances. WiscNet is considering appliances to replace its aging DNS implementation. At one point in the post-event wrapup, one attendee–a representative of a […]

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: MySQL Enterprise Monitor The Enterprise Monitor Dashboard provides a quick overview of monitored servers and their basic state of affairs (see far right, in the Heat Chart), as well as graphs that show trend information. eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: MySQL Enterprise Monitor – Enterprise Monitor Advisors Enterprise Monitor Advisors, shown in a list […]

With the latest release of MySQL Enterprise Monitor, database administrators get advanced replication and database monitoring, as well as easier installation, to help manage both commercial and no-cost MySQL open-source database installations. Enterprise Monitor Fall 2007 is available with Silver, Gold and Platinum service plans. I tested the Platinum version, which has the most features […]

Responding to my Dec. 28, 2007 blog “VOIP Calls Need Strong Privacy Protection,” reader JP said I was wrong. First, JP said, if an employee wants to make a personal call from the office that person should use his or her cell phone. Second, JP noted that business phones are for business use and no […]

Just before Christmas I had a chance to catch up with Network Instruments on Dec. 12. Our subject was the GigaStor network analysis family of tools. I’ve been impressed with the quality of Network Instruments tools and network analytics for some time. But today, as I look over my notes, I’m struck by the erosion […]

Today I learned a bit more about the McAfee Security Innovation Alliance from Pinkesh Shah, senior director of product management for policy compliance and risk management. From the conversation I picked up on two important concepts that will likely be a recurring theme for security in 2008. The first is deeper integration of the products […]

Anti-Malware Testing Working Group is a group of vendors and test organizations that plan to release methodologies for testing security products. Brian Prince, one of my news colleagues, has more on the story here. The question Brian asks, “Why has testing lagged so far behind the threat landscape?” is a good one, but one that’s […]

I had the pleasure of speaking with Alex Tatistcheff, information security manager for Idaho Power, on Dec. 12 about his implementation and use of nCircle’s CCM (Configuration Compliance Manager). Anyone interested in compliance management, especially for servers, would do well to take a look at the case study. There’s also a review of nCircle’s product […]

nCircle’s Configuration Compliance Manager 5.2 helps IT managers at medium to large-sized companies satisfy the demands of regulatory compliance by collecting information relevant to PCI, SOX and HIPAA compliance requirements from a wide variety of IT infrastructure devices, such as servers, routers and firewalls. While nCircle has offered this compliance scanning solution since May 2007, […]