Welcome to TechNet Blogs Sign in | Join | Help

March 2006 - Posts

How to minimise the pain of patching by embracing automation

Dave Sayers has written an article that takes a look at the automated patching mechanisms provided by Microsoft. Browse here to view the article for yourself. Dave looks at MBSA, SMS and WSUS in clear concise terms. Read More
posted Friday, March 31, 2006 10:00 AM by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
Filed Under: , , ,

Send a Muglet Birthday card!

Browse here  to find out how to create a muglet  together with a personalised song - you can send it to whomever you choose! Nothing to do with Security but I thought you'd enjoy it. I'm not going to post any more about Muglets now Read More
posted Thursday, March 30, 2006 5:09 PM by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
Filed Under: ,

Should you apply third party security fixes to Internet Explorer

In a word NO! There's a thorough explaination of the logic behind this answer on the Microsoft Security Response Centre (MSRC) blog here. The MSRC own the responsibility of balancing the compromise between the risk of our customers being exploited Read More
posted Thursday, March 30, 2006 11:45 AM by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
Filed Under: , , ,

Create a Muglet and brighten others days :-) Read this to see mine dance thanks to the Mobile and Embedded DevCon site

  If you'd like to see my Muglet dance and enjoy the "music" (that term's stretching it somewhat!) then click here Thanks to Eileen for blogging about the Mobile and Embedded DevCon - that's where the Muglet creating site came from. You can Read More
posted Thursday, March 30, 2006 11:03 AM by Steve Lamb | 1 Comments
Filed Under: ,

Business Agility drives us to open frontiers whilst remaining secure

Anyone who's worked as an IT Professional is likely to have faced the challenge of the need to open up access to information to third parties including customers, partners and suppliers WHILST maintaining an acceptable level of information security. Read More
posted Thursday, March 30, 2006 12:10 AM by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
Filed Under: , , ,

Tricks tips and shortcuts to help you get the most from your infrastructure - check out the updated blogcast repository

  Brian Tucker is doing a great job of helping the IT PRO community to help itself by hosting your short video demonstrations of how to solve technical problems - otherwise known as blogcasts. The beauty of blogcasts is that you can easily create Read More
posted Wednesday, March 29, 2006 7:11 AM by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
Filed Under: , , , , , ,

Excellent webcasts covering developer and IT PRO security matters including network isolation and Identity Management

Browse here to view Michael Kleef's post linking to some excellent security webcasts for both developers and IT Pros. The webcasts include sessions on network isolation/protection and identity management - they are well worth taking a few minutes Read More
posted Tuesday, March 28, 2006 7:03 PM by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
Filed Under: , , , ,

Secure I.T. or lose IT - an interesting securty blog

Browse here to read a new interesting security blog written by Paul Vincent - he's titled it "Secure I.T or lose IT" which I particularly like.Paul blogs about "Microsoft security and how we can stop the bad guys from stealing our stuff" - it's well Read More
posted Monday, March 27, 2006 5:33 PM by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
Filed Under: , , , , ,

Windows Vista build 5342 is NOT a Community Technology Preview

There's a great deal of chatter on the web with regard to "a new CTP" (Community Technology Preview) of Windows Vista. Personally I'm participating in a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) community gathering - just like online there's a great Read More
posted Monday, March 27, 2006 5:12 PM by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
Filed Under: ,

Try Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 for yourself - it's really good

I've read some entertaining posts about IE 7 beta 2 comparing it to some other browsers. One in particular made me laugh though I can't post it as it included an expletive ;-( and I don't want to offend anyone. I've been surprised by the number of children Read More
posted Friday, March 24, 2006 7:32 PM by Steve Lamb | 3 Comments
Filed Under: ,

How to migrate to Windows Vista - here's some guidance to help you get the most from the new platform

I stumbled across a series of step by step migration guidance at the following link. The content is described as follows: "These step-by-step guides will assist IT Professionals in deploying or migrating to Windows Vista. These guides will also provide Read More
posted Tuesday, March 21, 2006 8:51 AM by Steve Lamb | 1 Comments
Filed Under: , , ,

View an on demand webcast of MIX06 to see what's coming in Web 2.0

I've thoroughly enjoyed watching the MIX06 keynote Live from Las Vegas. Very soon you will be able to view an on demand version at your leisure. Prepare to be amazed at how easily you'll be able to take advantage of the exciting features provided by Read More
posted Monday, March 20, 2006 7:43 PM by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
Filed Under: , ,

Here's an interesting network isolation via IPsec case study

Ian has posted about a University in Brazil that has successfully deployed IPsec based network isolation to a thousand desktops in only two days! Ian links directly to a case study article that explains how they went about the task of segmenting their Read More
posted Friday, March 17, 2006 10:34 AM by Steve Lamb | 3 Comments

Time is running out for you to register for the UK's Architect Insight Conference

There are only a few places left! Click here to browse to the event site where you can view the agenda and register. The event itself is taking place near Cardiff in Wales next week. I've seen the presentation decks of some of the other presenters Read More
posted Thursday, March 16, 2006 3:58 PM by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
Filed Under: ,

Evidence of a website that appears to be hosting a malicious keylogger trojan horse

Trojan horses (software that includes "features" that may work against the user's intentions) are hardly new, nor are keyloggers. I find it interesting that the "My Anti Spyware" blog includes a post detailing reports of an apparently malicious website Read More
posted Wednesday, March 15, 2006 4:21 PM by Steve Lamb | 2 Comments
Filed Under: , , ,

If you're looking for ammunition to justify why running as non-admin is important then look no further...

Thanks to the "MyAntiSpyware" blog for an interesting article talking about the importance of running Windows without administrative rights for day to day activities. Browse here to read the details for yourself. The author in turn refers to a recent Read More
posted Wednesday, March 15, 2006 4:17 PM by Steve Lamb | 1 Comments
Filed Under: , , ,

What threat do Keystroke Loggers pose to your environment?

Keystroke loggers take the form of hardware or software that record the keyboard activity of the target system. There's an interesting article discussing both hardware and software keystroke loggers on the InternetSecurityOnline blog. Reading the Read More
posted Monday, March 13, 2006 8:32 PM by Steve Lamb | 1 Comments
Filed Under: , , ,

Would you like to join a security user group in the UK?

I've spoken to many IT Professionals to find out whether there's a security user group in the UK that provides the opportunity to meet peers and share ideas - I've not been able to find one in the UK though have found many active groups in America. Am Read More
posted Thursday, March 09, 2006 6:49 PM by Steve Lamb | 5 Comments
Filed Under: , , ,

How to ensure that your client computers are healthy via ISA and Network Quarantine

Thanks to Tony Soper for his recent post on Internet Security and Acceleration's quarantine tool Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 provides support for network quarantine which can be used to ensure that client computers meet to core aspects of your Read More
posted Tuesday, March 07, 2006 8:05 PM by Steve Lamb | 2 Comments
Filed Under: , ,

How to establish a Quarantine VPN connection using Least Privilege on Windows XP

Those of you who are taking advantage of the Remote Access Quarantine feature of Windows Server 2003 SP1 may be familiar with establishing a remote VPN connection via Connection Manager along the lines illustrated below. The Quarantine Read More
posted Monday, March 06, 2006 6:23 PM by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
Filed Under: , , ,

Here's the easy way to find practical advice from TechNet and MSDN blogs

Click here to browse to the search portal which enables you to search by keyword across all TechNet and MSDN blogs. It's a handy site as you can search for blogs with specific keywords in their title (hence you can find all security oriented blogs) Read More
posted Thursday, March 02, 2006 10:13 AM by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
Filed Under: ,

How to roll back a Security Configuration Wizard Policy to remove the lock down

Security Configuration Wizard (SCW) makes it so easy to roll back a policy that I nearly didn't record this blogcast. I went ahead as I appreciate that you may not have had chance to try this for yourself and it's always nice to see someone else demonstrate Read More
posted Wednesday, March 01, 2006 9:29 AM by Steve Lamb | 1 Comments
Filed Under: , , , ,