Thursday, May 22, 2008
Time for a Product Review - IronKey
I'm avid user of encryption so I have a slightly above basic understanding of how encryption works. Looking into the product, my first impression was that it was just another USB drive with the software on it. Nope. This thing has the encryption on its RAM chip - embedded. To say the least, I was impressed. The casing is almost indestructible without destroying the chips inside. It even has an aluminum backing which you use to engrave you signature in pen - very thin overcoat. It also has a serial number.
To make it sound even cooler - would you believe this thing has a self-destruct sequence? I'm not talking about Mission Impossible countdowns, but it only gives you ten tries to guess the wrong passphrase and then it destroys your data to include the encryption making the drive useless. I love this thing. I HIGHLY recommend this product. Did I forget to mention that IronKey also has its own TOR router with FireFox preloaded? Very cool!
Chinese Really Dig Cyberwarfare...You Think?
"The People's Republic of China has concentrated primarily on cyber-reconnaissance, particularly data mining, rather than cyberattacks."
What about all of the attacks originating from China we've been reading about? Don't fret. The Chinese have set a goal of 2050 to achieve "electronic dominance" through attacks on information infrastructure.
The DoD won't come out and say the world's second largest econoomy is vying for supremacy through hacking, it did note "a 31percent increase in malicious activity on its networks from 2006 to 2007." What attraction does cyberwarfare have fo such a country as China? It provide anonymity and an "asymetrical advantage", according to Dr. James Mulvenon, director of advanced studies and analysis for Defense Group, Inc..
Commission Co-chairman Peter T.R. Brookest cited attacks last spring on Estonia recalling that it wanted to evoke the collective defense clause of the NATO Charter and said "this is a question of escalation" moving from non-conventional to conventional, i.e. military, responses.
Mulvenon said there's no reason why the United States should restrict itself to trying to deter cyberattacks electronically. His next remark should sound familiar.
"We should ... begin with the premise that we have all the tools of ... national power, and in many cases it might not be to the U.S. advantage to respond to an electronic or cyberintrusion or cyberattack simply in that realm," he said. "We may, in fact, want to take advantage of escalation dominance that we have in other elements of national power, whether it’s military or economic."
CyberCommand anyone? What about this little tidbit from the article?
The nasty Cisco routers are keep creeping back into the blogosphere. For more information from Security Management, click here.Michael R. Wessel said he fears that the perimeter security methods such as routers and firewalls used to protect against network intrusion are produced overseas, increasingly in China." Can we in fact have a secure perimeter," he wondered, "if in fact the Chinese are helping to build that perimeter?"
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Duck, Boss!!
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballamer hid behind a desk, as a man was throwing eggs at him. He was addressing the audience at a university in Hungary. As he asks the group about their final exams, this guy stands up and began asking Ballmer about a deal between Microsoft and the Hungarian government that he claimed is costing Hungarian taxpayers.
The man, then, begins to throw an egg at Ballmer. The crowd laughs, at first, at the spectacle of Ballmer hiding behind a desk. For some reason, once he began throwing the final two volleys, people got upset and started yelling at the man.
One would hope Ballmer would have better security. I wonder why no one was there to get him out of there immediately. It might be time to review Microsoft's executive protection program.