Cryptographic Module – Operator Authentication & Logical Interfaces

This post is part of the Computer Security – Cryptography posts series.
Operator Authentication
Authentication mechanisms could be demanded within a cryptographic module to authenticate an operator accessing the module and to verify that the operator is authorized to assume the requested role and execute services within that role. For Security Levels 2-5, a cryptographic module shall [...]

Free antivirus from Microsoft

Microsoft will launch a free antivirus for PCs – code named Morro – which will be available on the company website. The product, which is found in beta and will compete with products
sold by Symantec and McAfee.

A Microsoft representative announced Wednesday that the software manufacturer is preparing to launch a antivirus, in beta, which can be downloaded free from the company website. Microsoft has stated that the product is still in testing stage and refused to give an exact date for release, stating only that it will take place “soon”.

The danger awaiting behind a screensaver

When we’re talking about your computer security, the most dangerous online activities are searching for screensavers, the lyrics of songs and different stuff for free.
The report prepared by McAfee Inc., a firm specialize in Internet security, looks like hackers know what users search most and using sophisticated search programs , they can [...]

Architecture with Multiple Layers of Firewalls

There is no limitation on where a firewall can be placed in a network. While firewalls should be at the edge of a logical network boundary, creating an “inside” and “outside” on either side of the firewall, a network administrator may wish to have additional boundaries within the network and deploy additional firewalls to establish such boundaries.

The use of multiple layers of firewalls is quite common to provide defense-in-depth. For [..]

Is it a good have 2 firewalls running simultaneously ?

We recommend that you run only one antivirus and one firewall at a time. Having more than one antivirus or firewall active in memory uses additional resources and can result in software conflicts, network and software access problems and false virus alerts. Your best defense against computer viruses and malicious programs is to keep your antivirus virus definitions up to date and update your antivirus and firewall to lasts [..]

Distributed Firewalling

Distributed firewalling is an emerging security technology in firewall deployment that moves security from the perimeter to device endpoints. This is accomplished by placing a firewall in or directly in front of every endpoint and other appropriate devices in the network. The theory of distributed firewalling is that this can ease the burden on the perimeter and internal firewalls, which have traditionally been major chokepoints for network access. As distributed [..]

Firewalls Testing

New firewalls should be tested and evaluated before deployment to ensure that they are working properly. Testing should be completed on a test network without connectivity to the production network. This test network should attempt to replicate the production network as faithfully as possible, including the network topology and network traffic that would travel through the firewall. Aspects of the solution to evaluate include the following:

• Connectivity. Users can establish and [..]

Firewall – VPN Environments

Firewall environments are made up of firewall devices and associated systems and applications designed to work together. For example, one site may use a firewall environment composed of a boundary router, a main firewall, and intrusion detection systems connected to the protected network and the network between the router and main firewall.

The latest trend in firewall offerings is to add cryptographic services for firewall to firewall encryption. The encrypted traffic[..]

Scan computer in safe mode ?

Some people scan their computer in safe mode because less services are loaded and so greater chance of files not being in use, and better chance of being able to be removed.Also it used to be that many forms of malware did not load in safe mode, but the bad guys have gotten better in their coding and new methods allow spyware and viruses to boot up[..]