Niche Konsult Newsletter
October 2007 Edition
This email message is being sent to all individuals who have expressed interest
in Niche Konsult or Niche Konsult partner products and solutions in accordance
with Niche Konsult’s
privacy policy.
You may opt out of future mails by sending a mail to
newsletter@nichekonsult.com
with “Unsubscribe” in the Subject line.
View in Browser
Privacy Policy
Feature Story: Introducing RouterStudio
- Network Traffic Management Toolkit for Microsoft Windows
RouterStudio
RouterStudio is a professional, advanced and integrated Network Traffic Management
Toolkit for Microsoft Windows. Both licenses for commercial and non-commercial usage
are available.
Functionality
Basically, RouterStudio provides the following solutions in one integrated software-package.
- Multiple ISPs: Local Area Networks (and stand-alone PC's)
can be connected to the internet using multiple internet connections at the same
time. Internet network traffic is load-balanced dynamically among the multiple Internet
connections available. Support for failover provides a cost-effective solution to
environments that rquire high availability for internet connectivity.
- Powerful Bandwidth Management for complete Local Area Networks:
The generic structure of the bandwidth limitation rules makes configuration easy
and shortens configuration time
- Advanced filtering of network traffic on a per-Network-Interface-Card basis
- Source-dependent redirection of network traffic
Future Planned Extensions
In the very near future, RouterStudio is planned to be extended with at least the
folowing two (2) modules:
- Multi-Link IP Concentrator:The Multi-Link IP Concentrator
will make it possible to load-balance network traffic between pairs of 2 hosts over
multiple internet links. So, for example, VPN-connections can be set up over multiple
internet links (DSL lines) in parallel. The Multi-Link IP Concentrator will support
multiple pairs of hosts being handled by one server running RouterStudio. Support
for failover (in case one of the internet links fails) will also be included to
increase the availability of the connections. Note: This feature is currently under
development.
- Inbound Load Balancing:Using this module, requests from
hosts located on the internet can be load-balanced among multiple servers. Suiting
the lvel of genericity of the other RouterStudio modules, appliance of this module
will not be limited to web-servers only. Note: This feature is planned to be developed.
Interested?
Then you might like to consider
15 reasons why you need Router Studio and your
free trial is just a click away!
Database Security – Making the Case
David Litchfield, security researcher and managing director of NGSSoftware recently
found out that there are nearly half a million databases on the internet without
firewall protection. Litchfield is someone in a position to know given that in 2005
he conducted
similar research. The 2007 version of similar research findings will go
live on November 19, 2007
Exploit code for a recently disclosed
vulnerability in Oracle Database 10GR2 is now in the wild and Oracle plans
to patch this vulnerability on January 15, 2008 which is its next scheduled quarterly
critical patch update.
Email Security – MP3 Spam
During the month of October, GFI became the first email security company to discover
the existence of a new kind of spam – MP3 spam. Here is a
link to get up to speed on this.
Email Security – New GFI MailEssentials Video Released
The video may be
viewed here. A recent
phishing incident involving salesforce.com demonstrates why GFI MailEssentials
is a must-have.
Email Security – Free Email Account for Official Communication? Yes or No
Does your corporate email policy permit the use of free email accounts for official
purposes? or even at work at all? or the forwarding of official communication to
free email accounts? Well, whichever is the case, the hyperlinked news story about
MediaDefender Inc, a firm employed by record companies to seed the internet
with phony files
of pirated movies and albums should prove quite instructive. It might be what you
have waiting for as conclusive proof to make your point to management that free
email is a corporate risk!
A while ago Niche Konsult prepared a
position paper on why free email accounts are
bad for business.
Enterprise Security– Digital Archiving
Business Continuity! Disaster Recovery! These two concepts should be of great concern
to the IT department, given the strategic role of IT in many if not all
industries.
And if it wasn't, disasters such as the January 14, 2003 fire at the Kaduna Refinery
& Petrochemicals Company; the March 7, 2004 fire at the Federal Secretariat
Complex, Phase II, Ikoyi, Lagos with NAFDAC as the major target; the structural
defect occasioning collapse on March 20, 2006 of the Bank of Industry headquarters
in Lagos; as well as the sabotage during May/June 2006 at the National Agency for
the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) should serve to put these issues foremost
on the map.
Mrs. Christy Obiazikwor, the Public Relations Officer of NAFDAC was quoted to say
on the above occassion: "All the official equipment including the recently installed
ocmputer network was not spared. NAFDAC's automated regulated product administration
database was also destroyed. We estimate the loss to be billions of naira."
Another NAFDAC source was reported to say:"The Ikoyi office is the hub of our operational
activities. We suspect that the unfortunate incident was targetted at frustrating
our efforts in carying out our mandatory functions. "
The morale? To be forewarned is to be forearmed! With
Genie-Soft you can be begin putting in place practical low-cost disaster
recovery and business continuity measures.
Genie-Soft's line of backup solutins are targeted at the home and home office, small
& medium business, corporate and enterprise users.
For the Home and Home Office, the solutions include
Genie Backup Manager Home v8.0,
Genie Mail Backup (for Outlook 2007),
Genie Archive for Outlook,
Genie Eyes-Only,Genie Online Backup.
For the Small and Medium Businesses, the solutions include
Genie Backup Manager Pro v8.0,
Genie Backup Manager Server v 8.0,
Genie Archive for Outlook,
Genie Eyes-Only,Genie Online Backup.
For corporate and enterprise users, the solutions include
Genie Backup Manager Server v 8.0,
Genie Archive for Outlook,
Genie Eyes-Only,Genie Online Backup.
We encourage you try these out, we have and we can recommend their solutions anytime
anyday.
General Security- Internet Access Control in the Workplace
Recently, GFI Webmonitor for ISA Server version 4 was
released. GFI WebMonitor for
ISA server gives administrators comprehensive control over corporate web usage and
what employees are downloading from the internet, and is available in
3 editions.
These are: the WebFilter Edition, the WebSecurity Edition and the UnifiedProtection
Edition.
This month the Report Pack for GFI WebMonitor for ISA Server is in
beta, we encourage you to try it out.
Should you require a comparison of GFI WebMonitor with the other solutions on the
market, please send an email to info@nichekonsult.com,
and will send you the whitepaper.
Government Security– US CyberSecurity not tight enough
If it could be said that America is
not yet there, what of countries like Nigeria
Instant Messaging Security
– The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The two way real-time communication, easy collaboration and presence information
that instant messaging provides has made many to prefer it to email.
Instant messaging technology began over thirty years old with the UNIX operating
system. But instant messaging as we know it today is just 11 years old.
Popular instant messaging clients include Windows Messenger, MSN Messenger ( now
Live Messenger), AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Instant Messenger, IBM Lotus Sametime,
Sun Java System Instant Messenger, Google Talk and Skype.
Some major problems with consumer-grade instant messaging are first, that ordinary
all transmissions are sent in the clear which means anyone with a sniffer can monitor
conversations, and secondly, ,lack of control over the
logging feature, thirdly, lack of control by the IT department over the
middle-man server at the consumer-grade instant messaging company which is used
for authentication and message relays.
To this end, Niche Konsult recommends that if instant messaging is mission-critical
to your operations, then enterprise-grade instant messaging is the real answer.
Microsoft recently posted some
10 tips for safer instant messaging.
Office Security - 2007 Microsoft Office Security Guide
On November 11, 2007, Microsoft released the
2007 Microsoft Office Security Guide. According to Microsoft, the 2007 Microsoft®
Office release is designed to help defeat attacks that target e-mail and desktop
documents.
Hundreds of security and privacy settings are available that allow you
to ensure your deployment of the 2007 Office release balances your organization’s
needs for security and functionality. The 2007 Microsoft Office Security Guide provides
IT professionals with best practices and automated tools to help strengthen the
security of computers that run either Windows Vista™ or Windows® XP SP2 and the
following applications:
- Microsoft Office Access™ 2007
- Microsoft Office Excel® 2007
- Microsoft Office
InfoPath® 2007
- Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint®2007
- Microsoft Office Word 2007
Portable Device Security– CheckPoint/PointSec Protector
Should you be considering portable device control coupled with media encryption,
then
CheckPoint/PointSec Protector should be top on your list, it is a very mature
product and is used nu al of Fortune 100.
Portable Device Security - – GFI EndPointSecurity 4 in BETA
On the other hand, if you require purely portable device control, then
GFI EndPointSecurity is it
GFI EndPointSecurity 4 is currently in beta. This new version includes support for
Windows Vista (both x32 and x64 versions), Windows XP x64, Windows 2003 x64 and
Windows Server 2008.
New features include: file security policies can now
be defined by file type, for example, allowing the user to read *.doc files
but blocking access to all *.exe files, device blockage by the physical port on
which they are connected, device blocking by serial number ( unique Hardware ID)
and device discovery. For a complete list of what's new and what's changed,
click here
Windows Security -Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Coming
For an overview, please
click here
Tips and Tricks
1. Thinking of upgrading to the Windows Vista operating system and the 2007 Microsoft
Office System, then the
Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.1 is what you need.
2. With the
Microsoft Office Outlook connector, you can use Microsoft Office Outlook
2003 or Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to access and manage your Microsoft Windows
Live Hotmail or Microsoft Office Live mail acounts and contacts for free.
About Niche Konsult
Niche Konsult is an information technology security firm with expertise in content,
messaging, network and web application security.
Niche Konsult provides software and solutions that help individuals, small and medium
size businesses, large companies and governments optimize and secure their information
technology infrastructure. For more information, please visit
http://www.nichekonsult.com.
Having trouble viewing this NIche Konsult Newsletter? Visit
http://www.nichekonsult.com/Company/Newsletters/10_17_07.aspx or copy it into your
browser. If you no longer wish to receive these emails simply click on the following
link: Remove Me.
You're receiving this message because you've either subscribed to receive
timely security news and product/company updates from Niche Konsult or have indicated
interest in Niche Konsult partner solutions in the past.
Newsletter Reminder
We hope that you have found this issue to be informative and useful. Subscription
is entirely free (although 'opt-in' only). Please feel free to pass this copy on
to your friends and colleagues. If your friends or colleagues wish to receive the
newsletter directly, they should simply send an email to:
newsletter@nichekonsult.com with a
title of 'Subscribe'.
Niche Konsult
43 Cotonou Crescent
Wuse Zone 6
Abuja
© 2007 Niche Konsult. All rights reserved worldwide. Reproduction in whole or in
part of any text, photograph or illustration without permission of the publisher
is prohibited.