Ten Principles of Microsoft Patch Management

Patch management is a critical part of maintaining the security of your systems and network. The patch management system that you build and maintain is, among other things, the channel through which you deploy security updates from Microsoft and other vendors. Although patch management is sometimes viewed as a systems management discipline rather than a security discipline, its role in addressing vulnerabilities through the deployment of updates makes it a vital component in an organization’s security operations. Because the timely application of security updates is one of the most important and effective things you can do to protect your systems and network, your patch management system must be as efficient as possible.
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Viruses no longer top security threat

Early reports of malware distribution in April show that viruses are swiftly declining as a threat in comparison with other malicious software.

Separate research from Fortinet and Sophos shows that the top viruses were mainly old timers, and that Trojans and spyware are coming to the fore in their place.

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ISA Server 2006 Overview

ISA Server 2006 is the next step in Microsoft’s Security Strategy. ISA Server 2006 is the successor of ISA Server 2004. ISA Server 2006 RTM is expected to be released at end of June 2006.

ISA Server 2006 contains all the features of ISA Server 2004 with SP2 except for the Message Screener. The Message Screener from ISA Server 2004 is no longer available in ISA Server 2006

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Battle of the browser betas

Not since the early days of the Netscape vs. Microsoft Internet Explorer browser wars has the development behind Internet browsers been so energized, with developers rushing out new features every few weeks. Forget what's available today, let's look ahead and see what the next versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera have in store. One caveat: since all these browsers are still in beta, not all Web sites may display properly, not all ad-ons or extensions may work within the new builds, and the apps themselves may unexpectedly crash or freeze.

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Preventing P2P and IM programs from hijacking your network with ISA 2004

Instant Messaging has become one of the most useful tools of communication in these times. The pure speed in which information can be transferred from one end of the globe to the other is phenomenal. However, we are becoming aware of some major implications of the availability of this technology.

Network and Firewall Administrators have been facing a battle to uphold the integrity and productivity of their networks. Some of the major issues they have found with these potentially dangerous applications (P2P, IM’s) are the potential to disclose corporate information (source code etc) in a non mediated forum, the misuse of company resources, legal issues, possible virus incursion and simply the fact that it is another (flavor of the month) type point of attack, potentially jeopardizing the entire network.

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