Posted by indrajit on September 15th, 2008
If you haven’t heard yet, the ISA Firewall is going away. The last version of the ISA Firewall is going to be ISA 2006. However, that doesn’t mean that the ISA software that we’ve come to love over the year is going away. While the ISA brand will fall into the dustbin of history, we’ll see the next version of the ISA Firewall come in with a new name: the Forefront Threat Management Gateway.
There are a number of reasons why the ISA name is going away. But probably the primary reason is that the general public never seemed to be able to figure out what the ISA Firewall was all about. Some people thought it was just a Web proxy server (a la Proxy 2.0), some people thought it was just a firewall, some people thought it was a VPN server, some people thought it was a VPN gateway, and some people thought it was some kind of Frankenstein and couldn’t make any sense out of it. By renaming the product, the Forefront TMG should be able to get some newfound attention, and hopefully the name itself will provide a clearer focus on the primary design goal of the product.
In this article I’m going to give you a look at the installation process. However, before installing the TMG, you need to know the following:
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Posted by indrajit on September 15th, 2008
As a business owner, or someone responsible for network security within your organization, you need to understand how to prevent attacks and eliminate network weaknesses that leave your business exposed and at risk.
Vulnerability Management for Dummies arms you with the facts and shows you how to implement a successful Vulnerability Management program. Whether your network consists of just a handful of computers or thousands of servers distributed around the world, this 5-part book will help:
* Explain the critical need for Vulnerability Management (VM)
* Detail the essential best-practice steps of a successful VM Program
* Outline the various VM Solutions - including the pros & cons of each
* Highlight the award-winning QualysGuard VM solution
* Provide a 10-point checklist for removing vulnerabilities from your key resources
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Posted by indrajit on September 7th, 2008
Windows Server 2003 R2 includes Windows SharePoint Services. In this post, we will cover the basic installation and configuration steps needed in order to get a standalone Windows SharePoint Service 3.0 installation up and running on Windows Server 2003 system.
1. Install the Application Server (IIS) role on your Windows Server 2003 system.
2. Install the Mail server (POP3, SMTP) role on your system.
3. Download and install the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0. Make sure to download the version (32-bit or 64-bit) that matches your operating system.
4. Verify that ASP.NET v2.0.50727 is allowed by opening the Internet Services Manager, choosing Web Services Extensions, choosing ASP .NET v2.0.50727, and clicking the Allow button.
5. Download Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 from Microsoft. Don’t install Windows SharePoint Services through Add/Remove Programs, because this is not the latest version of the service. For the x64 version of SharePoint, go here.
6. Execute the downloaded file named SharePoint.exe. 7. When asked, choose a Basic installation. The Basic installation also includes a run-time database.
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Posted by indrajit on September 3rd, 2008
A Cisco IOS Router offers a great deal of Configuration options when you enable the firewall. However, while this may offer a better sense of security, it can also be pretty overwhelming, thanks to the complexity of the configuration.
But the SDM firewall policy wizard can make things easier. For example, let’s configure a basic firewall using the wizard. For this demonstration, a Cisco 871 Router is used with SDM version 2.4. Also installed is Cisco IOS Advanced Security Version 12.4(11) T1.
Using the Cisco SDM firewall and ACL Task Section, you can create new firewalls and ACLs as well as edit existing ones. SDM offers wizards to create either a basic firewall or advanced firewall. What’s the difference? The basic firewall won’t configure a DMZ for you but the advanced firewall will.
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Posted by indrajit on September 3rd, 2008
For many years, the Cisco PIX has been the established Cisco firewall. But in May 2005, Cisco introduced a new offering—the Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA). However, the PIX are still available. Many People think of the differences between these two product lines. Let’s take a look.
What is a Cisco PIX?
A Cisco PIX is a dedicated hardware firewall appliance. All Cisco PIX versions have model numbers in the 500s. The most popular model for home offices and small networks is the PIX 501; many midsize companies use the PIX 515 as a corporate firewall.
PIX firewalls run the PIX operating system. While the PIX OS is quite similar to the Cisco IOS, there are enough differences to cause some frustration for users more familiar with IOS.
The firewall sports the PIX Device Manager (PDM) for a graphical interface. This GUI is a Java application downloaded through a Web browser. Typically, a PIX firewall has an outside interface that connects to the inside of an Internet router and goes to the public Internet. It also has an inside interface that connects to a LAN switch, going to the private internal network.
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Posted by indrajit on August 27th, 2008
Cisco’s PIX firewall is one of the more common hardware devices used to protect small to medium-size networks from outside attacks. Correctly configured PIX also helps you maintain some level of control over resources that internal users can access. In this article, we’ll walk through the steps to get a PIX firewall up and running in a useful configuration. We’ll be using the relatively lightweight PIX 501 for our example setup. The PIX 501 includes a console port, a WAN port, four 10/100 Ethernet ports, and it supports up to 10 internal IP addresses as well as optional DES encryption. We’ll be installing under PIX management software version 6.2(1). Your configuration steps may differ slightly from the ones presented in this article if you’re using a different version of the software. Getting started First of all, physically install your PIX where you’ll be able to connect it to both the network and directly to a Windows-based PC via a serial cable. The new PIX operating system includes two methods of management, either from the command line or the Pix Device Manager (PDM), a Web-based GUI that can handle almost the entire configuration process. Of course, you’ll have to use the command line to set up an IP address for the PIX before you actually are able to use the PDM. The default IP address The PIX 501 assigns an address of 192.168.1.1 to the PIX to be accessed from the internal network. In the likely case that we are willing to accept this default, we could skip the command line setup on this particular unit. We’ll walk through the IP assignment process here to give a more thorough overview of the configuration steps for other PIX models. To begin the configuration process, you must connect your administrative PC to the PIX via HyperTerminal. Simply link the PIX’s console port to the PC via the serial cable. In HyperTerminal, set the baud rate to 9600. Once connected, the PIX ask you to do some basic configuration via a number of prompts at the command line. The command line setup process Listing A provides a transcript of our sample setup routine for our PIX 501. The items in bold are our responses to the prompts. We’ve also included a few notes about some of the questions.
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Posted in Networking, Security | 1 Comment »
Posted by indrajit on August 27th, 2008
Email is an essential business tool for organizations of all sizes. Yet it is also the easiest way for hackers, spammers, and other malicious threats to penetrate and disrupt business operations. End-to-end security is as vital to today’s businesses as email itself. For small, medium and even large-sized companies looking for robust, secure email they can afford, outsourcing to an experienced Microsoft Exchange Hosted Service Provider is the ideal solution. Companies can achieve maximum benefit only by identifying a truly qualified provider–one that implements best-of-breed technology and follows best practices for email security comprising deep expertise in people, technology, and processes.
Written by USA.NET; Sponsored by Perimeter eSecurity
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Posted by indrajit on August 26th, 2008
What Is PDM?
PIX Device Manager is a graphical user interface (GUI) that manages a single Cisco PIX Firewall. PDM uses certificates and HTTPS (HTTP over SSL) to securely access, configure, and monitor a PIX Firewall from your PC.
There have been various Cisco GUI tools for easy configuration of various devices. Sometimes these have been a bit limited or clunky, or clearly intended as getting-started tools for folks new to Cisco. I’ve got to say I was favorably impressed with PDM. No, it doesn’t manage more than one PIX. But it sure looks like the configuration tools in PDM give you nice visibility into how it is configured, and the monitoring tools provide a very nice way to keep tabs on what the PIX is doing at any given time. For multi-PIX sites, the CLI or the PIX Management Center in CiscoWorks may still be the way to go. But even there PDM may be useful as a graphical alternative to show commands.
PIX Device Manager (PDM) consists of a signed Java applet bundled with the PIX operating system software. You access PDM via HTTPS from a Java-capable web browser on a PC or other desktop computer. No PC installation is needed. PDM started appearing with PIX OS 6.0 and 6.1 (PDM version 1.x), PIX OS 6.2 came with PDM version 2.x, and version 3.x comes with PIX OS 6.3. You can also separately install PDM if you need to by copying it to flash. Paraphrasing parts of the well-written Overview part of the Installation Guide, PDM has the following components:……
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Posted by indrajit on August 26th, 2008
Daily Tasks
Physically locate rogue wireless devices within AOR
• Identify rogue devices with wireless discovery device
• Physically locate rogue devices
• Verify authorization for device or disable
• Document wireless device information for rogue devices located outside AOR
• Document and report wireless device information for rogue devices located within AOR through approved reporting channels
• Track visit request to coordinate/prevent wireless enabled devices from entering/leaving AOR
Review Wireless Access Point audit logs
• Identify and research system warning and error messages
• Identify and research failed access attempts
• Identify and research communication problems
• Track/monitor performance and activity
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