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Horse Sense #59
In this issue:
Trends
Flat panel (LCD) monitor prices
continue a slow decline. It is now possible to purchase
a low end 19” diagonal LCD monitor for under $350.
Monitor makers are differentiating their products with
brighter displays, faster response times (good for fast
movement, like games and videos), specialty uses
(signage, TVs, touch screens), colors (black, silver,
gray, white, cream, etc), and enhanced properties
(control from a network, special mounting abilities,
swiveling and image rotation, USB ports, speakers,
anti-theft modifications). However, computer prices
have dropped so quickly that monitors now make up an
even larger part of the typical total hardware purchase.
Small system builders, backed by
Intel, are introducing highly modular portable systems.
Almost all of the major parts of the system are
interchangeable and upgradeable, making repairs and
parts sparing easy. These parts include the keyboard,
LCD panel, hard drive, optical drive, memory, AC
adapter, and battery. Over 70% of the world’s portable
shells are manufactured by three companies that are
members of Intel’s program and over 36% of the portables
manufactured today are manufactured by “white box”
(smaller, less well-known) manufacturers. Most of the
major portable manufacturers won’t be using these
designs, at least for the near future, because of their
investment in proprietary technologies and their ability
to charge for those technologies. While it remains to
be seen whether smaller system builders can make a
success of these new designs, larger customers love
them. They can choose among a number of vendors, have a
greater probability of their vendor being local to them,
easily vary the characteristics of their notebooks
depending on the tasks to be handled, and stock fewer,
less expensive replacement parts. Some governments are
already specifying such equipment. Currently, the
largest single supplier of desktops, servers, and
laptops is the “white box” builder. There is a real
possibility that Intel’s idea will work and your next
portable will have their modular design.
In an effort to reduce cost, heat,
and noise manufacturers are building more electrically
efficient computers. You can’t pack older blade or rack
servers tightly together because of their heat output
and massive power requirements. You can’t build small
and light portable computers with components that get
too hot to function. On a macro level, energy
consumption is very important as a single data center
gobbles more power than 10,000 homes. While the EPA’s
voluntary Energy Star program has been very successful
in increasing the power efficiency of monitors, lasers,
and refrigerators, computers, especially servers, have
been drawing more and more power. Much of that power
increase has been due to the processors they use. High
performance, modern AMD and Intel processors require so
much power and cooling that they cannot be used in some
areas because of safety and reliability concerns.
Processor manufacturers are now designing processors for
breathtaking speed AND more reasonable power
consumption.
To improve performance dramatically
without a dramatic increase in heat, processor
manufacturers are building dual core processors. If you
are running two processes that can be executed
simultaneously, each processor can run one, effectively
doubling your speed. For example, antivirus, firewall,
and other programs run in the background on your machine
all the time. They could run on one processor. The
other processor could run everything else, resulting in
a dramatic speed increase in your applications as far as
you are concerned. By the end of this year, most
desktops and servers will ship with two processors on a
single chip. Currently, dual core processors do not
command a twofold price premium over the processors they
replace.
Computer crime is pervasive and
costly
If your business hasn’t been struck
by computer crime within the past year, you’re among a
very small and fortunate minority. According to the
2002 CSI/FBI Crime and Security Survey, 90% of 503
security managers in a sampling of U.S. corporations,
government agencies, financial institutions and
universities reported breaches within a twelve month
period. Eighty percent attributed financial losses to
these violations. Spam, phishing, and other financially
motivated attacks are tools for organized crime and
industrial espionage. The 2002 study showed that of
managers with incidents, 82% reported attacks by
independent crackers (some were hired to do attacks,
some did it on their own), 75% reported attacks by
disgruntled employees, and 38% reported attacks by
competitors.
The cost of repairing damage done by
theft or fraud, hackers, viruses or sabotage ranged from
$1,000 to $50 million. The average was more than $2
million among the respondents who noted specific costs.
Theft of proprietary information accounted for 20% of
the instances in which specific costs were submitted,
but resulted in the greatest financial losses, $171
million of the $455 million reported.
By contrast, malicious code attacks,
i.e., worms, viruses, etc., were the most common
security problem. More than 80% of the organizations
were victimized by code attacks, but these occurrences
accounted for only 11% of the financial losses. Still,
viruses can make headlines when they strike. Many people
have bad memories of 2000’s Love Bug virus, which came
with an estimated $8.75 billion price tag. Not
surprisingly, the Internet is the most frequent entry
for attack and more than twice as common as an internal
attack, which ranked second. Today’s statistics show a
big shift towards financially motivated attacks and the
losses are increasing dramatically.
If you are worried about an attack or
fear that you have been breached, call us. We even have
friends in the FBI and Secret Service who can help you
track down your perpetrators and bring them to justice.
Are you practicing healthy
computing?
Some simple networking and security
questions that scare many half to death:
(1) Do you have an
employee manual?
(2) Do you have an
acceptable use policy for your network in that manual or
a separate document?
(3) Do you train
your people to be safe on the Internet? Do you train
them to use their computing tools effectively?
(4) Do you have a
LAN and WAN network diagram, a cabling diagram, an
organization chart, and an information flow diagram (how
information flows through the organization)?
(5) Do you have a
disaster recovery plan? Do you have a business
continuity plan? (They are different)
(6) What is
valuable on your network and how is it protected?
(7) What do
outsiders see of your network?
(8) Do you monitor
and manage both what comes into and out of your
network? How?
(9) Do you have
written policies, procedures, and standards? Does
management encourage that they be followed
consistently? What are the consequences of NOT
following them?
(10) Do you know
what government regulations apply to your organization?
For example, fire, building, and electrical codes?
Security regulations like HIPAA or Sarbanes-Oxley?
(11) Do you know
that your backup is working? Have you tested it? How
fast can you get back in operation if you lose a
notebook?
(12) When was the
last time your network and security systems had a
checkup? Was it before or after your last doctor
visit? Even if you have around the clock on site
technical help, when was the last time you looked to see
if you were as “healthy” as you could be?
Call Iron Horse and we’ll help you if these questions make you nervous.
The most resourceful adversary we
know of
To see a startling picture of a
resourceful and relentless adversary we encountered and
for more information on protecting yourself, click
here:
http://www.ih-online.com/how_secure_are_you6.htm
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