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                     Thanks to NASA for permission to use this Photo.

If you are purchasing a PC today over $700, chances are the specs include a dual core processor.  Multi-core processors have been thetrend for several years.   A dual core processor is a CPU with twoseparate cores on the same die, each with its own cache. It’s the equivalent of getting two microprocessors in one.  A typical server today has at least two dual core processors.  Quad cores are also very popular too.  The organization that I work for typically uses dual quad core processors for any of the servers that will be carrying a processing load such as a database server, email server or a virtual host.  

But as you can surmise, it’s not stopping at quad core.  Intel will be releasing a six core processor later this year.  AMD will be releasing theirs early next year.  These will be strictly targeted at the server market since desktop software can barely fully utilize dual core processing.  And if 6 isn’t enough, both companies plan on releasing a 12 core processor sometime in 2010.

Brad Rudisail
Computer Network Technician-Network Security Instructor
Ashworth University

               Thanks to Nick Cueva for permission to use this Photo. 

There isn’t a profitable business segment today that isn’t competitive and that even includes the SPAMMING industry.  Two of the biggest Spamming organizations, Nugache and Storm are currently going at each other head to head to dominate the SPAM/malware market.  Yes, there is a market for SPAM and malware.  Surprised?  These organizations are not owned and operated by legitimate business people.  No in is yet sure who is behind Storm but many IT security experts feel that Nugache is linked to the Russian Mob, aka the Russian Business Network. 

Both of these organizations distribute SPAM through Zombie networks and both have been involved in highly criminal activities.  Zombie networks are composed of PC’s across the globe, which have been compromised by some type of Trojan Horse which allows the Zombie controllers to then use them to send SPAM, conduct phishing attacks or other types of illegal activities.   Each of these organizations control hundreds of thousands of computers.  Take Storm for example.  Some IT security experts have estimated that the Storm Zombie network, called the Storm Botnet, runs anywhere from one to fifty million computer systems.   Even the most conservative estimates place the size somewhere around 150,000 to one million.  The Storm Botnet in 2007 accounted for 8% of all malware on Microsoft Windows computers. 

This year, Storm has an extremely viable competitor, Nugache.  Although its zombie technology is not as sophisticated as Storm’s (for instance, Storm is somehow able to send SPAM in the native language of the receiver while Nugache cannot) Nugache has a big thing going for it right now, price.  In an attempt to unseat Storm from its botnet dominance, Nugache has initiated a price war.  Nugache will send one million emails for only $100.  For $800 you can send 10 million emails. 

It is because of the ridiculously meager amount of money that is required to SPAM a million people that SPAMMING is very profitable, even if the response rate to SPAM is only .01%.   It is the sophistication of these controllable zombie networks that worry IT security professionals.  Many fear that the current war for control of the malware market is only the beginning of this illegal destructive industry.

Brad Rudisail
Computer Network Technician-Network Security Instructor
Ashworth University

                  Thanks to conskeptical for permission to use this Photo. 

Have you ever wanted to revisit a link that was fifty or more characters long and was impossible to remember?  Have you tried to tell someone about a site with an extensively elongated URL?  A great example is the link for a specific link on YouTube. 

If you access such a site from the same computer all the time you can simply save that site as a favorite in your browser.  But what if you want to access the site from any computer you want?  Here is a great website to help you do just that,  

http://www.tinyurl.com  

For instance, let’s take a link to a book on Amazon about Windows 2008: 

http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Server-Administrators-Pocket-Consultant/dp/0735624372/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209996637&sr=8-3 

This is a nasty link that only someone with a photographic memory could possibly remember.  Simply go to tinyurl.com and paste in the link.  Then assign it an easy to remember name such as 

win2008book_i_want 

And save it.  You would then access the link by simply typing 

http://www.tinyurl.com/win2008book_i_want 

You have to type in unique names that no one else has used before because each link has to be unique.  Most easy links such as www.tinyurl.com/Brad are already used. Of course, like most technological tools, this site poses a security risk to organizations as well as a great benefit.  People who use computers at organizations that utilize web filtering, such as schools and businesses, can create personal custom links for websites that are filtered by the organization, allowing them full access to these sites.  For this reason, Tiny Url is sometimes blocked by organizations to prevent this.  I recommend that you try it out for yourself…

Brad Rudisail
Computer Network Technician-Network Security Instructor
Ashworth University

 
                Thanks to Sherrie G. for permission to use this Photo.

A few days ago I purchased a new computer. The computer has a 4 gig hard drive — not much space for many programs. Well, I downloaded the updates or SP2 service pack the second day that I owned the computer. As we may see the hard drive is not built for that much data. Long story short; the hard drives capacity was reached.

Here is the solution: Re-install the software after a format and new partition. Well, the computer is small and has no CD drive. So, what to do? I thought that I could try to copy the software to a memory card and or an external hard drive and install from there. Guess what? The software was installed but the format was not in existence. The new installation files were copied right on top of the already full hard drive. Two other times the files were installed to the memory card and external hard drive.

After all this trouble the hard drive (c:/) did not register. Even better, the computer asked me what OS I wanted to load! I did make a selection but I had no luck. At that point I was without a functioning computer.

The problem: The programming or software on today’s memory cards and external hard drives are not always set to handle these installation problems. What we need is a solution to this problem. I have heard from other students that there is software for this situation, but it must not be an every day item. I have not seen much . . . to talk about.

Finally, I just paid for the external CD drive and I was back in business. Two things: 1. Attempting something new with available resources can lead to win, lose, or newly gained insight into a problematic situation. 2. Attempting something new can very much so be devistating to our equipment.

What did I gain, well; I understand that from a situation like this I can see what problems non-techs may have when they work with today’s computers. Although, I will be able to walk away from this task knowing that I can create software that is built for the common man or woman. I think it is a policy in today’s computer companies to think about the problems that can arise with software before it is sent out to the public. The main problem is the company that produced this computer did not realize that a 4 gig hard drive is not enough for today’s world. Solution: Do not allow the software to update, if it does the millions of customers out there will suffer the same fate that I did. Easy solutions for head-acking problemes!

Gabriel M.
Student
Ashworth University School Of Information Technology

The 2008 Global Information Security Workforce Study was recently released.  A total of 7,548 professionals in the field were surveyed.  The complete study can be downloaded at https://www.isc2.org/cgi-bin/content.cgi?category=510 

The most interesting headline from the study was the fact that 70 percent of all respondents reported that their own employees are the biggest threat to their organization’s security.  This is contrary to the common belief that organizations must throw most of their resources at the outside perimeter of the organization’s network to prevent outsiders from accessing their network.   

This premise is supported by a recent finding that email is now no longer the number one manner in which viruses access an organization’s network.  With the ease at which employers now bring in thumb drives, personal laptops and PDA’s.  Network security plans must focus on an umbrella approach that guards the entire network. 

Brad Rudisail
Computer Network Technician-Network Security Instructor
Ashworth University

 
                 Thanks to David K for permission to use this Photo.

Back in 2000, we were constantly told that the world was running out of IP addresses.  This was because IPV4, the IP standard we use for IP addresses only has so many mathematical combinations, thus there is a defined limit to the number of IP addresses that can be utilized.  Due to the wide spread use of IP in the world, a usage rate far beyond what the creators of IP ever visualized; the IT world was stressing out as to how to address the problem.  The solution was a new standard called IPV6 which introduced more bits into the addressing scheme.  In turn, millions of additional mathematical combinations were created, resulting in an equal number of additional IP addresses.   

Unfortunately, IPV6 is more complicated than its predecessor, requiring a degree of training for networking professionals.  We were told back then that IPV6 would be implemented by the middle of the decade and alleviate the crisis. 

Well guess what?  It’s 2008 and the world hasn’t run out of IP addresses which is why IPV6 is barely used in the industry today.  This is because of the wide popularity of NAT, Network Address Translation, which is used by most organizations that have a WAN presence.   

For those unfamiliar with NAT, Network Address Translation allows a single device, such as a router to act as an agent between the Internet (or “public network”) and a local (or “private”) network. This means that only a single, unique IP address is required to represent an entire group of computers.  This isn’t to say that IPV6 will wither on the vine.  As of right now, government offices are required to transition to IPV6 within the next couple of years and other organizations are planning such an implementation in the future, but IPV4 is and will continue to be alive and well for some time to come.

Brad Rudisail
Computer Network Technician-Network Security Instructor
Ashworth University

   Thanks to NASA, ESA-Hubble Collaboration for permission to use Photo. 

One of the security weaknesses experienced with laptops and other portable computer devices for many years is the simplicity in which their drives could be compromised if the device is stolen.  This was especially true before Windows XP and Windows 2000 when a thief could simply install a second operating system on the laptop, logon to the new operating system and gain admin rights to all the data on the drive. 

Windows XP and Windows 2000 introduced EFS, Encryption File System, which allowed users to encrypt files of their choosing.  Because the encryption was centered on an encryption key based upon the original operating system, an intruder couldn’t access that file simply by accessing it through another operating system.  However, this required the user to individually encrypt every file or folder in order to protect all of their data.  Needless to say, the majority of users failed to do this.   

Microsoft has introduced a new technology called BitLocker with Windows2008 and premium flavors of Windows Vista.  BitLocker encrypts the entire drive, including the Windows system files necessary for startup and logon, which could give an intruder the ability to discover passwords and logon information.  What’s more, BitLocker utilizes a feature called Integrity checking which analyzes the early boot components and helps to ensure that data decryption is performed only if those components appear unmolested and that the encrypted drive is located in the original computer.  This prevents thieves from stealing your hard drive and putting it into another computer to access the data. 

It will also make it much easier for organizations to recycle old computers as they will not have to worry about erasing data on machines being decommissioned as the drives will be inaccessible.  BitLocker is a great new addition to the Windows operating system and should be implemented by any organization or individual that works with sensitive data.

Brad Rudisail
Computer Network Technician-Network Security Instructor
Ashworth University

              Thanks to Jamie Hladky for permission to use this Photo. 

You have to learn how to crawl before you learn how to walk, but once you learn a foundation of IT skills in Ashworth University’s information technology programs and anchor yourself in the IT labor force, here are the ten hottest tech skill sets you should aim to learn in the next five years according to Tech Republic.

1. Voice over IP - sales of pure IP PBX systems for the first quarter of 2007 increased 76% over the first quarter of the previous year 
2. Unified Communications - the convergence of different communications technologies, such as e-mail, voicemail, text messaging, and fax 
3. Hybrid Networks – Networks are no longer all Windows or all Linux, they are a hodgepodge of different systems and IT pros need to learn more than one of them.   
4. Wireless Technologies – everything’s going wireless it seems.    
5. Remote User Support – with more employees working off-site today, help support personnel must provide remote support to anywhere. 
6. Mobile User Support – more and more organizations are providing blackberries and other smart portable devices for their employees that must be supported. 
7. Software-as-a-Service – or SaaS as it is referred to in technical articles.  With the popularity of Web 2.0, the trend is to now provide software applications over the Internet rather than installing them on each and every computer. 
8. Virtualization – With the dominance of VMWare and the soon to be released 2008 Virtual Application from Microsoft, virtualization is THE buzzword today along with its countless benefits. 
9. IPv6 – Although this standard has not grown in popularity as of yet, mostly because the wide usage of NAT has allowed us to not run out of IP addresses on the Internet as fast as predicted, this standard is going to come about within the next five years.
10. Security - A skill set that will probably always be in the top 10. 

Brad Rudisail
Computer Network Technician/Network Security Instructor
Ashworth University

            Thanks to Donovan Mueller for permission to use this Photo. 

It’s standard practice that if you have an always-on Internet connection, then you should have a firewall, implemented in either hardware, such as a router, or in software.  But even if you are using a dial-up connection, you really need a software firewall to protect you from intrusions.  You would be surprised at the number of attempts to get into your PC a good software firewall will block on a PC using dial-up.  A firewall will also notify you of attempts to go out to an Internet website.  You can then allow or disallow the outbound traffic.  You would want legitimate programs such as Windows to access the company’s website for update purposes, but you’re safer to block any programs that you don’t recognize from doing so.  Be sure to check for correct spelling.  Say you have Symantec’s anti virus program on your PC and have set it up for automatic virus signature updates.  Your firewall will ask you whether you want to grant the program permission to go outbound.  But some malware could identify itself as Symantek.  Should you allow it to access the Internet, you could be in for an unpleasant surprise. 

Yes, it’s unfortunate that there are so many nasty things that can happen to your computer.  And thwarting such attempts can cost you time and money, but you really need to do this.  At minimum you need a firewall, an anti-virus program, and an anti-spyware utility.  You’ll also need to update the anti-virus and anti-spyware programs’ signature files at least once a week, as well as scanning with each at least once a week, more frequently if you are online daily.then you should have a firewall, implemented in either hardware, such as a router, or in software.  But even if you are using a dial-up connection, you really need a software firewall to protect you from intrusions.  You would be surprised at the number of attempts to get into your PC a good software firewall will block on a PC using dial-up.  A firewall will also notify you of attempts to go out to an Internet website.  You can then allow or disallow the outbound traffic.  You would want legitimate programs such as Windows to access the company’s website for update purposes, but you’re safer to block any programs that you don’t recognize from doing so.  Be sure to check for correct spelling. 

Say you have Symantec’s anti virus program on your PC and have set it up for automatic virus signature updates.  Your firewall will ask you whether you want to grant the program permission to go outbound.  But some malware could identify itself as Symantek.  Should you allow it to access the Internet, you could be in for an unpleasant surprise. 

Yes, it’s unfortunate that there are so many nasty things that can happen to your computer.  And thwarting such attempts can cost you time and money, but you really need to do this.  At minimum you need a firewall, an anti-virus program, and an anti-spyware utility.  You’ll also need to update the anti-virus and anti-spyware programs’ signature files at least once a week, as well as scanning with each at least once a week, more frequently if you are online daily.

Dave Ronan
Computer Training Instructor
Ashworth University

The threat of “cyber-terrorism” still strikes many as abstract, a symbolic fear first represented in seminal works such as William Gibson’s Neuromancer, followed by an explosion into pop-culture fantasy through the Wachowski Brothers’, “The Matrix.” While these dark visions of man’s accelerated move towards techno-slavery have certainly colored our perspectives, the reality of cyber-terrorism has existed since the 1950’s, when state secrets were first buried in dense programming language instead of manila folders labeled “top secret.”

Behind the curtain, the borderless battlefield is virtual and the threats are as imposing as those posed by nuclear weapons. After all, launch codes are just that—codes that are developed, stored, distributed, and controlled within cyberspace. The following podcast interview features Bruce Hoffman, a cyber-terrorism expert who outlines the precise nature and ominous implications posed by this threat. Mr. Hoffman also presents us with an in-depth report on how the U.S. government has redirected its’ counterterrorism strategies. Do you see a future where the Internet is under government control? Let’s think inside the box and brainstorm on the possibilities. Thanks.

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University