AU Blogspot

                 Thanks to Kit Cowan for permission to use this Photo. 

I had to go about shopping for a new KVM switch at my work to replace one that had gone bad.  This gave me the idea to write a short blog piece about KVM switches.  A KVM switch allows a user to control multiple servers or workstations with a single monitor and mouse/keyboard.  In a typical datacenter, each rack of servers will be connected to a KVM switch which has an assigned monitor/mouse/keyboard.  Because of KVM switches, organizations don’t have to purchase a monitor and keyboard/mouse set for every single machine.  This makes sense since users do not dedicate themselves to a server desktop as they do a workstation. 

Each computer is connected to the KVM switch with a special VGA or USB cable.  Higher end KVMs allow standard Ethernet cables to connect computers.  KVMs usually come in 4, 8 and 16 port versions, meaning that it can accommodate that many machines.  When a user wants to access a particular machine, he simply hits an assigned key on the keyboard to view a menu of the computers that are managed by that KVM.  He then selects the machine he wishes to view and the monitor then brings it up.  Imagine if you were downloading and installing Windows Updates on 8 servers.  You could pull up each server at a single monitor and complete the tasks without leaving your chair.

KVM switches are not utilized as much as they have been in the past due to the ease of tools such as Microsoft Remote Desktop which allows one to remote into any windows server at will and pull up the server desktop wherever they are in the world.  These remote applications due have one big limitation in that they do not allow a user to view the booting process of the server or access the BIOS as one normally is able to.  Unlike a KVM, if you reboot a machine while remoting into it, you lose your connection.  Because of this, KVM switches continue to be a valuable tool for networks today.

One of the biggest players in the KVM market is Avocent.  Visit their website at www.avocent.com to learn more about their product line and KVMs in general.

Brad Rudisail
Computer Network Technician/Network Security Instructor
Ashworth University

            Thanks to Dennis Hamilton for permission to use this Photo.

Bill Gates toured five North American Universities in February speaking about the coming IT labor shortage.  Across the country, colleges across the U.S. and Canada have seen a steady drop in the number of students entering the field of computer science ever since the dot com bust at the start of the decade.  K12 schools as well are seeing fewer students interested in the field of IT.  These indicators point to a looming shortage of skilled workers in the IT field in the coming decades.  Although this will greatly benefit those in or just beginning their careers in IT, it puts into question the leadership in technology that the U.S. has enjoyed up to now. 

In order for our country to continue to be a major economic player in the world we must have the IT talent to spur further technological innovation and support our current and future infrastructures.  It is because of this dire possibility that leaders such as Bill Gates are publicly addressing young people concerning the exciting possibilities and unlimited opportunities that await them in the IT field. 

So how did this come about?  There are several factors.  The dot com bust of 2000 did a lot to taint the field.  Many high school students changed their minds about IT after reading how many IT jobs were lost during that time.  Parents discouraged their middle and elementary aged students to pursue the field as it offered little promise of opportunity they thought.  The overplay of the media discussing the many IT support jobs that migrated to India also provide fodder to parents and young people to not consider IT.  Unfortunately though, these concerns have been exaggerated and now the pendulum has swung so far in the other direction that those in the IT field today have the benefit of knowing that their skills are and will continue to be in high demand.

Brad Rudisail
Computer Network Technician/Network Security Instructor
Ashworth University

                     Thanks to .res for permission to use this Photo. 

The annual IT Salary and Skills Report conducted by Global Knowledge and Tech Republic was released this week for 2008.  Here are some of the points of interest from the study:

• The average salary in the IT industry was $73,963, up 3.25% from 2007.  80% of workers reported an increase of pay for 2008.   
• The average salary for those with a college degree was $76,446.  Those with a certificate or degree from a technical college had an average salary of $65,712.
• Those 25 and younger with 2 years of experience or less make $39,883 on average.  This same age group made $46,303 with 3 to 4 years of experience.
• The average IT worker is 43 years old and has been in IT for 14.3 years.
• 59% have a college degree
• 78.7% report that they are very or mostly satisfied with their career choice
• IT is the third highest paying industry field
• 42% plan on obtaining an IT Certification within the next year.
• 34.4% hold a Microsoft Certification of some type
• The highest paying IT Certification is the Project Management Professional (PMI) at $101,695.  The lowest paying IT Certification is Comptia A+ at $41,726.
• On average, those with a Cisco CCNA make $64,260.  Microsoft MCSEs make $71,980.
• Help Desk Support professionals make an average of $48,773.
• Admin Support personal make an average of 51,819
• Network Administrators make an average of $56,277
• Web/Internet Professionals make an average of $62,658

Brad Rudisail
Computer Network Technician/Network Security Instructor
Ashworth University

In reference to my introduction to VMware, one of the most exciting networking software applications to come to fruition in some time, I wanted to offer a little background what a SAN (storage area network) is.  First off, VMware’s parent company, EMC is the #1 manufacturer of SANs in the world.  A SAN is also required in order to make the most of VMware.  SANs have also been transforming the data storage market over the past several years.

There are three types of storage today:

1. Direct Attached Storage - a tape unit attached to a server
2. Network Attached Storage - a dedicated storage server that resides on the internal network
3. Storage Area Network – A collection of storage devices that reside on a separate private LAN

Direct Attached Storage is still used today in small organizations with only a few servers although some organizations may still use this outdated method in larger organizations.  It consists of have a separate tape storage device directly attached to each server.  The backup process is managed by some type of backup application which automatically backs up the server at a specified time each night.  However, it does require someone to change the tapes every day.  The personnel cost and management of this model doesn’t make it viable for a large network structure.  Also, the replacement costs of multiple tape drive units are cost inhibitive as well.

Network Attached Storage consists of a server placed on the network built of numerous very large hard drives.  In most instances, all backup processes of network servers are managed by a backup application such as Veritas from a designated server.  The application then directs all involved servers to backup their files to the NAS server.  This is a very simple and relatively inexpensive model to implement.  The problem with the NAS model is that the NAS resides on the Ethernet network.  This means that the backup traffic competes with the other traffic on the network for bandwidth.  Although organizations almost always run their backups at night, for many organizations with terabytes of data, backups must run during active network hours as well.  This will slow down the network and impact its efficiency.

What is a SAN? (more…)

 
                              Image courtesy of 80stees.

In a surprise announcement, Microsoft vowed to increase the openness of its key products!

Yes this is still February, April 1st is several weeks away yet!

So what did Microsoft say in this release? Well,

Specifically, Microsoft is implementing four new interoperability principles and corresponding actions across its high-volume business products: (1) ensuring open connections; (2) promoting data portability; (3) enhancing support for industry standards; and (4) fostering more open engagement with customers and the industry, including open source communities

Several times in the last few years I have advocated for Microsoft to Open Source Windows and Internet Explorer and while this announcement doesn’t go that far, it does seem to be a step in the right direction.

According to Microsoft’s CEO-in-waiting and current Chief Software Architect, Ray Ozzie

“Customers need all their vendors, including and especially Microsoft, to deliver software and services that are flexible enough such that any developer can use their open interfaces and data to effectively integrate applications or to compose entirely new solutions,” said Ozzie. “By increasing the openness of our products, we will provide developers additional opportunity to innovate and deliver value for customers.”

The Microsoft products this refers to are Windows Vista (including the .NET Framework), Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Office 2007, Exchange Server 2007, and Office SharePoint Server 2007, and future versions of all these products. (more…)

               Thanks to radiorover for permission to use this Photo.

The following interview with Robert Moore illustrates the apathy that is still amazingly apparent in the IT industry today despite the strong awareness of IT vulnerabilities and the importance of tightening security for all organizations and even home users.  It also shows how easy it is for even computer novices to break into network devices.   

A quick Google search for sites showing the default passwords for just about any computer or network device sold on the market in the past decade can be easily found.  Many of these sites are not developed for malicious purposes.  The fact is that network devices are constantly resold and recycled.  This requires that the device be reset to its default configuration to erase the settings made by the original owner.  In order for the new owner to configure the device, he or she must know the default password credentials in order to access the device.  Because the original device documentation is often missing, these default password sites are vital. 

These sites make it even more important to immediately change the password for any newly purchased network device.  Recently, I heard a high school student inform me that he regularly accesses his neighbor’s wireless router by using the default logon for the device.  By doing this, the student can use his neighbor’s DSL connection for free.

Brad Rudisail
Computer Network Technician-Network Security Instructor
Ashworth University

 
                Thanks to J. Parks for permission to use this Photo.

Microsoft recently unveiled their Forefront Security Application Suite that provides antivirus protection as well as Spam and spyware protection.  Forefront provides network protection at client, server and enterprise edge level.  Due to the pricing and licensing structure that Microsoft offers their enterprise customers for their products, Forefront is sure to make a big splash on the marketplace and offer strong competition to industry leaders such as Symantec and Norton.   As a network security specialist, it’s absolutely vital that you stay in tune with soon to be mass-market security applications such as Forefront, so be sure to check into this blog often as I continue providing weekly updates.  Let me know if you have any questions and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.  We’ll talk again soon…

Brad Rudisail
Computer Network Technician-Network Security Instructor
Ashworth University

              Thanks to foundphotos for permission to use this Photo. 

The SANS Institute, an organization dedicated to computer security training, certification and research recently released their Top Ten Cyber Security Threats for 2008.  Below is a summary:
           

1. Attacks via web browser vulnerabilities, particularly plug-incomponents such as QuickTime and Flash.  Many of these plug-ins are rarely updated. 
2. The growing sophistication of Botnets.  The most popular exampleis the Storm Trojan which accounted for one in twelve virus infections only a week after its release.  This new breed of botnets uses peer-to-peer control rather than a centralized controller that can be eliminated. 
3. Cyber espionage, particularly economic espionage conducted bynation states 
4. As Mobile phones are become general purpose computers, worms,viruses, and other malware will increasingly target them 
5. Insider attacks by rogue employees, consultants and contractors.These threats will result in the further limiting of the cyber rights and abilities of employees. 
6. Identity theft performed by persistent bots.  These bots notonly target email addresses, bank accounts information and passwords but even the cyber behavior of users that can be later used forextortion. 
7. Increasingly malicious spyware 
8. Web Application Security Exploits are constantly being targetedas so many applications today are web based and can be targeted by hackers. 
9. Social Engineering continues to be widely utilized.  Phony taxscams are very popular today. 
10. Infected Consumer Devices such as USB drives that can containmalicious code or espionage based applications that can attack acomputer in a matter of seconds when the USB drive is inserted into a computer. 

Brad Rudisail
Computer Network Technician-Network Security Instructor
Ashworth University

                        Thanks to Seth Hosko for permission to use this Photo.

Most of what we define as data or information is what we explicitly create or gather. For example, if I write an article or contribute to a wiki, the resulting information is intentional and a result of active work on my part. When a scientist discovers a cure to a disease, or a new drug to treat or reduce symptoms, the information is again a consequence of intent. Our conversations are similar - we are active, intentional creators of data (I’ll call this first tier information). But we create a second kind of information on a daily basis. Second tier information is a by-product of what we do - our actions and our choices. We are largely not aware of this information. It’s difficult to capture - unless we are hyper self-aware or we are being stalked. This information used to vaporize as it was not embodied in text, images, or any other conceptual or physical product. That’s changing. Facebook - with its Beacon program - follows us and observes our choices, essentially turning our transient information into first tier information. This is a significant development; one that has enormous future implications in privacy and the rights of citizens and corporations. (more…)

                Thanks to entropy for permission to use this Photo.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus is one of the most effective anti-virus programs I’ve ever come across. Not only it has good detection rate, it’s light on the system memory too. I was happy to see that Kaspersky has released the free scanner for the users. However, please note that this is just an on-demand scanner and it won’t clean the virus or remove it for you.

Now the question rises that why do you want to use it, when it can’t clean or stop viruses and here’s the answer to this tricky question :Well, I always vouch for having two anti-viruses on a system! (C’mon linux fans, you have a chance to speak) I know that most of the anti-virus firms say that it’s not good to have to anti-virus software but let me make my statement a little bit clear. It’s always good to have one full anti-virus software which runs in real-time, however it’s even better when you have an anti-virus software whose real-time scanning should be disabled and runs as an on-demand scanner. (more…)