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By Joel Snyder

Joel Snyder, a Network World Test Alliance partner, is a senior partner at Opus One in Tucson, Ariz. E-mail him.

Are stand-alone IPSs dead?
09/26/07
I just finished a hellishly large test for Network World of enterprise-class UTM firewalls. You’ll be able to read the full results in print and online Nov. 5. One of the tough questions I had to wrestle with is the definition of UTM when it comes to these gigabit behemoths.
Tech support that makes you feel small
04/05/07
A recent incident reminded me just how bad things can be in IT, if you're a small company. A friend asked me to help him set up an e-mail gateway. He ordered the smallest box that one of the major vendors offers. It cost $5,000 - which is, frankly, a lot of money for a guy running a small consulting company. Of course, when I say "he ordered," I'm leaving out the part where it took two months to place the order because the vendor pointed him to Worst Distributor Co. in Dallas, which couldn't get him a quote, wouldn't answer his e-mails and never took the order. He got his system only because one of the vendor's sales guys took pity on him and took his money.
Security gear: Separating the best from the rest
01/31/07
I just finished a project for which I had to use many security products, and I was struck by how much of a difference there is between the good and the merely average. In particular, three characteristics separate great products from the rest of the pack.
Conflicts lead to tense times in security
11/02/06
Security is often like insurance: money you spend now to avoid a much bigger and more catastrophic expense later.
The NAC train is leaving the station
08/28/06
Even after spending all this time and energy taking in all three NAC schemes, I hope Microsoft, Cisco and TCG can come together on a single solution. In the long run, that would be better for everyone.
The pros and cons of NAC
06/12/06
I'm enthusiastic about NAC, but I'd like to devote some time to the devil's advocate view of the technology. Specifically, NAC has five major failings.
When a product is better than the company
04/10/06
Why is CipherTrust unwilling to sell me a box? I don't know; they aren't talking. More frightening than my experience is the possibility that the company might do this to an existing customer. What good is a security product if the vendor refuses to sell you service on it?
Extend perimeter defense to application layer
01/23/06
I am the biggest defense-in-depth supporter there is, but deep defenses don't obviate the need to protect the perimeter. This year, we're going to see a lot of action from security vendors trying to provide better and stronger defenses at the border from the growing plagues of viruses, spyware, malware and phishing attacks.
Sourcefire may resurrect Check Point
10/31/05
Sourcefire has products, but they're missing pieces - things that Check Point does very well. And Sourcefire can certainly benefit from the mature marketing, distribution, quality assurance and support infrastructure of an established company such as Check Point. If this marriage works, expect great things from Check Point - again.
Tale of the tape: Encrypt data now
07/04/05
Data should be encrypted in transit. All you need to remember are those six words.
The security status quo is wrong
04/25/05
We have way too many people writing as wireless security experts and way too few actually thinking about wireless security. We also have way too few keeping up with the changes in the technology and how we use it.
Mobile models lost in translation
02/21/05
Network managers need to be prepared for heavier demand from their European users for secure mobile data, because the wide availability and relatively reasonable cost have made mobile data an expected service.
Securing endpoints in SSL VPNs
12/06/04
In every case, the best solution is one that supports your security policy, while not needlessly preventing access by legitimate users. Make sure you make your own decision, though, and don't let the magical marketing spin from some of these SSL VPN vendors convince you that the impossible is suddenly easy.
A VoIP security plan of attack
09/13/04
From a security viewpoint, VoIP is a nightmare, combining the worst vulnerabilities of IP networks and voice networks. But VoIP's security challenges can be solved. All it takes is a plan.
Testing shows VoIP a big winner
04/26/04
H.323 is dead. Oh, man, is it dead! In past years, we've struggled to get H.323 devices to interoperate. They don't do it well and, what's worse, debugging is a total pain. Not so with SIP-controlled telephony. We had incredibly good basic interoperability in just minutes between SIP phones.
Time to wise up about worms
02/16/04
Why can't people take responsibility for protecting their own PCs? People never say, "I did something utterly moronic today and infected my own PC and 600 others." No, it's "I got a virus." As if it's not their fault. As if they caught a cold because they just happened to be in the room when someone who was sick walked by.
When will we ever learn?
09/29/03
The worms came in through firewalls that shouldn't have let them in. Infected systems continued spreading the worms because we didn't have adequate tools to contain them. Two years after Code Red, there are still fundamental problems in the way we manage and secure systems that make us vulnerable to this kind of attack.
What is an IPS, anyway?
08/04/03
Wrapping a firewall around the perimeter is no longer sufficient to meet the needs of modern networks. Technologies such as IPS need to be pushed into the network, not just at the edge, but throughout the entire infrastructure.
SSL VPNs won't save the world
06/09/03
The real value of SSL VPNs is in their sweet spot: extranets and Web-based remote applications. Focus there, and you can do things that have been impossible with traditional IPSec tools.
Risk analysis needs a reality check
04/14/03
One factor that contributes to poor risk analysis is having too much awareness of a problem. Get hypersensitized to an issue, such as security threats, and you're bound to react in a way disproportionate and uncalled for by the facts. We're not just inundated with security information; we're overwhelmed by it. This sets us up to make poor decisions.
IPS: A technology, not a product
11/25/02
A combination of intrusion-detection brains and firewall placement, IPSes take a new tack on protecting corporate networks. The concept is simple; the implementation is a lot more difficult.

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