Security is a multifaceted issue that must be addressed to avoid abuse of your network from hackers and employees. While you are connected to the Internet your network is open to the public unless it is protected by a firewall. Networks that are connected to the Internet are vulnerable to malicious attacks from hackers and virus infection. A well configured firewall will block uninvited visitors whilst allowing remote access to authorised users and services. Many firewalls now offer a host of other advanced features such as gateway antivirus, spam filtering, content filtering and the ability to block specific applications such as instant messaging to add further protection and restrict how the Internet is used within the office. Internally, sensitive information such as personnel records, management reports and accounts data can be protected by configuring permissions that only allow access for those who are authorised. Passwords to access the network should be changed on a regular basis and should be sufficiently complex that they cannot be compromised. We can advise on all aspects of network security, firewalls, virus protection and implement a security policy to protect your data and systems.
“ Success depends on sound deductions from a mass of intelligence” -Winston Churchill New threats and new measures to counter them call for a reorganization of IT security teams so that they can focus on defending the organization from targeted attacks. It is only ten years since most enterprises established separate security teams to address vulnerabilities and deploy and maintain patches and virus signature updates as well as configure and maintain firewalls. To ensure that policies were created and enforced most organizations also created the position of Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) who enacted those policies and became responsible for ensuring that the organization was in compliance with standards and regulations. The rise of targeted attacks must be met by similar organizational enhancements. The terminology and titles are not important but the roles and responsibilities described here are required to mount an effective cyber defense. It is interesting to note that the Cheong Wa Dae (Korean President’s “Blue House”) has i nstituted a special Cyber Defense Team in reaction to concerted attacks on the computers of the G20 Summit Committee in Seoul. “ Since June, the government has been running a special cyber defense team to prevent attacks against major private and public computer networks. “ – The Chosunilbo Countering targeted attacks calls for new measures. One of those measures is creation of specialized teams that are not bogged down in the day to day tasks of blocking viruses and cleaning up machines. Here is my proposal for such an organization. Team Lead: Cyber Defense Commander The title may evoke a too martial image. Perhaps cyber defense team lead, or director of cyber defense, will be a better fit. But the idea of one-throat-to-choke in establishing a leadership role is an effective way to motivate a team and its leadership with the seriousness of its task. They must be instilled with the idea that they are targeted, under attack daily, and engaged in a battle to protect the organization from a malicious adversary. The cyber defense team replaces the traditional computer emergency response team (CERT) and will probably incorporate most of the same people. The cyber defense commander is responsible for establishing the cyber defense team, assigning and directing roles, making sure the correct tools and defenses are deployed, putting in place controls and audit processes, and reporting to upper management on the results of those processes, and audits. The cyber defense commander would also be the primary point of contact for communicating to law enforcement and intelligence agencies when the inevitable situation arises that requires outside help or communication. A large organization with divisions spread around the globe or separate large business units may well have cyber defense teams deployed in each division with their own leaders who report up to the cyber defense commander. (Call them lieutenants if you must but I am not going to take the military command structure that far.) The cyber defense team should have three primary roles: an outward looking role, an operational role, and an inward looking role. Each of those roles is described next: Cyber defense analysts are the intelligence gatherers. They study the threatscape with an eye towards emerging threats to the organization. Most organizations assume that because they have so many people in IT security that someone is looking out for the latest attack methodologies or tools, and even keeping tabs on the various groups that engage in cyber attacks. Unfortunately the operational aspects of IT security are too consuming to allow this type of outward looking focus. IT security practitioners are very inquisitive and attempt to keep up with the huge volume of information available to them at conferences, from vendors, and in the news. But their activities are ad-hoc and mostly voluntary. Would TJX have succumbed to an attack that entered through a WiFi access point in a store in Minneapolis if they had had someone staying abreast of the news who would have seen the exact same methodologies used against a Lowe’s store in Southfield, Michigan four years before? A team of cyber analysts working at a mining or oil and gas exploration company would have been alert to the news that the three largest such firms in the US (Marathon Oil, ExxonMobil, and ConocoPhillips) were compromised in 2008 . They would have had contacts within the community who would have given them a heads up. They would then have seen the 2009 attacks against BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group , the major natural resources companies in Australia and analyzed those attacks for similarities. They would have raised a red flag that their own organization could be targeted as well and increased the vigilance of the internal teams. Cyber defense analysts assume the role played by counter intelligence agents inside most governments. They gain an understanding of the attackers and their tradecraft and advise those responsible for defending against them. As members of a cyber defense team these analysts will be responsible for: Understanding the state of the art in attack methodologies. They should research and understand the successful and attempted attacks against similar organizations. They do this through monitoring news reports, security research reports from the vendors including McAfee Labs , Versign’s iDefense team , Verizon’s Threat Report, F-Secure’s Mikko Hypponen , Symantec’s threat report , Sourcefire’s VRT , Fortinet Research , Infowar Monitor , IBM X-Force , as well as independent researchers such as Dancho Danchev , Brian Krebs , Nart Villineuve , and hundreds of others. Getting to know potential attackers and monitoring their activity. Is the organization a target for industrial espionage from competitors or state sponsored spies? Could a particular fanatic group, be it PETA, Greenpeace, Islamic Jihad, or a religious faction, be targeting the enterprise? Monitoring known attack sources and distributing the IP addresses of those sources internally for purposes of blocking and alerting. Communicating the threat level to the rest of the cyber defense team. Assisting in evaluating technology for internal deployment. A valuable methodology for the research is being developed by the Infowar Monitor team working at the University of Toronto. They dub their methodology “fusion research”, a combination of technical analysis, contextual understanding, and field investigations. Translating this into the activities within an organization would mean working with their peers to discover methodologies being used successfully against them, and the tools and defenses they deploy. It would also mean having an understanding of the industry they are in and the value of their information assets to various potential adversaries. Banks, long the target of cyber crime, and casinos, with vast experience fighting insider threats, have had this type of interaction with their peers for years. It is time for manufacturers, non-profits, universities, state and local governments to do the same. The second role within the cyber defense team is the operational role . Members of the cyber defense operations team must: Select and deploy network and host based tools to monitor activity, alert on unusual activity, block attacks, and assist in removing infections that have made it through all of the cyber defenses. Interact with the rest of IT operations to ensure that infections are quickly snuffed out and cleaned up. Engage in forensics activities to perform post mortems on successful attacks, gather evidence, and improve future operations. The members of the internal cyber defense team supplement the rest of IT operations. They are not responsible for the daily updating of servers and desktops or the distribution of AV signatures or maintaining firewalls. Their job is to discover and mitigate attacks as they occur. This is a 24x7x365 job. A primary responder must be identified for each evening, weekend, and holiday shift. They must be able to receive alerts, quickly gain access to the monitoring system, and take defensive action when an attack occurs. The third component of the cyber defense group is the Red Team . They look inward. They scan the network for holes in the defenses and new vulnerabilities. They engage in attack and penetration exercises to test defenses. They evaluate new IT projects to ensure that authentication, authorization, and defenses are included in the initial design all the way through to deployment. Each of these three roles has special tools that they should use to accomplish their duties. The cyber analysts make use of knowledge management tools to categorize and create linkages between disparate data sources. An internal wiki can serve as the basis of communication with the other members of the team. A sophisticated tool from Palantir Technologies can help them track sources of attacks, record data, remember IP addresses and malicious domains, and even keep track of the identities, affiliations, and methods associated with particular groups or individuals. The cyber defense operations team will use advanced packet capture, network behavior monitoring, application monitoring, and endpoint protection tools. Netwitness provides the best tool for capturing network traffic and applying filters that contain knowledge of attack sources, and other cross correlation capabilities. By deploying a network flow monitoring solution from Arbor Networks they can see changes in traffic patterns that are indicative of an attack. Guidance Software , known for its forensics tool kits has a cyber defense product that leverages the end point protection of HBGary to identify and remediate infections. FireEye is a network gateway defense against zero hour malware and blocks attempts to communicate with command and control servers operated by attackers. The cyber defense Red Team makes use of many open source tools to act as surrogate attackers. Nessus can be used for scanning for vulnerabilities it is open source and the basis of several commercial products most notably Tenable . Vulnerability scanning is also a function of the regular IT operations so it is important that the Red Team use a different set of tools than those used by operations. Core Impact is the most advanced commercial attack and penetration tool. The organization and duties of the Cyber Defense Team arise from the new threat of targeted attacks. There is a fundamental difference between defending against random attack from viruses, worms, and botnets and targeted attacks. When the viruses and worms are written to specifically infect an enterprise’s system and gain control of internal processes, communications, and data, traditional tools are ineffective and traditional organizations are at a loss. By assigning responsibility to a core team of cyber defense specialists the enterprise can begin to address their vulnerability to targeted attacks. This post is an excerpt from Cyber Defense: Countering Targeted Attacks (Government Institutes, 2011)
History On February 13, 2006, Garnett & Helfrich Capital established BLADE Network Technologies, Inc., as a privately held company from Nortel’s Blade Server Switch Unit, focused on serving the networking requirements of the blade server market. In 2008, the company introduced its RackSwitch line of top-of-rack 1-10 Gigabit Ethernet data center switches. The company customers include more than half of Fortune 500 companies across 26 industry segments, which represents an installed base of more than 220,000 network switches and over 5 million switch ports connecting more than 1,100,000 servers. Technology and products BLADE offers a comprehensive line of top-of-rack and bladed 1-10 Gigabit Ethernet switches for high-performance computing (HPC), multimedia (VOD, IPTV, VoIP), online gaming, financial analysis, security, cloud networking, Web 2.0 and other I/O-intensive applications. BLADE top-of-rack and blade server switches exemplify a set of rules for the data center known as Rackonomics an economical approach for provisioning essential server, storage and networking infrastructure that empowers enterprise data centers to control costs and contain sprawl while realizing massive scale-out economies. BLADE RackSwitch top-of-rack data center switch products leverage the company blade server networking heritage and unique focus on Rackonomics to perform with up to 12.4 less latency, 73 percent less energy and 6.5 better price/performance than comparable top-of-rack data center switches. BLADE Cloud Ready Network Architecture and the BLADE products that define it equip networks operated by enterprises and cloud providers with five essential elements high-bandwidth/low-latency switching, convergence to Ethernet, agile networking for virtual workloads, scalable management and advanced energy efficiency. RackSwitch BLADE RackSwitch is a 1-10 Gigabit Ethernet top-of-rack data center switch. BLADE RackSwitch product family extends virtualization by mirroring the benefits of server virtualization within the network at the rack level, saves energy through rack-friendly cooling and alleviates pain by removing complexity through simplified management and fabric convergence. RackSwitch is the only switch designed specifically for IBM iDataPlex, a custom-configured rack system featuring design innovations in cooling and efficiency to address I/O-intensive Web 2.0 applications and cloud computing. BLADE RackSwitch products include: RackSwitch G8100 and G8124 10G Low Latency Switches RackSwitch G8000 1-10G Aggregation Switch Blade Server Switches BLADE embedded Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switches are available for IBM BladeCenter, HP BladeSystem, NEC SIGMABLADE and Verari BladeSwitch to consolidate server I/O, enable network virtualization, and reduce data center complexity by adding network intelligence within the blade server chassis. BLADE switch modules for ude: BNT 10-port 10G Ethernet Switch Module BNT 6-port 10G Ethernet Switch Module BNT 1/10Gb Uplink Ethernet Switch Module BNT Layer 2-7 Gigabit Ethernet Switch Module BNT Layer 2/3 Copper Gigabit Ethernet Switch Module BNT Layer 2/3 Fiber Gigabit Ethernet Switch Module BLADE switch modules for HP BladeSystem include: HP 10Gb Ethernet BL-c Switch HP 1:10Gb Ethernet BL-c Switch HP GbE2c Layer 2/3 Ethernet Blade Switch HP GbE2c Ethernet Blade Switch BLADE switch modules for NEC SIGMABLADE include: NEC 1Gb Intelligent L2 Switch NEC 1Gb Intelligent L3 Switch NEC 10Gb Intelligent L3 Switch BLADE Network Management and Virtualization Software Products SmartConnect with VMready BLADEHarmony Manager BLADE Professional Services BLADEHarmony Professional Services offer tight integration of systems, software, services and support to enable rapid Planning, Design, Installation, Operation and Optimization for rack-level server environments. Management BLADE’s management team includes: Vikram Mehta, President and CEO Mark Verbeck, Chief Financial Officer Jim Sladek, Vice President of Finance Bob Murden, Vice President of Operations Shailesh Naik, Vice President of Sales Dan Tuchler, Vice President of Strategy and Product Management Tim Shaughnessy, Vice President of Marketing Atul Tambe, Vice President of Hardware Engineering Tim Chao, Vice President of Software Engineering and Advanced Technology Ardene Fullerton, Director, Human Resources Clive Surfleet, Advisor to CEO BLADE Board of Directors includes: David Helfrich, Partner, Garnett & Helfrich Terry Garnett, Partner, Garnett & Helfrich George Riedel, Chief Strategy Officer, Nortel Vikram Mehta, President and CEO, BLADE Network Technologies Ford Tamer, Ph.D., Operating Partner, Khosla Ventures Industries served BLADE primarily serves the IT markets in industries including finance, automotive, telecom, education, government, health care and defense. OEM partners BLADE has OEM agreements with the following vendors: HP IBM NEC See also Fibre Channel over Ethernet IBM BladeCenter References ^ http://www.hoovers.com/Blade-Network-Technologies,-Inc./–HD__jrkhsrkrs,src__dbi–/free-co-dnb_factsheet.xhtml ^ http://www.garnetthelfrich.com/pages/portfolio.html ^ http://www.bladenetwork.net/?pageid=600 ^ http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/021306-nortel-server-blade.html ^ http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_852573C400693880002574340063E75C.html ^ http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207400056 ^ http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/market-service-segment.pag?segid=D980-00-0A-00-00&ctxst=FcmCtx1&ctxht=FcmCtx2&ctxhl=FcmCtx3&ctxixpLink=FcmCtx3&ctxixpLabel=FcmCtx4 ^ http://datacenterjournal.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2486&Itemid=40 ^ http://www.tolly.com/DocDetail.aspx?DocNumber=208346 ^ http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/552090 ^ http://www.garnetthelfrich.com/pages/portfolio_mehta_bio.html External Links BLADE Network Technologies corporate web site Categories: Ethernet I am a professional editor from China Product, and my work is to promote a free online trade platform. http://www.himfr.com/ contain a great deal of information about linksys secure network , cisco gbic module welcome to visit!
Every Internet based businesses experiences network troubles as well as other technical difficulties. And because of problems like those, backlogs are bound to transpire in your network. Fortunately, with today’s technology, errors like those can be prevented. Indeed, there is a remedy for that difficulty and that solution is quite available. Certainly, a superb network solution is the most effective remedy for this sort of issue and Opteman’s network solution will be the key. Opteman’s network remedy eradicates network problems that lead to backlogs as well as other associated work loads which comes about when a network problem is experienced. With a feature that permits its users to connect to several websites without needing to encounter any connection lags and delay, the potential for network complications is removed. Ethernet applications and also other system tools are likewise supplied by Opteman therefore supplying your company the effectiveness and protection it needs. Preferably, Opteman is the most effective network solution for companies which manages enormous sites or a Local Area Network. Opteman makes use of its EVC (Ethernet Virtual Connection) to transmit packets via the Local Area Network and transmit files and data at high speeds. Because of that, connections with other networks are extremely simple to deal with. Colleges and other organizations that manage education likewise use Opteman as their network remedy. Opteman features a connection velocity that ranges from 5mb per second to 1 GB per second. Due to its spectacular velocity, Internet connectivity and transmission of data files with other specified locations are sent without having any delay.Because of Opteman, your Local Area Network’s speed is going to be boosted including your Internet connection. It has the ability of connecting clients as well as the network to several web locations without having the network’s efficiency slowing down. An investment on Opteman will be worth each cent of your money. With Opteman, your data files which can be being dispatched across your network and perhaps via the Internet are safely secured. Opteman’s security soution is extremely effective and reliable that it functions and runs all of the time. Large business companies are now gently selecting Opteman network solutions. Opteman has been the preferred option of several business companies and also other organizations that needs services just like what Opteman presents. The effectiveness that Opteman presents and gives your enterprise is quite beneficial and precious. Plenty of network solutions that are being developed and designed nowadays are based on the system of Opteman. Several network solutions are even trying to mimic Opteman because of its effectiveness but none has ever achieved that objective. Opteman has an interface which could be easily utilized by any person, even though that particular person has not sufficient background or knowledge with network options. Opteman has been, and is still widely used by many up to date. Author is an AT&T master solution provider who specializes in helping customers make the most out of their communication and network needs. He works tirelessly to provide powerful, efficient and cost effective solutions, such as Opteman and att mpls network, to address clients’ communications needs.
In today’s internet, video downloading, p2p programs, or online IPTV programs can easily consume most of your internet bandwidth. To make your internet access more efficient, it is important for you to monitor internet bandwidth of each computers on your network. And certain protocols shall be blocked during working hours. This tutorial will guide you in installing, setting up and using “WFilter Enterprise” to monitor your Internet bandwidth (uploading and downloading). 1. Setup a SPAN port for monitoring. Generally speaking, a computer connected to a switch or a router can only receive its own traffic. To monitor other computers, your computer shall be able to see other computer’s network traffic. “Port mirroring”, a feature of switch, allows you to setup a “monitoring port” in the switch to receive packets of other ports. First, you need to setup a SPAN port in your switch. To monitor other computers, the computer with WFilter installed in shall be connected to the SPAN port. 2. Real-time bandwidth monitoring. Upon properly deployed, you will be able to monitor internet activity and all internet connections of all computers. The “Online Computers” of WFilter shows a list of online computers. “Real-time bandwidth” shows current bandwidth usage diagram and top 20 computers. 3. Protocol Bandwidth Usage Report. The “Protocol Usage Report” shows the exact bandwidth usage for different protocols of each computer. And the bandwidth details:
