IEBlog: An HTTP Detective Story
Interesting post over at IEBlog as they try to track down a login issue a website was experiencing with IE6 on WinXPsp2 as well as IE7. I thought it kinda funny they way they casually mention using IE7. Developers Developers Developers Developers.
Archive for March 2005
IEBlog: a HTTP Detective Story
SearchSecurity CISSP Training
SearchSecurity.com has free CISSP training webcasts available for a limited time. It does require registration.
I watched the first class/domain over the weekend and though it was interesting. I came away with a few things to think about. The presentation is very rapid fire. There is way too much material in domain1 to fit into an hour. The presenter advised that this is an introduction to the material and is in no way adequate to prepare you for the exam.
GIAC Changes Coming
SANS is modifying the requirements for the GIAC Certification so seekers will no longer be required to write a written practical. In the past there has been a requirement of a practical as well as multiple tests.
The written practical was a great thing for the GIAC. Some certifications are seen as a paper certification, or a sign of a individuals ability to quickly cram information into short term memory. That was never the case with the GIAC because there is a written paper designed to contribute to the general security knowledgebase. Anyone could go read that paper online and get an idea of the writing skills and the security skills of the certificate holder. By changing this to a test only certification, the great differentiator of the GIAC is gone.
The problem with the certification is that not enough people are getting it. Hiring managers are placing emphasis on the CISSP cert or even the Security+ cert from Comptia. By making the bar lower, more people will have the certificate and a “critical mass” of certificate holders will ensure the future value of the certificate. That’s the theory anyway. I like it now where even though its not as well known, the ones who do know, have respect for it. With it being a test only cert now, not requiring people to actually view the course material, I fear it will be like the MCSE. If I see a bunch of high schoolers with a GIAC, I’m taking the certificate off my wall.
Kaspersky – “No such thing as spyware”
Eugene Kasperksy kicked over a beehive in his March 3rd comments posted in his weblog. Kaspersky heads up an antivirus company of the same name. He makes a claim that spyware is nothing more than malicious code which has traditionally been detected by antivirus. He would say that if your antivirus cannot handle malicious code than you should look into other antivirus software. He accuses the entire anti-spyware industry of just being a way of separating the ignorant from their money.
Kaspersky is correct in one aspect. Antivirus companies should detect this crapware and should have done so all along! Keystroke loggers, backdoor trojans and other snoopers have no place on a system. A cottage industry of anti-spyware began because the AV companies weren’t meeting a need. Antivirus companies were ill-prepared to respond to this more pernicious threat model. And I suspect they were unprepared to deal with it from a legal perspective.
Hopefully the next generation of antivirus will be prepared to attack this problem and not require us to purchase extra products just for antispyware.
