Dragan on Security

Last week Congress gave US President Bush new wiretapping powers. Read  Susan Landau - A Gateway for Hackers - washingtonpost.com. It says:

Grant the NSA what it wants, and within 10 years the United States will be vulnerable to attacks from hackers across the globe, as well as the militaries of China, Russia and other nations.

Such threats are not theoretical. For almost a year beginning in April 2004, more than 100 phones belonging to members of the Greek government, including the prime minister and ministers of defense, foreign affairs, justice and public order, were spied on with wiretapping software that was misused. Exactly who placed the software and who did the listening remain unknown. But they were able to use software that was supposed to be used only with legal permission.

Can we expect new scandals similar to the Greek wiretapping scandal (here)?

Book preview of our book “Security of Computer Systems and Networks” is scheduled to appear at ComSIS Journal Volume 4, Number 1, June 2007 (here).

This is great news that many computer network and security administrators will welcome and which will make their life easier. By end of March 2007 GFI Software, well known company that develops network security, content security and messaging software, announced new version of its network security scanning product: GFI LANguard Network Security Scanner (N.S.S.). This security scanner is a solution that addresses the three pillars of vulnerability management: security scanning, patch management and network auditing through a single, integrated console. By scanning the entire network, it identifies all possible security issues and using its extensive reporting functionality provides you with the tools you need to detect, assess, report and remediate any threats.

According to the company, GFI LANguard N.S.S. 8 scans the entire network for over 15,000 vulnerabilities, identifies all possible security issues and provides administrators with the tools they need to detect assess report and remediate any threats before hackers do.

Having to deal with problems related to vulnerability issues, patch management and network auditing separately, at times using multiple products, is a major concern and big headache for administrators. Not only do they have to install, learn to use and manage multiple solutions but their time is mostly spent analyzing huge logs, trying to understand where the problems are instead of actually addressing the threats that may be present in their network. Using a single console with extensive reporting functionality, GFI LANguard N.S.S.’s integrated solution helps administrators address these issues faster and more effectively.

Apart from more extensive vulnerability scanning capabilities, GFI LANguard N.S.S. also has a performance enhanced scanning engine, additional patch management functionality and a highly intuitive graphical threat level indicator. This improves usability and decreases negative performance impact that many security tools have on systems and networks. The latest version has received a variety of patch management improvements including added support to rollback Microsoft patches as well as technology to automatically download new Microsoft security patches when made available. It also supports scanning for vulnerabilities on the newest Microsoft operating system Windows Vista.

GFI LANguard N.S.S. consists of five main components, which are:
• Management console
• Attendant service
• Status monitor
• Patch agent service
• Script debugger.

Management console is used to:
• Launch network security scans and patch deployment sessions
• View saved and real time security scan results
• Configure scan options, scan profiles and report filters
• Use specialized network security administration tools.

Attendant service - This background service runs all scheduled operations of GFI LANguard N.S.S. including scheduled network security scans and patch deployment operations.

Status monitor is used to:
• Examine the security threat level of your entire network
• Monitor the status of scheduled scans, software-updates and patch deployment sessions
• Stop scheduled operations that have not yet been executed
• Supervise the status of your patch auto download queue.

Patch agent service - This background service handles the deployment of patches, service packs and software updates on target computers.

Script debugger - This module allows you to write and debug custom scripts using a VBScript-compatible language. Use this module to create scripts for custom vulnerability checks through which you can custom-scan network targets for specific vulnerabilities.

As part of the launch, GFI LANguard N.S.S. 8 also includes a ReportPack add-on with over 30 customizable reports, which automatically generate graphical IT and management-level reports based on data collected during security scans. This is very useful solution for administrators as well as other IT staff.

You can find details about the new released version of GFI LANguard Network Security Scanner (N.S.S.) here: http://www.gfi.com/news/en/lanns8.htm.  

Find out more about GFI LANguard Network Security Scanner and download your free 30-day trial today, here: http://www.gfi.com/lannetscan/. Note: This is sponsored post.