A Penton Media Property
January 2, 2008
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IN FOCUS
--7 Months with Ubuntu
by Mark Joseph Edwards, News Editor, mark at ntsecurity / net
About a year ago, Microsoft released Windows Vista, its most ambitious
desktop platform to date. It's a great improvement over Windows XP
primarily because it brings better security to the overall OS.
Makers of Linux platforms are improving their desktop OSs too. One
company making huge leaps forward is Canonical, the company behind
Ubuntu. In April 2007, Canonical released Ubuntu 7.04, code-named Feisty
Fawn. Prior to the release of 7.04, I'd tested Ubuntu and found it
somewhat acceptable for my needs but not exceptionally great mainly
because it didn't recognize some of my particular hardware and I didn't
want to spend much time finding and installing drivers.
In early June 2007, I finally got around to giving Ubuntu another look
(using a bootable Live CD) and was pleasantly surprised. The new OS
recognized all my hardware immediately, including my printers, wired
Ethernet cards, and half a dozen different Wi-Fi cards. I then poked
around the desktop a little bit and discovered that almost all the tools
I need for day-to-day work are either already installed by default or
are available for easy Internet-based installation with a few clicks of
the mouse. It was at that point that Ubuntu really got my attention. I
found myself thinking that I could quickly install Ubuntu along with all
the tools I need and take the OS for an extended long-term test drive.
And that's exactly what I did.
When I began the test drive, the questions I had in mind were, "Can I
use this OS as my everyday desktop?" and "Can it effectively replace my
Windows desktop?" As it turns out, the answers are yes and no,
respectively. After using Ubuntu as my primary desktop for 7 months
straight, every day of the week, I am thoroughly impressed. I've found
that it's a fantastic platform for regular users. However, there are
obvious problems for Windows security administrators.
Administrators need to run all sorts of third-party Windows-based
security tools as well as the security-related tools built into Windows
itself. I solved those problems in two ways, both of which might be
obvious to at least some of you. The first solution is to use Wine (a
Windows emulation environment), which is installed in Ubuntu by default.
Wine let me run numerous third-party Windows tools directly on the
Ubuntu desktop. The second solution is that I installed a free virtual
machine (VM) platform and then installed Windows Vista as a guest VM. So
when I need to use a tool that won't run properly under Wine or a tool
that's built into Windows, I start the Vista VM and use the tool in that
environment; when I'm done, I shut down the VM.
I've found that Ubuntu is reasonably secure, has decent desktop controls
that help prevent unwanted access (similar to Vista's User Access
Control--UAC), and is relatively quickly patched when security problems
appear in various OS components. Installing those patches is easy too--a
bit easier than typical desktop updates on Windows platforms.
So for the past 7 months, I've been enjoying the best of both the Linux
and Windows worlds. My extended test drive of Ubuntu has been extremely
fun and a great learning experience, particularly in terms of
interoperability.
I wouldn't go so far as to say that any Windows administrator can switch
to Ubuntu (or any other Linux desktop platform), but I do think that
it's a great platform for everyday use by nonadministrative users and
for those administrators that simply need a Linux platform to get their
job done in the best possible manner.
If you're interested in Ubuntu check it out at the URL below.
ubuntu.com (http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-979-803-202-62923-58110-0-0-0-1-2-207)
=====
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SECURITY NEWS AND FEATURES
--Microsoft Launches New Security Blog
The Microsoft Security Response Center team launched a new blog aimed at
offering more in-depth information about vulnerabilities and on-going
attacks, as well as how to possibly mitigate these situations.
To view the full article go to:
http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-979-803-202-62923-58113-0-0-0-1-2-207
--Javelina Releases New AD Security Tool
Javelina Software released a new Active Directory (AD) security tool
that helps automate analysis of Access Control Lists (ACLs).
To view the full article go to:
http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-979-803-202-62923-58114-0-0-0-1-2-207
GIVE AND TAKE
--SECURITY MATTERS BLOG: Hosted Web Mail Is a Huge Risk--Do You Need
Proof?
by Mark Joseph Edwards
I've said for years that outsourcing mail services is a bad idea,
especially for Web mail. Here's a crystal clear example of what can go
wrong when you do outsource mail services.
To view the full article go to:
http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-979-803-202-62923-58115-0-0-0-1-2-207
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--FAQ: Add AD Users with a Script
by John Savill
Q: Is there a script I can use to add a new Active Directory (AD) user
via an LDAP connection?
Find the answer at
www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/97816
(http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-979-803-202-62923-58117-0-0-0-1-2-207)
--Announcing the 2008 Windows IT Pro Community Choice Awards!
The nomination period for the 2008 Windows IT Pro Community Choice
Awards has begun! Visitors to the Windows IT Pro and SQL Server Magazine
online forums are encouraged to nominate and vote on their favorite
products and services. Nominate your own favorite products in the
categories listed at:
forums.windowsitpro.com/web/forum/messageview.aspx?catid=96&threadid=88418&enterthread=y
(http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-979-803-202-62923-58118-0-0-0-1-2-207)
RESOURCES AND EVENTS
Tips From David Chernicoff on Backup at Remote Business Sites
Does your business operate in multiple locations? Do stretched IT
resources short-change data protection for your remote sites? Keeping
data at remote sites backed up and secure is a critical component of
business success. In this podcast, David Chernicoff discusses the
problems surrounding data backup to remote sites and offers ideas and
suggestions for successful remote backups. Register now to get the
knowledge you need to protect all your business data.
www.windowsitpro.com/go/podcast/storageguardian/?code=122607er
(http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-979-803-202-62923-58119-0-0-0-1-2-207)
Mobile Users' Backup & Protection Strategies
Traditional business backup solutions don't usually take into
consideration the special case of the mobile or casually connected user,
making it all too easy for these users to get lost in the shuffle of the
daily support responsibilities of most IT departments. This Web seminar
provides ideas, suggestions, and solutions to the problems inherent in
protecting and backing up the data used and generated by the mobile
business user.
www.windowsitpro.com/go/seminars/atempo/mobilebackup/?partnerref=122607er
(http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-979-803-202-62923-58120-0-0-0-1-2-207)
Unified Communications: What Is It? Why Should You Care? And How to Get
There
This white paper breaks the move to UC down into a manageable 3-phase
process that starts with unified messaging (UM). Learn practical tips
and a phased approach for getting started with UM as the first step
toward a UC environment in the future.
www.windowsitpro.com/go/whitepapers/activevoice/um/?code=122607er
(http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-979-803-202-62923-58121-0-0-0-1-2-207)
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In the web seminar, David Chernicoff reviews these IT challenges and
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Don't miss this opportunity to get a jump on proactive IT management of
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----------------------------------------
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network security device that inspects and blocks Web requests based on
URL destination. This white paper examines the threats of allowing
unwanted or offensive content into your network and describes the
technologies and methodologies to combat such threats.
www.windowsitpro.com/go/whitepaper/stbernard/internetthreats/?code=122607er
(http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-979-803-202-62923-58123-0-0-0-1-2-207)
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Exchange 2007 Mastery Series: January 28, 2008
Three info-packed eLearning seminars for only $99!
Hosted by Windows IT Pro
Mark Arnold--MCSE+M and Microsoft MVP--will coach you through Exchange
2007 storage solutions: planning for archiving and compliance,
optimizing your iSCSI network storage, and finding the sweet spot
between memory and spindles.
www.windowsitpro.com/go/elearning/masteringexchange2007
(http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-979-803-202-62923-58124-0-0-0-1-2-207)
CONTACT US
Security UDPATE is brought to you by the Windows IT Pro Web site's
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below).
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