Wireshark Packet Sniffer - formerly known as Ethereal - is a must-have tool for every Network Engineer, but these guys have got a cool OUI Lookup tool on their site as well.
Wireshark OUI Lookup Tool:
http://www.wireshark.org/tools/oui-lookup.html
Tags: Ethernet, Wireshark, Gr33n Data
30 June 2008
17 June 2008
10 June 2008
Books Burning Phenomenon
I'll leave the "Evil Encryption Dilemma" for a while now, as I have another topic in mind to talk about here.
Once upon a time, in a village in the North Pole, the weather was getting really cold, and people were not able to find straws or coal to use in their fires. In such village there was a bookshop, and a book there was sold for $20, so the salesman there decided to market books as some kind of fuel, and then he was able to sell the book for $30 instead of $20.
What I want to say here, is that for us, it's really dumb for the salesman and the villagers to just use books as a source of fuel. The publishers and writers efforts are just wasted in the fire. But on the other hand, if we put ourselves in the salesman's shoes, we can see that he is selling a book for $30 instead of $20. And for the villagers, they are in a bad need of warmth, more than reading and getting educated.
Such "Bocks Burning" Phenomenon, is sometimes the case for the Network Security Industry today. Every company has its own product portfolio, and when they feel that their customers are in a need of a certain product or solution, they sometimes start to re-brand their existing products as the ultimate solution for the customers' problems instead of inventing actual solutions for such problems.
Sometimes such re-branding is done in order to sell a certain product as a solution for a certain problem, and most of the time such re-branding is capable of solving at least a big part of the problem, and that's why it is successful and acceptable, however it may not be the optimum solution. But what I hate the most, is when vendors re-brand one of their products to sell it along with some other solution, even if it has nothing to do with such solution, but they simply convince their customers that they are in a bad need for such integral part in order to over-sell and maximize their profit.
Tags: Security, Industry, Gr33n Data
Once upon a time, in a village in the North Pole, the weather was getting really cold, and people were not able to find straws or coal to use in their fires. In such village there was a bookshop, and a book there was sold for $20, so the salesman there decided to market books as some kind of fuel, and then he was able to sell the book for $30 instead of $20.
What I want to say here, is that for us, it's really dumb for the salesman and the villagers to just use books as a source of fuel. The publishers and writers efforts are just wasted in the fire. But on the other hand, if we put ourselves in the salesman's shoes, we can see that he is selling a book for $30 instead of $20. And for the villagers, they are in a bad need of warmth, more than reading and getting educated.
Such "Bocks Burning" Phenomenon, is sometimes the case for the Network Security Industry today. Every company has its own product portfolio, and when they feel that their customers are in a need of a certain product or solution, they sometimes start to re-brand their existing products as the ultimate solution for the customers' problems instead of inventing actual solutions for such problems.
Sometimes such re-branding is done in order to sell a certain product as a solution for a certain problem, and most of the time such re-branding is capable of solving at least a big part of the problem, and that's why it is successful and acceptable, however it may not be the optimum solution. But what I hate the most, is when vendors re-brand one of their products to sell it along with some other solution, even if it has nothing to do with such solution, but they simply convince their customers that they are in a bad need for such integral part in order to over-sell and maximize their profit.
Tags: Security, Industry, Gr33n Data
02 June 2008
Evil Encryption Dilemma
SSL is everywhere nowadays, it's not only used by Web Servers, but also Telecommuters and Remote Employees access their Enterprises using SSL VPN Tunnels. P2P and IM's are also encrypting their traffic.
Ok, it's good to encrypt your traffic, so that no one can see or alter your confidential data, but on the other hand, how will the Network-Based IPS's, Firewalls/UTM's, and WAN Optimizers operate successfully in such Confidential World!?
By encrypting your traffic you are hiding the malicious traffic patterns from the IPS's along with your confidential data. You are also hiding the repeated patterns from the WAN Optimizers, and sure they won't be able to optimize traffic they can't see.
I know there are some workarounds out there and special deployment scenarios that can somehow help in solving such issue. But I'd like you first to tell me what do you think is the optimum solution for this Evil Encryption Dilemma.
Tags: Encryption, Security, Gr33n Data
Ok, it's good to encrypt your traffic, so that no one can see or alter your confidential data, but on the other hand, how will the Network-Based IPS's, Firewalls/UTM's, and WAN Optimizers operate successfully in such Confidential World!?
By encrypting your traffic you are hiding the malicious traffic patterns from the IPS's along with your confidential data. You are also hiding the repeated patterns from the WAN Optimizers, and sure they won't be able to optimize traffic they can't see.
I know there are some workarounds out there and special deployment scenarios that can somehow help in solving such issue. But I'd like you first to tell me what do you think is the optimum solution for this Evil Encryption Dilemma.
Tags: Encryption, Security, Gr33n Data
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