Technology Topics

Articles about Cybersecurity and Information Technology

DoD Classification Backgrounds

DoD Classification Backgrounds

Many years ago, while working in an Army lab, I had the need for classification backgrounds. I thought I had seen them somewhere, but no one was able to point me to them when I needed them. Years later I learned that my backgrounds had been used in labs everywhere!...

Acceptable Use Policy Template

Acceptable Use Policy Template

Many years ago I created an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) template that was intended for use by my small business clients. I wanted a policy that was short, understandable, and written to be read (not just for compliance). Over the years, I've seen pieces of this policy...

How to Keep Up… (IT & Security Edition)

How to Keep Up… (IT & Security Edition)

IT and Security are both high-growth industries. It's easy to understand that times change, technologies change, and vendors change. It inevitable, and a certain degree of change is always expected. As IT and Security professionals, we expect that continuous education...

CyberCamp

CyberCamp

Nearly a decade ago I was approached by a defense colleague with this crazy idea of creating a high school cybersecurity summer camp program. We knew it would be a lot of work, but we also knew there was a very real need in our industry: we just don't have enough...

Common Sense Security

Common Sense Security

The occurrence of data breaches has been on a continual rise over the past 18-24 months. Some of this is arguably due to increased reporting, but what about the rest? How do some of the largest companies in the world manage to get breached by so-called “advanced”...

Adaptive Password Policies

Adaptive Password Policies

Stanford recently published a new security policy allowing their users to choose length over complexity.  Password complexity has always been the go-to answer for creating secure passwords. Of late, there has been a big push to change that; and for good...

Open Source Enterprise Security

Open Source Enterprise Security

My second presentation at BSides Orlando 2014 was on Open Source Enterprise security solutions. The idea was to present a number of tools to help the struggling small business meet enterprise security objectives.  It’s easy to forget that many (most?)...

Decoding the Air (SDR)

Decoding the Air (SDR)

Last weekend I gave a talk at BSides Orlando on Software Defined Radio. I wanted to do a tutorial on getting started with SDR rather than just showing all the cool stuff you could listen to (that’s what YouTube is for). All-in-all, I think it went well… The...