News from PANUG/BizNix - September 10, 2003
http://panug.org - http://biznix.org


ATTACK-PROOF COMPUTERS?

Tomorrow (Thursday) is the September BizNix meeting. The
meeting starts at 6:30 at Novell's office in Tigard. The
main presentation will focus on a new way of securing
computer systems that's _very_ different than conventional
techniques. A new company in Portland called Tailored
Computers now provides such systems. They provide this brief
overview:

Computer systems can be designed to be extremely resistant
to attack. With a properly designed system, viruses and
Trojan Horse programs have little or no effect because the
system is "sealed". Changes cannot be made to any of the
programs or static data files. Such a system cannot easily
be "rooted" or taken over by attackers.

This sealed system technology has additional benefits.
Installation is trivial. An ordinary user can install the
system in under 5 minutes without providing the computer
with any information. Upgrading the systems is the same:
5 minutes or less and no user interaction.

Administrators can lock down the system to any level of
detail. There's more - much more.

This technology represents a paradigm shift. Come on down
and see how your old ideas about computer systems hold up
against the benefits of sealed systems.

Please RSVP by responding to this message.


SECURITY ADVICE

The following comment appeared in today's SANS broadcast
referring to an article on how colleges are dealing with
computer viruses.

 (Schneier): I suspect part of the problem is the
 multiplicity of operating systems and setups. But
 providing or requiring purchase of a uniform version
 of one brand of antivirus software would seem to be a
 major step in the right direction.

Does anyone care to comment on this advice?


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Member contributions do not necessarily represent the
official positions of PANUG or BizNix. If you don't
contribute, the views of members that contribute
frequently may appear to be the official position of
the group(s).