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Score with Virtualization

We just got back from the Citrix virtualization seminar in Washington D.C.  The seminar was very informative with live demos of their products.  They pretty much covered all their virtualization products and how they work together: XenApp (application virtualization), XenDesktop (desktop virtualization), and XenServer (server virtualization).  They also had three of their customers come in to share their experiences with Citrix virtualization technologies.

Now for the free stuff.  Attendees received a small bag (man purse?), a notepad, a pen, and a 1GB flash drive.  Citrix XenServer is also now free with XenMotion (live migration) and XenCenter (let’s see how VMware responds to this ).  Picture of the free stuff below.

Free Stuff

Occasional Teleworkers On the Rise

Working from home is an increasingly popular option for U.S. employees - at least occasionally.

The number of U.S. employees, contractors and business owners who worked remotely at least one day per month increased 17% in the past two years, from approximately 28.7 million in 2006 to 33.7 million in 2008, according to global HR association WorldatWork. In the five-year period since 2003, the total number of once-a-month telecommuters in the U.S. has risen 43%.

Read the full article.

Citrix Virtualization Event

Our team is attending this event next week in Washington D.C.  Click here to register.  It’s free!

Score with Virtualization

Date: 2/24/2009
Time: 9:00 am EDT - 3:00 pm EDT
Location:
555 12th St NW
Washington, DC
Hosted by: Citrix Systems Inc.
Venue: ESPN Zone

Agenda

9:00am Registration, breakfast and partner networking
9:30am Opening remarks
10:00am Virtualization Today
10:30am Dynamic Demos
12:30pm Lunch with roundtable discussions
1:30pm Customer panel with moderator intro and Q&A
2:30pm Closing remarks, evaluations, and raffles

More info here: http://www.citrix.com/English/NE/events/event.asp?eventID=1685694

Untangle 6.1 Beta Now Available

The biggest change in 6.1 is it’s now based on Debian Lenny (kernel 2.6.26).  Here’s the full changelog.  You can download the beta here.

New Theme!

I finally got bored with my old theme (Talon) so I decided to change it to this.  I like the simple look/layout and it also has more options than my old theme, making it easier to customize.  This one has only one sidebar, giving my posts a little bit more space!

Here’s a screenshot of my old theme:

IIS Security Scan: The remote service supports the use of weak SSL ciphers

Synopsis: The remote service supports the use of weak SSL ciphers. Description : The remote host supports the use of SSL ciphers that offer either weak encryption or no encryption at all. See also : http://www.openssl.org/docs/apps/ciphers.html Solution: Reconfigure the affected application if possible to avoid use of weak ciphers. Risk Factor: Medium / CVSS Base Score : 5.0 (CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N) Plugin output : Here is the list of weak SSL ciphers supported by the remote server : Low Strength Ciphers ( 56-bit key) SSLv3 EXP-RC2-CBC-MD5 Kx=RSA(512) Au=RSA Enc=RC2(40) Mac=MD5 export EXP-RC4-MD5 Kx=RSA(512) Au=RSA Enc=RC4(40) Mac=MD5 export The fields above are : {OpenSSL ciphername} Kx={key exchange} Au={authentication} Enc={symmetric encryption method} Mac={message authentication code} {export flag}

Our ISA 2006 server failed the SecurityMetrics PCI scan yesterday with this reason.  We fixed the security issue by doing the following:

1. Open Registry Editor.
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\ SCHANNEL\Ciphers (I recommend that you create a backup of this section of the registry before continuing).
3. Select a cipher that has a number less than 128/128 (examples: DES 56/56, RC2 40/128, RC4 40/128, RC4 56/128) and add a DWORD value with the name “Enabled” and Value Data: 0.
4. Repeat Step 3 for all ciphers less than 128/128.

After doing the above, we ran the SecurityMetrics scan again and it didn’t find any vulnerabilities this time.

You might also want to disable SSL 2.0 support while you’re here as this is another security issue (we had to do this last year to pass).  To do so, simply add the same DWORD value to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\ SCHANNEL\Protocols\SSL 2.0\Server.

Credit goes to this website for this solution: http://www.curtis-lamasters.com/2008/06/21/windows-iis-ssl-restrict-weak-ciphers/

More on Downadup/Conficker worm…

“It has the potential to infect about 30% of Windows systems online, a potential 300 to 350 million PCs,” says Don Jackson, director of threat intelligence in the counter threat unit at SecureWorks. The worm, first identified in November and suspected to have originated in the Ukraine, is quickly ramping up, and while Downadup today is not malicious in the sense of destroying files — its main trick is to block users from accessing antivirus sites to obtain updates to protect against it — the worm is capable of downloading second-stage code for darker purposes. Many experts anticipate that could occur soon.

Read the full article.

Dell Coupon Codes

I’ve been getting these Dell coupon codes in the mail.  Hope you find them useful.

15% off select electronics, software, and accessories

• 3M1M4WG4ZX4?LZ
• XWX9BR9PVNXV4H

25% off select systems

• RCRKBSFPVFSTMH
• 8G?B$MNP4VGF9H

25% off select servers, storage, and switches

• R5WDXDHWBQKL46
• XCHSJ54MT89FDM

Offers valid 11/7/2008 - 1/30/2009 - Enjoy!