Archive for February, 2012

The Inner Workings of E-Discovery Software

February 8th, 2012

With famous litigation making the rounds of cable and local news channels, e-discovery software has found its place in the legal process. Electronic discovery, or e-discovery, is the process by which electronic documents such as e-mails, instant messaging and other types of computer communication are found by investigative means. E-Discovery software is the computer equipment used in these investigative matters. Find out how e-discovery software aids in the finding of possible evidence in legal proceedings.

Managing and Identifying Evidence

In the past decade, legislation has been passed that requires employers to keep track of important documents and communications. In the event of impending litigation, the employer, or party to the court proceeding, is required to either produce any pertinent information themselves or to hire a company that specializes in e-discovery. Once this process has been completed, attorneys, IT professionals and investigators have to identify evidence that could be useful in any impending court proceedings.

Using E-Discovery Software to Collect Evidence

As stated before, employers are required to preserve certain documents and to retrieve any communications regarding a viable piece of information in the event of a subpoena or lawsuit. When an employer finds out that they need to use e-discovery software to retrieve company emails, instant messages and other electronic communication, they can either enlist the help of IT professionals or even the services of an e-discovery company. E-discovery companies are getting more and more popular as the evolving technology makes it even easier to retrieve lost documents.

Using E-Discovery Software to Analyze the Evidence

Once all documents have been retrieved from the computer in question, the time has come for investigators to go through all pertinent papers for the purpose of getting evidence that could provide the much needed ammunition for their case. » Read more: The Inner Workings of E-Discovery Software

PCI Compliance Server Hardening Doesn’t Have to Be Hard

February 8th, 2012

Harden Server Configuration to remove Vulnerabilities

“PCI DSS Version 2.0 Requirement 2: Do not use vendor-supplied defaults for system passwords and other security parameters”

From the moment a server is powered up it becomes vulnerable to attack. Assuming that leaving your key application servers turned off is not an option it will be necessary to implement security measures advocated by the PCI DSS.

PCI Requirement 2 calls for configuration hardening of servers, EPoS PC’s and network devices. The headlines of the requirement call for removal of default usernames and passwords, and a need to stop any unnecessary services. However, beyond these initial measures there are a vast number of additional configuration setting changes recommended by ‘best practice’ authorities (such as SANS Institute, CIS and NIST) all of which help to mitigate security threats. If you haven’t already adopted a hardened configuration standard then any of these organizations can assist, although a good configuration auditing and config change tracking system will typically be pre-packed with a hardening checklist you can adopt. This type of system will automate not just the initial hardening assessment but will also do so on a continuous automatic basis so you can be alerted when any configuration drift occurs.

As with most elements of the PCI DSS Requirements, there are a number of checks and balances to provide evidence that adequate hardening measures have been applied. In common with the overall ethos of the PCI DSS, there is always a high degree of overlap to guarantee comprehensive coverage. Similarly, event log management and file integrity monitoring measures will serve to provide additional checks to verify security measures have not been changed or compromised at all times.

Active Testing of PCI DSS Security Measures – Pen Testing and Vulnerability Scanning

PCI Requirement 11 covers Penetration Testing and Vulnerability Scanning – we’ll discuss these in turn.

Pen Testing / Penetration Testing

Any internet facing devices are exposed to somewhere in excess of 2 billion potential hackers (source: ITU website – ‘Key Facts’) and while firewalls and intrusion detection technologies help to allow good users in and keep bad traffic out, the fact remains that an ‘open’ website is always going to be vulnerable to attack. » Read more: PCI Compliance Server Hardening Doesn’t Have to Be Hard