Inexpensive, effective mixed-platform Network Security using Linux-based solutions. 

 
Horizon Network Security™
phone: +1 770-662-8321, email: support@VerySecureLinux.com

 
 
 
Linux Security News

Security News

 

Virus and Spam Filter Enhancements

Our Virus and spam filter has a new feature available. This enhancement will check for spam from known spammer IP address not just in the sending system's IP address but also for any URL listed in the body of the email.

This feature will block a whole class of common spam where the email is sent from a newly compromised system not already on the "known spammer" lists but where a http:well-known-spammer.com URL is included in the body of the email. This feature will check the body of the email for any URLs, email addresses, etc. It then will resolve these to IP addresses and look them up on "known spammer" lists.

This feature will greatly reduce spam that gets through with a very low false-positive rate and will take almost no real time or CPU time to process.

 

Top

Is Windows 8 any Better?

Despite much hype from Microsoft, it appears that most of Windows 8 is the same tired old bug-ridden code that Microsoft keeps re-selling to you. This can be seen, in our opinion, by the fact that most new severe security bugs reported in Windows lists Windows 8 as well as old versions of Windows. Since Microsoft is forcing you to upgrade anyway, upgrade to Linux and start enjoying better security, lower costs, higher performance, and true ease of use.

Department of Transportation's (DOT) CIO Daniel Mintz has issued "an indefinite moratorium" on Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7 and Office 2007. A memo obtained by us says that their CIO is concerned about the cost involved in switching to the new products and compatibility issues with other software in use at DOT. The memo says "there appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading; ... furthermore, there appear to be specific reasons not to upgrade."

The three products in question may be obtained, with approval from Mintz, for testing purposes only. DOT has 15,000 computer users running Windows XP Professional; the ban seems to apply to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) too, where 45,000 desktops use Windows.

If you enable Vista's voice command, all a hacker needs to do is to record voice commands on his web site to take over your system. It mystifies us how such a simple solution as disabling voice command when sounds are being output escapes Microsoft.

Windows's Digital Rights Management (DRM) is so Draconian that if Microsoft thinks there is something on your computer that should not be there Microsoft simply will delete it. Talk about Big Brother and trespass! While they claim it only is to delete viruses and spyware, the EULA language allows them to delete anything they don't like, legitimate or not.

We can ensure the security of your critical data! Why risk your business and your job to a security breach?

All statements on this web site are the opinion of Horizon Network Security.

What harm could a cracker do with your customers' credit card numbers? Your customer lists? Your new marketing plan to get ahead of your competition? Your new engineering designs? Your bank account numbers? Financial information that could affect your stock prices? What would this cost you? How much down time and adverse publicity can you afford? Does your SysAdmin know how to recover without throwing away all data created since the last known viable backup? Is the last backup even valid? Can you quickly determine exactly what a Cracker has altered on your systems?

Security breaches are costing U.K. businesses the equivalent of each worker losing a day of work each year, according to figures announced by the British government on 24 April 2002. Half of U.K. businesses do not encrypt customer credit card data across the Internet and only a third encrypt customers' credit card data on their servers. Publicity about major security breaches have put even large companies out of business.

Microsoft's top man says that Windows(tm) has so many security bugs that releasing the source code would threaten U.S. National Security.

A security crisis is starting to emerge in the world of computing, writes Robin Bloor. The year 2002 will prove to be the worst year yet for hacking. The following year will probably be worse. The number of breaches of computer security and the money lost has been escalating rapidly ever since the Internet was born. If you characterize computer security as a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil, then at the moment you have to conclude that the bad guys are winning.

We can ensure the security of your critical data! Why risk your business and your job to a security breach?

Top

 

Microsoft and Ford Motor Company use Linux to solve their problems.

To weather the MS-blaster and Sobig-F Windows viruses, Microsoft replaced its Windows-based www.microsoft.com servers with Linux servers that could withstand the viruses in August 2003. Shouldn't you?

Ford announced that it would switch its Sales force from Windows to Linux systems in September 2003. The national governments of China, France, South Korea, and Mexico already have switched.

13% of all Microsoft IIS Servers had a "back door" Trojan running on them, according to a Netcraft survey published September 12, 2001. We can install a reliable Linux Firewall to ensure that such a back door cannot be used or created. We can replace your unreliable, maintenance-intense, and vulnerability-prone IIS Server, Exchange mail server, file server, or backup scheme with a low-maintenance, reliable, high performance, and low cost Linux server or provide other solutions to these and many other security and administration problems.

Cyberattack activity increased 79% between July and December of 2001 according to security-services vendor Riptech Inc. Don't be part of this year's statistic!

Despite lots of promises by Microsoft, the rate of security patches [security bugs] in Microsoft's products for 2002 so far is the same as for 2001 according to Security Flaws Continue to Be Issue for Microsoft. Protect your vulnerable network with a secure and reliable Linux-based Firewall from Horizon Network Security!

Cisco VPN 5000 Vulnerabilities

What harm could a cracker do with your customers' credit card numbers? Your customer lists? Your new marketing plan to get ahead of your competition? Your new engineering designs? Your bank account numbers? Financial information that could affect your stock prices? What would this cost you? How much down time and adverse publicity can you afford? Does your SysAdmin know how to recover without throwing away all data created since the last known viable backup? Is the last backup even valid? Can you quickly determine exactly what a Cracker has altered on your systems?

Security breaches are costing U.K. businesses the equivalent of each worker losing a day of work each year, according to figures announced by the British government on 24 April 2002. Half of U.K. businesses do not encrypt customer credit card data across the Internet and only a third encrypt customers' credit card data on their servers. Publicity about major security breaches have put even large companies out of business.

Microsoft's top man says that Windows(tm) has so many security bugs that releasing the source code would threaten U.S. National Security.

A security crisis is starting to emerge in the world of computing, writes Robin Bloor. The year 2002 will prove to be the worst year yet for hacking. The following year will probably be worse. The number of breaches of computer security and the money lost has been escalating rapidly ever since the Internet was born. If you characterize computer security as a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil, then at the moment you have to conclude that the bad guys are winning.

We can ensure the security of your critical data! Why risk your business and your job to a security breach?

Top

 

Is Your Network Secure?

28% of systems were broken into by hackers after SysAdmins had "secured" their networks (and believed that they were unbreakable) in a test in 2000. (Reported by William Knowles on isn@securityfocus.com.) Many people will "secure" your network but cannot even explain how TCP spoofing occurs, how a session or system address is hijacked, or how to prevent a fragmentation attack.

9 out of 10 viruses prefer Windows. We can protect your Windows systems or move your critical server functions to Linux at a cost so low your accountants will smile.

We can protect your network of vulnerable servers, Windows, NT, Mac, Linux, and Unix systems with our unique Adaptive Firewall that will automatically detect an attack and lock the cracker out of all services (in a fraction of a second) before he can find one that might be vulnerable, while leaving your systems open for business as usual.

We offer 24x7 monitoring of your important systems for system and network failures, defaced web pages, attempted breaches of security, and even when your systems are running low on disk space. We can ensure that connections with employees at home and traveling are secure and not a point of entry into your otherwise secure network.

Linux Firewalls and web, mail, and web servers work great in networks of Windows desktops, laptops, and servers but if you are considering trying Linux on the desktop too, Windows to Linux HOWTO will help you decide whether this might work well for you.

Even Wall-Mart recognizes the value of Linux and sells computers running it at its store, as written up in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The European Union is moving to Linux; Nambia uses Linux and rebuffed Microsoft's offer to move back.

Horizon Network Security was founded by Bob Toxen, noted security expert with 30 years of combined Unix and Linux experience and author of the book Real World Linux Security: Intrusion Prevention, Detection, and Recovery, Second Edition, published by Prentice Hall.

Bob was one of the 162 official developers of Berkeley Unix and he was one of the 4 people who ported Unix to the Silicon Graphics workstation for SGI. He helped develop the software for the world's first Internet Bank, also in use by many of the largest U.S. and Canadian banks. He also designed the client/server system that NASA uses for keeping track of Shuttle payloads and created the software that drives Netgear's Linux-based Network Disk Devices, the ND508 and ND520. It serves critical roles for Lloyds of London and Japan's telephone company.

Bob's 32 years of Unix and Linux experience includes security, network programming, and porting software. We have knowledgeable staff capable of handling your simple and complex requirements in a cost-effective manner. We are on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Top

Is Microsoft a Titanic hitting an Open Source Iceburg?

Microsoft finally is admitting in its financial filings that Linux and other Open Source products are eating into its revenues. Worse, Microsoft admits, is that they are seeing is the tip of the iceberg. Their FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) and lies about relative operating cost and support no longer is working.

To make up for revenue lost to Linux, Microsoft has raised prices, forced customers to upgrade more frequently by stopping support for existing produces sooner. They have used the DMCA, encryption technology ("Trusted Computing"), and software patents to prevent mixed platform shops and interoperability.

Are you going down with the Microsoft ship? We can help you move to the secure, inexpensive Linux future.

Top

 

9/11: our response

We are a small company of a few people. For many years our president, Bob Toxen, has been a volunteer pilot with Angel Flight of Georgia, a charity that provides free air transport for medical patients, blood supplies, and occasionally for organs for transplant and medical personnel. Each pilot not only volunteers his time but also pays his own aircraft operating expenses for these flights. An Angel Flight of Georgia flight transported the head of the Georgia chapter of the Red Cross to Ground Zero to help with operations and a different flight transported 1100 pounds of blood supplies from Georgia to New York to help survivors.

On the evening of 9/11 Bob offered his services to Angel Flight for any needed flight to help in the wake of the worst single terrorist attack in history. He pointed out that he could leave at a moment's notice (despite having substantial client work queued up) and was familiar with the airspace and airports around New York City and Washington, DC. He did not expect to be called, assuming that almost every pilot would be volunteering for this special help. (We all are on call every day for flights.)

While a patient transport flight is routine, responding to disasters is not. One may not be coming home for days, special procedures probably will be in place, and the normally very ordered world of aviation will be much less so. Most people do not know that the first supplies transported into disaster areas, such as those hit by hurricanes and earthquakes, usually are by small planes. Often the roads are destroyed or clogged with refugees. This has been true especially in some of the worst Florida hurricanes and California earthquakes.

To his surprise, he was called on the afternoon of 9/12/2001 and asked to make a flight to Mississippi to provide emergency air transport of blood supplies. (Until processed, such supplies have a very short shelf life.) The round trip three leg flight took six hours, not including flight planning, obtaining a weather briefing, and purchasing charts.

Security was "tighter than in Russia", involving special clearance procedures, authorization from NORAD Air Defense for takeoff, armed police checkpoints, and a FAA checkpoint. When the FAA Inspector, a personal friend, reviewed military intercept procedures with Bob, he got scared. He found out later that the flight (and the few other civilian flights operating that day) were shadowed by armed Air Force fighters ready to shoot down any suspicious aircraft. Bob made a similar flight the following Sunday.

Bob also advised the Red Cross on the best ways to build the many laptops needed in a hurry for Ground Zero operations.

Bob donated generously to funds to help the families of the brave firemen who went into the Twin Towers to save lives but never came out again.

 

 

Firewall
Spam Filter, Virus Filter
Data Backup