Måjðr Mïkê

I got this forwarded to me as a joke and I found it so hilarious that I wanted to share it with the rest of you. I have cleaned it up a bit so it reads better than a messy forward. Hope you have a laugh and brighten your day.

Most medium to large European companies plan to consolidate network security on a single hardware appliance in the next year, but cost is not the only driver.

Ninety per cent of IT directors polled in the UK, France and Germany say they will consolidate their networks in the coming months.

Reducing cost is one of the main reasons for the move, but simplified network security management is the biggest driver overall.

Rick Cole, IT manager at financial services firm B&CE, says the move to a single appliance for all network security is a "no-brainer".

The switch was prompted by B&CE’s need to upgrade its firewall security and capacity to support new e-commerce projects.

"I could not see the sense in getting to grips with several software products, when it could be done all in one package," says Cole.

B&CE plans to run its new firewall on a single Fortinet unified threat management (UTM) appliance and then gradually add all other network security applications.

Organizations are typically able to put e-mail filtering, web filtering, intrusion prevention, network gateway anti-virus, and access control applications on a UTM appliance.

IT staff will only have one network security management console to learn how to use, there will be improved visibility of network activity, and better reporting through consolidation.

Cole says administrative benefits include having a single point of contact for support and not having to manage several separate software licenses and service contracts.

Andy Hamilton, network manager at University College Oxford, says having only one set of skills to learn is a great time saver.

"Simplified training and quicker support from one company are definite benefits," he says.

Hamilton says improved security is another big benefit of having a single appliance from a single supplier.

"This means there are no interoperability issues. It is also easier to secure one box than multiple boxes," he says.

Improved security is one of the top three reasons survey respondents cite for network security consolidation, but it is the top reason given by UK respondents, ahead of improved management and lower operating costs.

Tony Dyhouse, director at Cyber Security Knowledge Transfer Network, says UTM means systems are combined, making security a simpler process.

"This means there is less reliance on experts because the product is simpler and more manageable. This is particularly useful for smaller companies that cannot afford the same level of security expertise as larger companies," he says.

Overall, lower costs is the second most important reason given for consolidating network security.

B&CE expects to cut operating costs by about half, and University College estimates that costs have dropped by a third.

Dyhouse says the recession has put great pressure on security managers to justify their expenditure.

"Moving to products which can offer multiple functions is a good way to show cost saving to the board," he says.

Richard Brain, technical director at security firm Procheckup, which operatives five UTMs, says advantages also include savings in power consumption and rack space.

Romain Foucherou, an analyst at IDC, says the recession has taught most organizations the value of a consolidated approach to network security, which frees businesses from rigid per-user licensing models.

"Once companies have invested in a single hardware appliance, new capabilities can be added with a simple hardware upgrade," says Foucherou.

This means organizations can be assured of future scalability as the business grows and the threat environment changes, without buying additional hardware.

However, Brain warns that consolidation carries the risk of having a single point of failure for all network security applications.

He also cautions against potential hidden costs. "Watch out for extras like support and 24-hour call out. This can be expensive," he says.

Foucherou says UTM appliances have come a long way in the past three years. Technological advances have enabled the security, reliability and throughput that enterprises demand.

This has been one of the main reasons UTM solutions have graduated from branch offices to enterprises, backed by a strong focus of suppliers on the higher end of the market.

Link

Mozilla is working on a fix for a "highly critical" vulnerability in is Firefox browser.

The vulnerability, which puts users at risk of remote code execution attacks, affects Firefox 3.5, but other versions may also be at risk.

Mozilla said an attacker can exploit the vulnerability by luring Firefox users to a malicious web page containing the exploit code.

The security hole is due to an error in the way JavaScript code is processed, according to the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT).

"Exploitation of this vulnerability may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code. Additionally, exploit code is publicly available for this vulnerability," US-CERT warned.

Proof-of-concept exploit code was posted on Milw0rm.com, an exploit code aggregation site.

US-CERT said Firefox users should disable JavaScript. The organisation has also posted instructions on other ways of mitigating the risk until a fix is released.

Link

Microsoft has intensified competition with Google by announcing a free web-based version of its Office software.

Office 2010 will include stripped-down versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote in a strong response to competition from Google Apps.

Investors responded positively to Microsoft’s move, sending shares almost 3.8% higher to close at $23.23, according to the BBC.

The announcement comes less than a week after Google announced it was developing a free operating system, challenging Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

Google’s Chrome OS announcement came just weeks after Microsoft launched its Bing search engine, which is designed to challenge Google in the search arena.

Both companies are investing in online development in response to user demands for powerful web-based collaboration applications that are reliable.

Giving millions of Windows Live users free access to the Office web applications could put $4bn in revenue at risk, according to The Wall Street Journal.

But analysts say the move is a smart one to keep as many people as possible using Microsoft applications and is probably worth the risk.

The move is also unlikely to affect Microsoft’s overall business as the firm makes most of its money from business users of its productivity software.

Microsoft said it will experiment with placing advertising on the online applications before making them available, according to the Financial Times.

Microsoft plans an early release of web applications to thousands of testers later this year, followed by a public beta at the end of the year and a full release in early 2010.

Link

If a little is good, is more better? Unless you can’t help but spend money you don’t have, the answer is yes. Here are 6 reasons high credit limits are helpful.

We’ve known the basics of how credit scoring works for nearly a decade now. Yet I still hear from readers who think they can improve their credit, or their finances, by closing accounts or having their credit limits lowered.

This behavior stems, I believe, from the still-widespread myth that you can have too much credit.

Here’s the reality: There’s no such thing as too much credit, unless you’re a debt addict. If that’s the case — if you’ve never seen a credit card you couldn’t max out — then this column is not for you. You should cut up your cards, seek counseling and pay off your debt.

Most people, by contrast, handle credit more or less responsibly. Forty percent of cardholders regularly pay their balances in full, according to Federal Reserve statistics, and half of those who do carry debt owe $3,000 or less.

It’s those folks I’m talking to. And I’ll say it again: There’s no such thing as too much credit, particularly these days.

Here’s why:

• Having "too much credit" isn’t a negative for FICO scores. You might get dinged for opening the accounts, but the FICO scoring formula (the one used by most lenders) doesn’t penalize you for having too many once they’re opened. If you get a score and are told the reason it isn’t higher is because you have "too much available credit," you probably didn’t get a FICO score but one of its competitors. "We just went through the full list of reason codes for FICO scoring, and it contains nothing remotely like ‘too much available credit,’" said Craig Watts, a FICO spokesman.
• Lots of available credit typically helps your credit scores. Once they’re established, credit accounts typically improve your scores as long as you don’t pay late or max them out. The FICO credit-scoring system is very sensitive to the gap between the credit you use and your available limits. The bigger the gap — on each account and overall — the better for your scores. Closing accounts or asking for lower limits shrinks that gap and can hurt your scores.
• Your income isn’t a factor. I’ve read a lot of well-meaning but completely inaccurate advice about how you should limit your available credit to a certain percentage of your income (with the percentage varying by how much credit the particular writer has). This is nonsense. Credit-scoring formulas don’t even take income into account.
• Lenders may care, but they probably won’t. Before the advent of FICO scores, many lenders were suspicious of those with "too much credit," worried these borrowers would suddenly rush out, max out their cards and then default. FICO’s research indicates this fear was overblown — if you’ve handled credit responsibly in the past, you’re likely to continue to do so — but some lenders are still wary. If you run into one of those, you can placate them by closing accounts, but you risk damage to your credit scores.
• Credit card issuers have gone a little nuts. In their efforts to reduce their risk, many credit card companies have been slashing limits, raising rates and closing accounts. Now they’re threatening to add new fees. (Read "Banks have declared war — on you.") Some have taken more-drastic steps by targeting not just risky borrowers but good customers who have always paid on time. The people who are in the best position to fight back are those who can simply take their business elsewhere. If you have plenty of other established accounts, you can start using them instead and transfer any balances. Also, a lower limit on one card isn’t a credit-scoring crisis if you have lots of other cards.
• You don’t need to worry that much about fraud. Yes, identity theft is a real problem, but if one of your existing accounts is hijacked, you’re not responsible for the bogus charges if you report them within 60 days. If you have so many accounts you can’t keep track of them, you may want to winnow the herd, but most people can remind themselves to log in to their accounts every month or so to check their charges.

I’m often asked how many credit cards are optimal. Alas, FICO is mum about that. But FICO does say the typical U.S. adult has four to five credit cards. And some of us have a lot more.

I hesitate to use myself as an example because individual experiences can vary so much with credit scoring, but at last count I had between seven and 17 open, revolving accounts showing on my credit reports at the three major bureaus. (The bureaus are private businesses in competition with each other, and the information they report is often different.) My FICO scores typically range from the high 700s to the low 800s (the top score is 850; anything over 760 or so typically wins the best rates and terms). Clearly, my scads of available credit aren’t hurting my scores.

What does ding your scores, as I’ve said, is opening and closing accounts and maxing out your cards. So use the following guidelines:

• Apply for credit sparingly. Applications are counted as "hard" inquiries and typically lower your scores. Although the damage of one inquiry is usually slight — 5 points or less — applying for a bunch of accounts in a short period could tag you as high-risk, because you’ll seem suddenly desperate for credit.
• Close accounts sparingly. If you decide you must close accounts, shut down retail accounts first (those department store cards you got because of discounts), and try to keep open your major credit card accounts, particularly those with the highest limits.
• Use only a small portion of your available credit. Whether or not you pay your balances in full each month — and you should — you still want to use only a fraction of your available credit: 30% or less is good, 10% or less even better. The balance that’s reported to credit bureaus and used in your scores is typically the balance from your last statement. If you used 50% or more of your limit, even if you paid it off in full, you could be hurting your scores.
• Push back against credit limit cuts. If you’re a good customer with high credit scores, point that out to the offending issuer. If it doesn’t reverse its decision, take your business elsewhere.

Published July 13, 2009