Amrit Williams Blog

Client-Side Virtualization Part III: HAL 9000, Hosted Virtual Desktops, and the Death Star

amritw — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:56:01 +0000

Systems and security management is difficult, ineffective, costly and becoming ever more so in increasingly distributed, heterogeneous, complex, and mobile computing environments… 98% of all external attacks take advantage of poorly administered, misconfigured, and unmanaged systems (Source: Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report 2009) A locked down and well managed PC can cost 42% less than an unmanaged [...]

Client-Side Virtualization Episode II: Standardization, Attack of the Clones and Desktops Reloaded

amritw — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:17:45 +0000

Consolidation is the major benefit or “killer app” for server/data center virtualization. Standardization is the major benefit or “killer app” for client-side virtualization. As I was pondering the challenges of current systems management processes, researching the latest and greatest from the client-side virtualization vendors, and talking to a lot of large organizations I was trying to [...]

Client-Side Virtualization Overview Part 1; The Good, The Bad, and The Reality

amritw — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:14:05 +0000

To address the increasing cost and complexity of managing dynamic IT environments organizations are trying to understand how to adopt virtualization technologies. The value proposition and “killer app” are quite clear in the data center, however less attention has been given to the opportunities for endpoint virtualization. Even though there are multiple methods to address [...]

The Whitehouse Releases 60 Day Cyber Security Review

amritw — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:08:50 +0000

Early after President Obama was nominated I wrote an open letter to President Obama for actions that I believed the administration would need to take in the first 90-days “Open Letter to Barack Obama: Securing Critical Infrastructure – The First 90 Days” These included a policy review and some suggestions on methods the administration would [...]

The Top 5 Cyber Security Myths

amritw — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:59:08 +0000

Given the media hype around the Conficker worm (and now Gumblar), and the constant barrage of alarming disclosure announcements, I thought it would be a good time to take a calmer look at some of the security myths, misconceptions and mistruths that plague the industry. Many of these cyber security myths have been around for close [...]

Cloud-Computing Solves Patching Problem…IT Admins Please Report to HR for Immediate Dismissal

amritw — Thu, 07 May 2009 06:46:52 +0000

So apparently the latest version of the Qualys Laws of Vulnerabilty Report has Qualys jumping to some pretty outrageous claims about how cloud-computing – invented by Qualys according to Courtot (insert cute smiley here) – can secure IT more effectively or allow people to not patch any more or some such nonsense (thanks to Hoff [...]

Cybergeddon: A Cyberwarfare Fable

amritw — Wed, 06 May 2009 01:00:16 +0000

There has been much discussion lately about “cyberwarfare”. This article “US Should go on Cyber Offensive” in the BBC represents the typical media slant on the issue… A US Air Force officer has told the BBC that his country should create an offensive botnet to target any forces that launch a cyber-attack against it. Speaking on [...]

Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated…

amritw — Tue, 05 May 2009 06:42:32 +0000

Yes I know it has been some time since I have posted a blog entry. The pain and suffering this has caused I can only imagine has been unbearable. Many of you must be feeling the nauseating withdrawal like symptoms of not enough me, but do not fear you will no longer need to remain [...]

eWeek Podcast with Mike Vizard on Conficker, Hype, and the Media…

amritw — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 04:53:21 +0000

I recorded a podcast with eWeek’s Mike Vizard last week discussing the media, hype, conficker and why so many organizations are falling behind in implementing even a basic level of systems and security management (here)…enjoy!

SC Magazine: Securing the Mobile Endpoint

amritw — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:54:50 +0000

Quotes from a recent SC Magazine article “Increased Mobile Working Has Caused a Rethink on Endpoint Security” (here) focuses on encryption, cloud-computing and desktop virtualization… Data breaches have pointed to the importance of encryption at endpoints that contain business data, and growing numbers of businesses are adopting encryption technologies. However, Amrit Williams, CTO of BigFix, is [...]