Amrit Williams Blog

To All Those That Have Sacrificed For Our Freedoms – Thank-You!

amritw — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:36:05 +0000

Image from United States Department of Veterans Affairs (here) We should all be extremely grateful for the commitment, the difficulties and the sacrifices those in our armed forces go through so that we all can enjoy and experience the freedoms of our great nation.

Gartner Magic Quadrant Under Fire – Lawsuit Alleges Defamation and more

amritw — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:31:57 +0000

A storm is brewing throughout the analyst community as one of the largest and most influential technology analyst firms comes under fire for one of their highest prized research artifacts – The Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) – ZL Technologies has filed a lawsuit alleging damages from Gartner’s Email and Archiving MQ and the MQ process [...]

Microsoft Security Essentials Impact on Enterprise Security

amritw — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:15:16 +0000

50th “Beyond The Perimeter” Podcast HighLights

amritw — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:10:40 +0000

Not too long ago I embarked on a creating a podcast series that would provide more regularity than the blog. Beyond the Perimeter has been a tremendous amount of fun and as we just posted our 50th podcast I wanted to reflect on some of the highlights and wonderful guests we have been honored to [...]

Has Technology Killed Privacy?

amritw — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:50:11 +0000

From Computer World UK (here) There is little doubt that advances in technology have radically changed many aspects of our lives, from healthcare to manufacturing, from supply chains to battlefields, we are experiencing an unprecedented technical revolution. Unfortunately, technology enables the average person to leak personal information at a velocity that few understand. Take a moment and [...]

The Long IT Security Industry Winter

amritw — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:58:02 +0000

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Peter Kuper and discuss the impact the economic crisis has had on the IT security industry on the latest Beyond the Perimeter podcast (here). Peter Kuper, former analyst Morgan Stanley and SC Gowen, now associated with the IANS (Institute for Applied Network Security) organization notes that [...]

Bill To Provide Presidental Authority to Turn Off the Internets

amritw — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:53:55 +0000

CNET’s Declan McCullagh recently posted an article on aspects of the Cybersecurity Act of 2009 “Bill would give President emergency control of the Internet“ The new version would allow the president to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” relating to “non-governmental” computer networks and do what’s necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include [...]

Sysadmin of the Year – Rock on!

amritw — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:10:08 +0000

Is there a rock star in your midst? We’re talking about sysadmins here—the unsung rock stars of IT. The kind of sysadmin that plays the network blindfolded and upside down like Stevie Ray Vaughn, makes ch, ch, changes faster than David Bowie, smashes hackers like Pete Townsend does with guitars, [...]

The US Cyber Challenge Wants You

amritw — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:39:55 +0000

As part of the administrations continuing efforts to actually do something tangible to improve the security posture of US critical infrastructure and to better deal with a severe lack of technical talent the CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies) announced the US Cyber Challenge (here) to identify and develop 10,000 cyber security specialists. One of [...]

North Korea Cyber Scape Goat of the World

amritw — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:32:28 +0000

Never before have so many misrepresented so much about so little… In all my years in the security industry I do not believe I have read more misinformation than the nonsense surrounding the recent DDoS attacks. Apparently North Korea is waging Cyber Warfare, or if not an actual all out cyberwar they are behind a targeted [...]