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    <title>Security, et al</title>
    <description>Randy Franklin Smith's Musings on Information Security and More</description>
    <link>http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/blog/default.aspx</link>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <copyright>Copyright (c) 2008 Monterey Technology Group, Inc., All rights reserved</copyright>
    <webMaster>info@ultimatewindowssecurity.com</webMaster>
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    <item>
      <title>How to Use Process Tracking Events in the Windows Security Log </title>
      <pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 17:18:05 GMT</pubDate>
      <link>http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/blog/default.aspx?p=fcf380d4-104f-467f-82b6-c052a44d8eb2</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">fcf380d4-104f-467f-82b6-c052a44d8eb2</guid>
      <author>info@ultimatewindowssecurity.com</author>
      <description>

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;This
article was first published in EventTracker’s EventSource Newsletter: &lt;a href="http://www.eventtracker.com/newsletters/how-to-use-process-tracking-events-in-the-windows-security-log/"&gt;http://www.eventtracker.com/newsletters/how-to-use-process-tracking-events-in-the-windows-security-log/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;I think one of the most underutilized features of Windows
Auditing and the Security Log are Process Tracking events. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;In Windows 2003/XP you get these events by simply enabling
the Process Tracking audit policy.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;In
Windows 7/2008+ you need to enable the Audit Process Creation and, optionally,
the Audit Process Termination subcategories which you’ll find under Advanced
Audit Policy Configuration in group policy objects.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;These events are incredibly valuable because they give a
comprehensive audit trail of every time any executable on the system is started
as a process.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;You can even determine how
long the process ran by linking the process creation event to the process
termination event using the Process ID found in both events.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Examples of both events are shown below.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table style="border: currentColor; border-collapse: collapse; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" class="MsoTableGrid" border="1" cellSpacing="0" cellPadding="0"&gt;
 &lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr style="height: 6.15pt; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes;"&gt;
  &lt;td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt; border: 1pt solid windowtext; width: 45.9pt; height: 6.15pt; background-color: transparent; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt;" vAlign="top" rowSpan="2" width="61"&gt;
  &lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Process Start&lt;?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;/td&gt;
  &lt;td style="border-width: 1pt 1pt 1pt 0px; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 1in; height: 6.15pt; background-color: transparent; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt;" vAlign="top" width="96"&gt;
  &lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;WinXP/2003&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;/td&gt;
  &lt;td style="border-width: 1pt 1pt 1pt 0px; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 45pt; height: 6.15pt; background-color: transparent; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt;" vAlign="top" width="60"&gt;
  &lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;592&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;/td&gt;
  &lt;td style="border-width: 1pt 1pt 1pt 0px; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 315.9pt; height: 6.15pt; background-color: transparent; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt;" vAlign="top" rowSpan="2" width="421"&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;&lt;span style='color: black; font-family: "Courier New";'&gt;A new process has been
  created.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style='color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";'&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;&lt;span style='color: black; font-family: "Courier New";'&gt;Subject:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style='color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";'&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p style="margin-left: 30pt;"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;&lt;span style='color: black; font-family: "Courier New";'&gt;Security ID: WIN-R9H529RIO4Y\Administrator&lt;br&gt;
  Account Name: Administrator&lt;br&gt;
  Account Domain: WIN-R9H529RIO4Y&lt;br&gt;
  Logon ID: 0x1fd23&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style='color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";'&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;&lt;span style='color: black; font-family: "Courier New";'&gt;Process Information:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style='color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";'&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p style="margin-left: 30pt;"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;&lt;span style='color: black; font-family: "Courier New";'&gt;New Process ID: 0xed0&lt;br&gt;
  New Process Name: C:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe&lt;br&gt;
  Token Elevation Type: TokenElevationTypeDefault (1)&lt;br&gt;
  Creator Process ID: 0x8c0&lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr style="height: 6.1pt; mso-yfti-irow: 1;"&gt;
  &lt;td style="border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 1in; height: 6.1pt; background-color: transparent; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt;" vAlign="top" width="96"&gt;
  &lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Win7/2008&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;/td&gt;
  &lt;td style="border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 45pt; height: 6.1pt; background-color: transparent; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt;" vAlign="top" width="60"&gt;
  &lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;4688&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr style="height: 6.15pt; mso-yfti-irow: 2;"&gt;
  &lt;td style="border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; border-style: none solid solid; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 45.9pt; height: 6.15pt; background-color: transparent; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt;" vAlign="top" rowSpan="2" width="61"&gt;
  &lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Process End&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;/td&gt;
  &lt;td style="border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 1in; height: 6.15pt; background-color: transparent; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt;" vAlign="top" width="96"&gt;
  &lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;WinXP/2003&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;/td&gt;
  &lt;td style="border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 45pt; height: 6.15pt; background-color: transparent; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt;" vAlign="top" width="60"&gt;
  &lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;593&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;/td&gt;
  &lt;td style="border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 315.9pt; height: 6.15pt; background-color: transparent; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt;" vAlign="top" rowSpan="2" width="421"&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;&lt;span style='color: black; font-family: "Courier New";'&gt;A process has exited.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style='color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";'&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;&lt;span style='color: black; font-family: "Courier New";'&gt;Subject:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style='color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";'&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p style="margin-left: 30pt;"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;&lt;span style='color: black; font-family: "Courier New";'&gt;Security ID: WIN-R9H529RIO4Y\Administrator&lt;br&gt;
  Account Name: Administrator&lt;br&gt;
  Account Domain: WIN-R9H529RIO4Y&lt;br&gt;
  Logon ID: 0x1fd23&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style='color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";'&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;&lt;span style='color: black; font-family: "Courier New";'&gt;Process Information:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style='color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";'&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p style="margin-left: 30pt;"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;&lt;span style='color: black; font-family: "Courier New";'&gt;Process ID: 0xed0&lt;br&gt;
  Process Name: C:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe&lt;br&gt;
  Exit Status: 0x0&lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;tr style="height: 6.1pt; mso-yfti-irow: 3; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"&gt;
  &lt;td style="border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 1in; height: 6.1pt; background-color: transparent; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt;" vAlign="top" width="96"&gt;
  &lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Win7/2008&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;/td&gt;
  &lt;td style="border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 45pt; height: 6.1pt; background-color: transparent; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt;" vAlign="top" width="60"&gt;
  &lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;4689&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;/td&gt;
 &lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Trying to determine what a user did after logging on to
Windows can be difficult to piece together.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;These events are valuable on workstations because they are often the
most granular trail of activity left by end-users.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;You can tell for instance that Bob opened
Outlook, a few minutes later opened Word, opened Excel and then closed
Word.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;As you can see the process start event tells you the name of
the program and when it started.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;It also
tells you who ran the program and the ID of their logon session with which you
can correlate backwards to the logon event and thus further determine what kind
of logon session in which the program was run and where the user (if remote)
was on the network using the IP address and/or workstation name provided in the
logon event.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Process start events also document the process that started
them using Creator Process ID which can be correlated backwards to the process
start event for the parent process.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;This
can be invaluable when you are trying to figure out how a suspect process was
started.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;If the Creator Process ID
points to Explorer.exe, after tracking down the process start event, then it’s
likely that the user simply started the process from the start menu.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;These same events, when logged on servers, also provide a
degree of auditing over privileged users but be aware that many Windows
administrative functions will all show up as process starts for mmc.exe since
all Microsoft Management Console apps run within mmc.exe.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;But beyond privileged and end-user monitoring, process
tracking events help you track possible change control issues and to trap
advanced persistent threats.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;When new
software is executed for the first time on a given system it’s important to know
that, since it implies a significant change to the system or it could alert you
to a new unauthorized and even malicious program running for the first time.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;The key to this seeing this kind of activity is to compare
the executable name in a recent event 592/4688 to executable names in a
whitelist - and thereby recognizing new executables.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Of course this method isn’t full proof because someone could
replace an existing executable (on your whitelist) with a new program but with
the same name and path as the old.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Such
a change would “fly under the radar” with process tracking.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;But my experience with unauthorized changes
that bypass change control and APTs indicates that while certainly possible,
the methods described here-in will catch their share of offenders and
attackers.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Of course to do this kind of correlation you need to enable
process tracking on applicable systems (all systems if possible, including
workstations) and then you need a SIEM solution that can compare the executable
name in the current event to a “whitelist” of executables.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;How you build that whitelist is important because it
determines if your criteria for a new executable is unique to “that” system, or
if it is based on a “golden” system, or your entire environment.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Of course the more unique your whitelist is
to each system or type of system the better.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;You can build the whitelist by either scanning for all the EXE files on
a given system or by analyzing the 592/4688 events over some period of time.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;I prefer the latter because there are many
EXE files on Windows computers that are never actually executed and I’d like to
know the first time any new EXE is run – whether it came with Windows and
installed applications out of the box or whether it is a new EXE recently
dropped onto the system.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;On the other
hand if you only want to detect when EXEs run which were not present on system
at the time the whitelist was created, then a list built from simply running
“dir *.exe /s” will suffice.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;If you opt to analyze a period of system activity make sure
that the period is long enough cover the full usage profile and business
process profile for that system – usually a month will do it. Take some time to
experiment with Process Tracking events and I think you’ll find that they are
valuable for knowing what running on your system and who’s running it.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <category>Security</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>9 Mistakes APT Victims Make</title>
      <pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 17:06:56 GMT</pubDate>
      <link>http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/blog/default.aspx?p=6d86a02b-8ba8-4246-a9bf-8068bdca9e34</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6d86a02b-8ba8-4246-a9bf-8068bdca9e34</guid>
      <author>info@ultimatewindowssecurity.com</author>
      <description>&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;This article was first published at Lumension’s
Optimal Security blog: &lt;a href="http://blog.lumension.com/6588/9-mistakes-apt-victims-make/"&gt;&lt;font color="#006699"&gt;http://blog.lumension.com/6588/9-mistakes-apt-victims-make/&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;A couple years ago, Bruce Schneier said that against an APT
attacker, “the absolute level of your security is what's important. It doesn't
matter how secure you are compared to your peers; all that matters is whether
you're secure enough to keep him out.” Those words have proven true over and
over again. APT attackers don’t move on to the next target as soon as they see
your security is a little above average. &lt;?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;In this age, when you have to do everything right to protect
your network, it pays to look at what other people do wrong and learn from
their mistakes. Based on public and unpublished APT incidents, I’ve gathered a
list of 9 different things that show up repeatedly:&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-add-space: auto;" class="MsoListParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;1.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Allowing open attack surfaces without securing
configurations&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;A system’s attack surface comprises the started services,
enabled features and installed software.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;Stopping all unneeded services, disabling each and every feature that
isn’t needed and removing all non-essential software is how you reduce your
attack surface.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;This includes all those elements that might seem innocuous
and have no known risks.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Time and again
innocent little features have proven to harbor nasty vulnerabilities that the
bad guys find and leverage.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Case in
point is Internet Explorer’s automatic proxy server detection which is enabled
by default.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;A recent weaponized malware exploited
this feature to fool computers trying to download Windows security updates.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;While group policy is part of the solution you need
configuration management and centralized remediation capabilities so that you
can obtain ongoing assurance that all systems on the network are secure and
presenting the smallest possible target to the enemy.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-add-space: auto;" class="MsoListParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;2.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Permitting unlocked ports and unfettered device
usage&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Allowing USB drives and other removable storage devices to
connect to your PCs is reckless.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/01/16/usb-drive-infected-with-crimeware-shut-power-plant/1840783/"&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff" face="Calibri"&gt;USA
Today details&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt; how an infected USB drive idled a power plant for 3
weeks.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;This &lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/12/07/2037223/two-thirds-of-lost-usb-drives-carry-malware"&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff" face="Calibri"&gt;Slashdot
article&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt; tells how one study found 2/3 of lost USB drives carry
malware.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Think you can’t be singled out
and targeted USB drives?&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Think again. &lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;The bad guys go to tradeshows of target
industries and pass them out as swag.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;They drop them in Starbucks near target businesses.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Windows features native removable storage restrictions that
can be implemented in group policy but if you need enterprise management and
compliance features like reporting and better control over different classes of
devices look to your endpoint security vendor.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-add-space: auto;" class="MsoListParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;3.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Failing to use centralized vulnerability
remediation&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;There are too many tweaks and security fixes that can’t be
made via group policy including de-registering unsafe DLLs, setting the kill
bit, configuring BitLocker, power shell security and changing the local
administrator password to name just a few.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;You need a way to run commands, remediation scripts and other fixes&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;on all your PCs automatically and be able to
track the success of such remediation steps.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;Startup and logon scripts in group policy don’t provide this crucial
reporting capability so you need to look at your system management capabilities
or end point security technologies.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-add-space: auto;" class="MsoListParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;4.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Allowing untrusted software to execute&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;This is the single most effective way to stop APTs.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;You might be able to use Windows 7
AppLocker&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;or you may need a modern
enterprise application whitelisting solution but either way, stop unknown,
unauthorized software from executing on your systems.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Enough said.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-add-space: auto;" class="MsoListParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;5.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Failing to follow existing security
policies/procedures and use at-hand technology consistently&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Not eating your own dog food is a painful reason to fall
victim to an APT but it happens.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;All it
takes is one neglected computer or one person who fails to follow policy.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Case in point: Adobe allowed a critical
code-signing server to function while noncompliant with their corporate security
standards.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;It lead to malware being
signed to look like valid Adobe software and resulted in a huge security
incident affecting Adobe customers.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-add-space: auto;" class="MsoListParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;6.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Permitting open policies for privileged user
authority&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;The RSA SecureID incident involved lateral movement between
systems and users resulting in privilege escalation.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;This typically means that a privileged user
was logged on interactively on a system where they also read email, browse the
web or open document files.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Best
practices and privileged user technologies exist to keep admin level
credentials sacrosanct; APTs show their value.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-add-space: auto;" class="MsoListParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;7.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Not engaging in consistent end-user security
awareness&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;RSA SecurID incident occurred when 3 users were sent an
infected spreadsheet, it went into their Junk email, and a single user opened
it.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;One corporation sent a spear-phishing
email to its users as part of a security awareness program.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;It took 3 campaigns before they got the open
rate below 20%.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Lesson: security
awareness needs to be more than a poster in the break room.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Make your program constant and trackable so
that you can verify that you are changing behavior.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-add-space: auto;" class="MsoListParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;8.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Failing to leverage logging and to set up traps&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Most organizations do not monitor process start events to
discover new EXEs.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Nor do most
organizations deploy decoy folders with bait files on production systems and
audit access to these files.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Both are
effective ways to detect malicious outsiders.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-add-space: auto;" class="MsoListParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;9.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;Permitting
Malware beaconing and exfiltration&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;In most cases, malware must be installed and permitted to
run for an APT to be persistent. When activated, most APT-ware must beacon back
to command and control servers.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;At some
point data is exfiltrated.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;It is
challenging, but there are techniques for recognizing outbound traffic that
could be malware.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Here’s a couple
examples: Look for strange packet patterns inconsistent with normal web
browsing like more data going up than down.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;Look for mysterious domain names like ibiz.3387.org.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Each of these measures is a single layer of defense and you
need them all.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Because it only takes
one: one user, one PC, one setting or vulnerability that lets the bad guy get a
foothold.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;It comes down to
defense-in-depth, doing everything right and not allowing untrusted code to
execute.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <category>Security</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>My new LOGbinder EX for Exchange Released: Bridge the Gap between Exchange and Your SIEM</title>
      <pubDate>Mon, 18 Feb 2013 19:51:34 GMT</pubDate>
      <link>http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/blog/default.aspx?p=5238dd13-9076-4d65-9f8e-934dba1adf2d</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">5238dd13-9076-4d65-9f8e-934dba1adf2d</guid>
      <author>info@ultimatewindowssecurity.com</author>
      <description>&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;I’m excited to announce the release of &lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.logbinder.com/products/LOGbinderEX"&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff" face="Calibri"&gt;LOGbinder EX for Exchange
Server&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt; which bridges the gap between Exchange and your SIEM.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;With today’s ever-growing compliance burden and
threat-scape, obtaining visibility into the dominant messaging platform is
crucial to security and business risk management for most organizations. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Thankfully, Exchange Server provides an audit trail of non-owner
access to mailboxes as well as privileged activity by Exchange administrators. &lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;With mailbox auditing, you can detect&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;·&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Users viewing an executive’s confidential email&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;·&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Impersonated, fraudulent emails&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;·&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Administrators exporting copies of entire
mailboxes&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;·&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Deletion of emails to cover up evidence&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;With administrator auditing, you can detect&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;·&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Exports of mailboxes&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;·&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Copies of entire mailbox databases&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;·&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Security configuration changes to Exchange&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;·&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Access control changes to groups, roles, and
permissions&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;·&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Modifications to Exchange policies involving
retention, mobile device policy, information rights management, federation, and
more&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;But, like many application audit logs today, the information
is trapped within the application and specific to Exchange, audit logs are
actually maintained in mailboxes. Applications benefit from internal audit
capability but ultimately audit logs should be copied as frequently as possible
to a separate, isolated log management system.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;LOGbinder EX efficiently process native Exchange audit data
and translates cryptic codes, yielding an easy-to-understand Exchange audit log
to the Windows event log or syslog where any log management/SIEM solution can
take over with collection, alerting, reporting, and secure archival. LOGbinder
EX performs these functions on both the administrator audit log and the mailbox
audit log.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;LOGbinder EX can be installed on most any server in your
domain; there's no need to install it on any of your Exchange servers thus
preventing impact on production mail flow.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Exchange audit logs need to be monitored and they belong in
your SIEM.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Use LOGbinder EX to bridge
the gap.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;span style='line-height: 115%; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;'&gt;Please &lt;a href="http://www.logbinder.com/form.aspx?action=LOGbinderEXDL"&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff"&gt;download LOGbinder&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
today or &lt;a href="http://www.logbinder.com/form.aspx?action=exAsk"&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff"&gt;contact us
for a demo&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;I’ve also got a
whitepaper that explains Exchange Server’s 3 Audit Logs and how LOGbinder and
your SIEM fit in.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.logbinder.com/form.aspx?action=LBexWPComp"&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff"&gt;Click here to read
the whitepaper&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;</description>
      <category>Product Updates</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Security Log Secrets On-Demand Interactive… Is Now Here!</title>
      <pubDate>Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:16:53 GMT</pubDate>
      <link>http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/blog/default.aspx?p=183cabb7-603b-4830-b450-eb8e2dcbb4c3</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">183cabb7-603b-4830-b450-eb8e2dcbb4c3</guid>
      <author>info@ultimatewindowssecurity.com</author>
      <description>&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;It’s been a huge project to record, edit, embellish and
enhance but we are &lt;u&gt;finally&lt;/u&gt; done.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;My 3-day &lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/securitylog/training/"&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff" face="Calibri"&gt;Security
Log Secrets course&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt; on the Windows Security Log is now available in my
unique &lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/training/oiPortal.aspx"&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff" face="Calibri"&gt;On-Demand,
Interactive format&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;We call it
“on-demand” because you can take the course anytime.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;We call it “interactive” to emphasize this is
no passive, couch-potato DVD viewing experience.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;My On-Demand Interactive courses provide highly
interactive training designed to closely duplicate the live, instructor-led
learning experience.&lt;?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Security Log Secrets On-Demand Interactive (SLS-OI) is like in-person
training you can take anytime, anywhere:&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;·&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Get the same CPE credit&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;·&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Get the same courseware&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;·&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Watch me teach the same material&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;·&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Perform the same hands-on exercises&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;·&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;If you get stuck, watch me perform the exercise&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;·&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Stay engaged with frequent flash quizzes &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;·&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Got a question? Ask me via the Q&amp;amp;A forum&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Security Log Secrets is fun and fascinating and you can get
the full details of the Security Log Secrets course &lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/securitylog/training/"&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff" face="Calibri"&gt;here&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;,
and my On Demand Interactive training platform &lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/training/oiPortal.aspx"&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff" face="Calibri"&gt;here&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;,
but what I want to focus the rest of this email on is how I’m going to help as
many of you as possible get this training. Which of the following fits your
circumstance?&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;1.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;For my &lt;b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"&gt;&lt;u&gt;most
loyal webinar attendees&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;, those of you that have attended 50 or more
live webinars, you get SLS-OI free, and that’s true going forward from this
point.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;You can get a &lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/webinars/transcript.aspx"&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff" face="Calibri"&gt;transcript
of your attendance&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt; any time.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;Congrats to: Christopher, “J”, Paul, Peter, Hugo, Steve , Jeff and
others!&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Here’s what to do:&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Email a copy of your transcript to Bridget at
&lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:info@ultimateWindowsSecurity.com"&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff" face="Calibri"&gt;info@ultimateWindowsSecurity.com&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;
and enroll using “Purchase Order” as the method.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;We will take care of the rest.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;The same goes for the rest of you when you
reach 50 live attended webinars.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;2.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;For anyone &lt;b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"&gt;&lt;u&gt;who
has purchased my Security Log Resource Kit&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt; in the past, we’re giving
you 50% off!&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Email your coupon code
request to Bridget at &lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:info@ultimateWindowsSecurity.com"&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff" face="Calibri"&gt;info@ultimateWindowsSecurity.com&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;
and be sure to include the email address used when you purchased the kit so
that we can verify.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;We’ll respond with a
coupon code.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;3.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Are you &lt;b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"&gt;&lt;u&gt;out
of work&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt; in this tough economy?&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;I
realize you need to keep your skills current but don’t have an employer to
assist with the expense.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Send Bridget at
&lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:info@ultimateWindowsSecurity.com"&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff" face="Calibri"&gt;info@ultimateWindowsSecurity.com&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;
some kind of documentation (redacted of course) that verifies your status.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;If you do that and if you were already on
this email list prior to today we will find a way to make it work.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;4.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;&lt;b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"&gt;&lt;u&gt;Can’t
get your boss to pay&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt; for the course but have 2 or more colleagues who’d
like the course too?&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Send us an email
with how many are in your group and we’ll arrange a group discount.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;10% off for everyone for each person in your
group up to 50%.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Again, email &lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:info@ultimateWindowsSecurity.com"&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff" face="Calibri"&gt;info@ultimateWindowsSecurity.com&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;
and Bridget will take care of you.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-list: Ignore;"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;5.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;span style='font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Feeling left out?&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Feel the love instead.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Take 25% off SLS-OI, if purchased in February
2013 with coupon code LOVE.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;You get the idea I’m passionate about the security log? I
really want as many people as possible to have professional-grade competence in
this area. It’s good for business, it’s good for the industry, and it’s good
for us geeks.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Any don’t let my discounts suggest SLS-OI is expensive.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;It’s actually about half the cost of other
premium, on demand infosec training (which by the way doesn’t include a
hands-on lab like mine).&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;But we have to
keep the lights on at the UltimateWindowsSecurity.com datacenter so thanks,
thanks and thanks again for your support!&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;These discounts are only good through the end of February so
don’t delay.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;See you out there keeping the bad guys at bay,&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Randy&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;P.S. Interested in SLS-OI as a &lt;b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"&gt;&lt;u&gt;long term training resource for everyone in your department&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;?&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Email &lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:pbrander@logbinder.com"&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff" face="Calibri"&gt;pbrander@logbinder.com&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;
with department size and Phil can provide a quote.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <category>Security</category>
      <category>Product Updates</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Security Log Step-by-Step: Avoiding Audit Policy Configuration Pitfalls</title>
      <pubDate>Tue, 25 Dec 2012 21:12:02 GMT</pubDate>
      <link>http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/blog/default.aspx?p=aa6c16dc-8bb8-40e3-aac9-d2c7eaa6c5f6</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">aa6c16dc-8bb8-40e3-aac9-d2c7eaa6c5f6</guid>
      <author>info@ultimatewindowssecurity.com</author>
      <description>

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;Windows audit policy has evolved for 20 years and many
people at Microsoft have come on gone.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;The result is what one Microsoftie describes as “good”.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;See: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2011/03/11/getting-the-effective-audit-policy-in-windows-7-and-2008-r2.aspx"&gt;h&lt;font color="#0000ff"&gt;ttp://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2011/03/11/getting-the-effective-audit-policy-in-windows-7-and-2008-r2.aspx&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;If you aren’t careful you can easily end up thinking your
systems are auditing the right security events when in fact they are not.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;In this article I show you how to avoid these
problems.&lt;?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;The original audit policy in Windows NT was 7 audit policies
corresponding to 7 categories in the Windows security log.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Along came Windows 2000 with Active Directory
and that increased to 9.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;You configured
those settings in group policy under Computer Configuration\Windows
Settings\Security Settings\Local Policy\Audit Policy.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;Easy.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;Then with Windows 2008, Microsoft and apparently more
specifically, Eric Fitzgerald, then security log czar at Microsoft, made a LOT
of changes to the security log in a project called Crimson.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;All security log event IDs changed from 3 digits to 4. &lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;Some events were split into multiple new ones,
other legacy events were merged into a single new event ID. New categories were
added for new security events for the Windows firewall and other features. To
handle the new events and to respond to customer pressure to improve the
granularity of audit policy, each of the 9 audit categories gained multiple new
subcategories.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Microsoft should have
just done away with the original 9 but probably didn’t for backward compatibility?&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;It would have saved untold confusion that
exists till this day and the arrangement of the subcategories in to the legacy
9 categories does not make sense.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;(e.g.
what are IPsec events doing in the Logon/Logoff category?).&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;Anyway you could supposedly configure Windows using either
the top 9 audit categories or the new subcategories.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;But no one would want to do that because the
new subcategories for the Windows firewall are scattered through the original 9
categories and are extremely noisy making almost everyone want to disable
them.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;You can only pick and choose
between subcategories if you tell Windows to ignore the legacy 9.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;In Windows 2008 there was no way to configure
subcategories from group policy; you had to use the auditpol command on each
system.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;With Windows 2008 R2 Microsoft added Advanced Audit Policy
Configuration to a completely different place in Group Policy and put the “Audit:
Force audit policy subcategory settings (Windows Vista or later) to override
audit policy category settings” under Security Options.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;Now, as long as you know to ignore the legacy 9 categories,
enabled the “Audit: Force subcategory…” option and configure your Advanced
Audit Policy Configuration you can safely use to group policy to centrally
configure audit policy across your Win2008+ systems.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;By the way you can use the same GPO to manage
audit policy on Win2003 and XP systems.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;They will ignore the new subcategories and that security option and just
look at what you configure on the legacy 9 categories.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;?xml:namespace prefix = v ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" /&gt;&lt;v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" stroked="f" filled="f" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" coordsize="21600,21600"&gt;
 &lt;v:stroke joinstyle="miter"&gt;
 &lt;v:formulas&gt;
  &lt;v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"&gt;
  &lt;v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"&gt;
  &lt;v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"&gt;
  &lt;v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"&gt;
  &lt;v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"&gt;
  &lt;v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"&gt;
  &lt;v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"&gt;
  &lt;v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"&gt;
  &lt;v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"&gt;
  &lt;v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"&gt;
  &lt;v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"&gt;
  &lt;v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"&gt;
 &lt;/v:f&gt;&lt;/v:f&gt;&lt;/v:f&gt;&lt;/v:f&gt;&lt;/v:f&gt;&lt;/v:f&gt;&lt;/v:f&gt;&lt;/v:f&gt;&lt;/v:f&gt;&lt;/v:f&gt;&lt;/v:f&gt;&lt;/v:f&gt;&lt;/v:formulas&gt;
 &lt;v:path o:connecttype="rect" gradientshapeok="t" o:extrusionok="f"&gt;
 &lt;o:lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit"&gt;
&lt;/o:lock&gt;&lt;/v:path&gt;&lt;/v:stroke&gt;&lt;/v:shapetype&gt;But Microsoft
never finished adjusting other areas of Windows policy management to fully
support the new subcategories.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;This
means that policy reporting tools you depend on like Group Policy Results
Wizard may very well lie.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;Also, unlike most other security settings, local
administrators can use auditpol to temporarily override the audit policy you
push down from group policy.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;You heard
me right.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Just open a command prompt and
change audit policy with auditpol and you can disable any subcategories you
like until the next time group policy refreshes.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;(By the way, on laptops disconnected from the
domain, this does NOT take affect by running gpupdate or rebooting.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;I just tested it from my hotel.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;The policy reverts to what it should be only
once you re-connect to the domain.)&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;This is really sad because in order to enforce
accountability over admins, we need audit log integrity.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;What can you do?&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Continue to monitor for 4719 (audit policy
change) and 1102 (audit log cleared).&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;I
always like to say, “While admins can cover up their tracks, they can’t cover
up the fact they covered up their tracks.”&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;Where does all of this leave us?&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Here are my:&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;Best Practices/Commandments for Win2008R2/Win7 Audit Policy
Configuration:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;Do not use Local Security Policy&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;Do not use auditpol /set&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;Use group policy objects in AD to configure
audit policy&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;Always enable “Audit: Force audit policy
subcategory settings (Windows Vista or later) to override audit policy category
settings” and, for Win2008R2+ systems, ignore the 9 legacy audit categories.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;Configure all of the advanced audit policy
subcategories even if it is just to explicitly disable them&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;Do not use Local Security Policy, Group Policy
Results Wizard, RSOP or gpresults to verify what your true audit policy is&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;Use only “auditpol /get /category:*” to verify
what your true audit policy is on a given system&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;Monitor for 4719 where user is not the system
itself.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;This indicates someone is
temporarily overriding your official audit policy defined in AD GPOs.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Terminate them!&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Seriously though, it is indicative of something
bad.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;

&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;Hope this helps and I want to thank SolarWinds Log &amp;amp;
Event Manager for sponsoring this article.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>Security</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Growing Threat of Friendly Fire from Vendors</title>
      <pubDate>Sat, 15 Dec 2012 00:01:03 GMT</pubDate>
      <link>http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/blog/default.aspx?p=63f4d266-55a5-41a1-889d-132bdb06c247</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">63f4d266-55a5-41a1-889d-132bdb06c247</guid>
      <author>info@ultimatewindowssecurity.com</author>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;This article was first published at Lumension’s Optimal Security blog: &lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="http://blog.lumension.com/6036/growing-threat-from-friendly-fire-from-vendors/"&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff" size="2"&gt;http://blog.lumension.com/6036/growing-threat-from-friendly-fire-from-vendors/&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff"&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;

&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;After we learned that Flame exploited Microsoft’s Auto
Update infrastructure, I pointed out that if attackers were able to compromise
Microsoft, a leader in patch management, it couldn’t be long before bad guys
exploited the update infrastructures of other vendors who are far behind
Microsoft – like Adobe…&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;And that’s
exactly what happened a couple weeks ago.&lt;?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;

&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;One of Adobe’s internal servers was hacked.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;This server performed code signing for
several Adobe applications.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Code signing
on the Windows platform is called Authenticode.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;It’s a way of digitally signing programs so that when you download what
you believe to be Acrobat Reader from Adobe you can be sure that it really is
Reader and not some piece of malware.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;

&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Once they hacked this code signing server at Adobe, the
attackers used it to sign an unknown quantity (at least 3) of malware files
which were later used in some apparently limited, targeted attacks.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Adobe decommissioned the server, informed
customers, released updated versions of Adobe apps signed by a new certificate
and finally revoked the compromised certificate days later.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;

&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;It’s important to understand that the risk in this
particular case was not any vulnerability inside Adobe products already
installed.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;The risk was that your
computers might trust malicious software they encounter because it had a
completely valid signature from a trusted publisher.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;

&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Why then was it necessary to update your Adobe apps?&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Adobe never really got into details on
that.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;They were pretty vague, saying
something about “negative impact on user experience”.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;My research indicates that once Adobe revoked
the certificate in question, User Account Control (UAC) and AppLocker among
other things would balk when you tried to run or install Adobe apps signed with
the old certificate.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;

&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Adobe’s whole handling of the mess left me and a lot of my
colleagues with a bad taste in our mouth.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;It really felt like their priority was protecting their application’s
usability over user security.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;They are
where Microsoft was years ago when IIS was getting hacked all the time and
whenever I used the words “Windows security” in that sequence, people would say
“isn’t that an oxymoron”?&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Microsoft
almost lost the king of the server hill to Linux and Apache but then Bill Gates
came out with Trustworthy Computing.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;This was a major turnaround for a man and a company who once said users
would never pay for quality.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Microsoft
developers stood down on development work for weeks of training and then went
back to their source code searching for security vulnerabilities.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;They implemented new coding standards and
completely revamped their patch process.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;Patch Tuesday brought order to the chaos of unpredictable patch releases
and things got a lot better for the good guys.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;

&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;For a while.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;Microsoft’s improvements created a vacuum in the ISV world and the bad
guys turned their attention there.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Now
we have the Acrobat, Flash, Shockwave, Java, iTunes, 3&lt;sup&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;rd&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; party
browser security patching mess we find ourselves in now.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;This has been going on for several years
without much discernible improvement.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;

&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;What’s new is that in an ironic twist of fate the bad guys
are exploiting software update infrastructures – the very infrastructures our
vendors are trying to protect us with.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;

&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;There’s consensus among the people I talk to that we can’t
trust software vendors to automatically update our systems.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;We can’t trust them to keep their
infrastructures secure.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;After all,
everyone is vulnerable to advanced persistent threats (APTs).&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;But when companies are hacked it’s usually
their own data that gets compromised.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;But with ISVs, it’s their users.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;Like one of my community members said, if your ISV sneezes you get the
pneumonia. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;

&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;That’s bad enough but I also don’t think we can trust ISVs act
100% in our best interests when handling security incidents that expose us,
their users, to risk.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;

&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;If we can’t trust on those 2 points, there’s 2 ways we can’t
trust ISVs.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;First, we can’t trust them
to automatically update our systems.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/span&gt;We’ve got to disable all of these automatic updates and take centralized
control of patch management. &lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;In fact I
propose the following 8 Software Patching Commandments:&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1" start="1"&gt;
 &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1" start="1"&gt;
  &lt;li style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Thou
      shalt not depend on vendor automatic updaters&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Thou
      shalt not allow patch/installation based on code-signing certificates&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Thou
      shalt control which patches go down and when&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Thou
      shalt be able to deploy patches within hours&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Thou
      shalt be able to deploy patches in phases&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Thou
      shalt not be blind to patch deployment status&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Thou
      shalt patch software from multiple vendors&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in;" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Thou
      shalt patch applications on all your operating systems&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;

&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Second, we can’t trust code signatures.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;It may be from Microsoft or Adobe, then again
it may be a forged signature hiding some really bad malware.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;You can’t trust users not to run malware and
it’s evolving to fast.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;That means we
need to take centralized control of what executes on all servers and
endpoints.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;There’s no substitute for
application whitelisting and that technology has really improved.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;

&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;There’s great technology for both of these centralized
control needs and I don’t see any way around the need for it because we can’t
trust the classic mechanisms in place.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;

&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Oh, one other point about trust.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Don’t trust vendors when they say the great
majority of you are safe because these attacks are very targeted and limited in
nature.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;That’s fine as long as you
aren’t the one being targeted. All of them say this including Microsoft but
I’ll quote Adobe: “We have strong reason to believe that this issue does not
present a general security risk. The evidence we have seen has been limited to
a single isolated discovery of two malicious utilities signed using the
certificate and indicates that the certificate was not used to sign widespread
malware.”&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;That is damage control
talk.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;

&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;If you want more on the Adobe code signing hack and how it
demonstrates the need for centralized, multi-vendor patch management and
application &lt;span style="color: black; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-themecolor: text1;"&gt;whitelisting watch my webinar: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/webinars/register.aspx?id=182"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;font face="Calibri"&gt;Code Signing Debacle 2.0: A Hacked Adobe Server and Its
Impact on Us All. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="color: black; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-themecolor: text1;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;

&lt;font size="2"&gt;This article was first published at Lumension’s Optimal Security blog: &lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="http://blog.lumension.com/6036/growing-threat-from-friendly-fire-from-vendors/"&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff" size="2"&gt;http://blog.lumension.com/6036/growing-threat-from-friendly-fire-from-vendors/&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;font color="#0000ff"&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <category>Security</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>New Whitepaper by Randy Franklin Smith &amp;quot;Comparing SharePoint's 4 Audit Logs for Security and SIEM Integration&amp;quot; </title>
      <pubDate>Sat, 24 Nov 2012 23:30:31 GMT</pubDate>
      <link>http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/blog/default.aspx?p=34ac0914-1b66-437f-96d8-3ee21419320e</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">34ac0914-1b66-437f-96d8-3ee21419320e</guid>
      <author>info@ultimatewindowssecurity.com</author>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;This whitepaper by Randy Franklin Smith, provides an overview of the 4 different 
logs in SharePoint and discusses their relative merits in terms of security 
value and how to integrate with your SIEM.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.logbinder.com/form.aspx?action=LB4LogsWP"&gt;Click here to download it now.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <category>Sharepoint Security</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Whitepaper: Comparing Exchange Server's™ 3 Audit Logs for Security and SIEM Integration</title>
      <pubDate>Fri, 16 Nov 2012 21:27:36 GMT</pubDate>
      <link>http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/blog/default.aspx?p=2423b5ff-5fe6-473d-8d69-555428d940b1</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">2423b5ff-5fe6-473d-8d69-555428d940b1</guid>
      <author>info@ultimatewindowssecurity.com</author>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;This whitepaper by Randy Franklin Smith, provides an overview of the 3 different  audit logs in Exchange and discusses their relative merits in terms of security  value and how to integrate with your SIEM.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.logbinder.com/form.aspx?action=LBexWPComp"&gt;Download it now here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <category>Audit Logs</category>
      <category>Security</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>New Whitepaper: SharePoint Audit Logging with HP ArcSight and LOGbinder SP</title>
      <pubDate>Tue, 06 Nov 2012 22:19:28 GMT</pubDate>
      <link>http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/blog/default.aspx?p=79871faa-a03d-4841-aed6-c7d697753267</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">79871faa-a03d-4841-aed6-c7d697753267</guid>
      <author>info@ultimatewindowssecurity.com</author>
      <description>&lt;P&gt;&lt;FONT size=3&gt;Over at LOGbinder we've released a new whitepaper explaining how LOGbinder SP is the only recognized solution for providing reliable audit information about the security events of SharePoint via HP ArcSight and how it works with many other SIEMs.&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;&lt;FONT size=3&gt;Did you know that SharePoint generates several different logs ranging from true audit logs to&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;FONT size=3&gt; diagnostic trace logs and usage analysis? &lt;A href="http://www.logbinder.com/form.aspx?action=LbArcSightWP"&gt;This brief&lt;/A&gt; will identify what (if any) security intelligence can be learned from each log. It will then explain which logs are readily available to SIEMs, and which logs are not readily available. &lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;FONT size=3&gt;
&lt;P&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.logbinder.com/form.aspx?action=LbArcSightWP"&gt;Click here to download the whitepaper.&lt;/A&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;</description>
      <category>Sharepoint Security</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Output-ADUsersAsCSV Script to go with 10 Steps to Cleaning Up Active Directory User Accounts</title>
      <pubDate>Sun, 21 Oct 2012 19:55:20 GMT</pubDate>
      <link>http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/blog/default.aspx?p=376e39f3-b358-4030-87da-c6fb814626a9</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">376e39f3-b358-4030-87da-c6fb814626a9</guid>
      <author>info@ultimatewindowssecurity.com</author>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;This is a PowerShell script I developed to use in my own IT audits  of Active Directory and for a webinar:     &lt;a id="ctl00_ctl00_ctl00_ctl00_Content_Content_Content_Content_HyperLink1" href="http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/webinars/register.aspx?id=180"&gt;&lt;font color="#006699"&gt;10 Steps to Cleaning Up Active Directory User Accounts and Keeping Them that Way&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It outputs a comma-delimited list of user accounts and their most important         properties for IT audit and account management analysis.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="/tools/Output-ADUsersAsCSV/default.aspx"&gt;Check it out here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <category>Security</category>
    </item>
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