The Lippis Report

March 22nd, 2010

With all the investment in IT security over the years, one would think that threats would have subsided; but they have only increased and largely increased with exploits and iframes (redirection on a reputable website to infect its visitors) up nearly by a factor of 2000 over the past two years. This has resulted in an increase in data theft Trojans over the same period by a factor of 6000, according to the 2009 ScanSafe Global Threat Report, enriching hackers and cybercriminals. What’s driving this exploit growth is that hackers and cybercriminals are automating successful techniques for mass website infection. In addition, hackers increasingly collaborate, sharing best practices to infect websites for personal gain. In short, IT and business leaders are not confronting individual hackers, but a community of cybercriminals working together to steal corporate data that is increasingly organized as a traditional business with suppliers, resellers and end users. And this community’s opportunities to attack individuals and corporations have only increased with the huge growth in mobile access and deep corporate reliance of web-based applications to automate business processes.

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March 22nd, 2010

Nick Lippis of the Lippis Report shares his opinion on the pro’s and con’s of mixing up the vendors in your network. Nick is interviewed on Jennifer Geisler’s latest FutureProof show.

Watch this vidcast now here

March 22nd, 2010

By Yankee Group

IP communications not only helps small- and mid-size businesses (SMBs) grow their business by providing easy-to-access customer intelligence, but it also reduces the cost of operations by helping businesses uncover critical data and act upon it. This is the biggest priority for SMBs over the next year, according to Yankee Group’s Anywhere Enterprise—SMB: 2009 U.S. Transforming Infrastructure and Transforming Applications Survey. Even in difficult economic climates, SMBs recognize the value that a deeper understanding of their customers and interactions between employees and customers can provide. It is all about how actionable customer intelligence can create a positive change for their business. Consequently, when SMBs are asked to name the biggest priority for their organization over the next year, the top three responses are: operational efficiencies, more customer focus and automating business processes, in that order. These priorities demand a new way of doing business, a new way to interact with customers and a new foundation.

Find out how by downloading this white paper

March 22nd, 2010

By Sagemcom

In today’s highly competitive and dynamic global business world, communication speed is critical to success as organizations must cost-efficiently process contracts, invoices, purchase orders, and other legally binding, mission-critical documents. Indeed, this is where the fundamental business value of fax is clear with its well-established wide ranging benefits including low costs, format insensitivity, ubiquity and global standardization as well as transport velocity, security, and general robustness. Any downtime associated with efficient fax communications can potentially adversely impact employee productivity, revenue, customer service, compliance processes, and even corporate reputation. In fact, according to Gartner, “the kinds of documents sent over fax servers are, if anything, even more mission-critical than ever”. This highlights the need for IT/network administrators, architects and business leaders to better understand the tradeoffs associated with different fax survivability solutions.

Find out how by downloading this white paper

March 17th, 2010

The Web Malware Pandemic

Just as the Internet, the Web, and the information age have revolutionized our businesses and our lives, these developments have also radically changed the face of crime. Computer and Internet crime are no exception. Today, computers factor in nearly every form of crime – from crimes facilitated by computers (credit card theft, for example), to crimes, which are specifically computer-to-computer (malware, for example), and to crimes in which computers play an incidental supporting role (i.e. an illegal gambling bookie that keeps computerized records). This paper addresses one single facet of cybercrime – the manipulation of Web content and Web technologies for criminal and/or for illicit gains

Find out how to defend Web traffic from cybercrime by downloading this paper

March 17th, 2010

THE WORLD’S LARGEST SECURITY ANALYSIS OF REAL-WORLD WEB TRAFFIC
By Cisco Systems

The ScanSafe Global Threat Report is an analysis of more than a trillion Web requests processed in 2009 by the ScanSafe Threat Center on behalf of the company’s corporate clients in over 80 countries across five continents. Our leading position of providing security in-the-cloud provides unparalleled insight in the real-world Web threats faced by the today’s enterprise; this report represents the world’s largest security analysis of real- world Web traffic.

Download it now here.

March 17th, 2010

Power Management Is Added To Edge Switches
by Lippis Consulting

Wiring closet switches are undergoing a renaissance as the number and type of end-point devices accessing applications through multiple networks soar. Once the device for connecting desktops, wiring closet switches now connect wireless access points, laptops, kiosks, netbooks, IP phones, printers, video desktop systems, electrical power systems and more. As networks go borderless so too are wiring closet switches. Wiring closet switches are pervasive as they connect all end-points into an enterprise network distributing network services, applications and now power throughout a corporation. Network intelligence and services have shifted toward network access, enabling power management, unified communications, integrated security, wireless LAN access, application delivery, and high availability to support real time applications and much more. This white paper documents the dynamics forcing a change in wiring closet switching with recommendations and guidelines for IT business leaders to assist them in fixed switch vendor selection. The new Cisco edge switching products, Cisco Catalyst 3750-X, 3560-X, and 2960-S Series Switches are profiled as they represent progressive thinking in this space.

March 17th, 2010

In addition to desktop connectivity wiring closet switches now connect wireless access points, laptops, kiosks, netbooks, IP phones, printers, video desktop systems and more while also managing electrical power of the devices they connect. New PoE Plus standard 802.3at allow 30W per port to be delivered which has driven a change in wiring closet power management. I talk with Berna Devrim, Sr. Manager, Access Switching Marketing at Cisco Systems about the dynamics forcing a change in wiring closet switching and the new Cisco X and S series of edge switching products which represent progressive thinking in this space. Enjoy, Nick.

March 17th, 2010

By Cisco Systems

The traditional network and physical perimeter is no longer the only borderline to defend information security. Collaboration, IT consumerization, mobility, and new computing technologies are driving productivity gains while presenting renewed security requirements. There is greater pressure on IT to meet the demands of a dynamic workforce, both in terms of service delivery and security challenges. New solutions are needed to protect borderless networks and to help further improve business efficiencies in the mean time. Cisco® TrustSec is such a solution.

To find out how to protect your network with TrustSec download this white paper now

March 17th, 2010

Cisco’s TrustSec is architecture with its implementation spread across client software, infrastructure (Catalyst & Nexus) and policy (Access Control System and NAC appliance). Cisco has expanded TrustSec to incorporate 802.1x clients allowing IT leaders to mix and match NAC and 802.1x endpoints. TrustSec organizes and simplifies authentication and policy schema allowing administrators to configure and maintain identity-based access to IT resources while identifying and applying policy based on a user roles in the organization. TrustSec also provides encrypted links at the switch port level. Steven Song Security Business Manager in the Network Systems & Security group at Cisco Systems joins me to discuss TrustSec and how Cisco is expanding its services and importance for IT business leaders.

March 16th, 2010

By Cisco

As the Internet transforms from a static resource to a utility platform enabling two-way communications, malicious threats have increased in volume and shifted their focus toward the Web. Hackers are exploiting the vulnerabilities of an open and dynamic Web to distribute their malware rather than creating their own malicious websites. Web malware infection from reputable websites that have been compromised is now not only a reality, but is now the preferred route to infect victims. This change has made traditional methods of control such as anti-virus less effective and requires an alternative approach to security. This alternative approach is Cloud Web Security.

To understand Cloud Web Security download this white paper

March 16th, 2010

The Web is increasingly being used as the threat vector of choice by hackers and cybercriminals to distribute malware and perpetuate identity theft, financial fraud, and corporate espionage. Is exploit sophistication and complexity evolving beyond traditional end-point anti-virus mitigation? Is a network centric model a faster and more accurate approach to zero day threat defense where massive cloud computing resources are put to work identifying and mitigating complex, polymorphic threats designed to evade anti-virus software and are mitigated before they reach desktop or mobile end-points? Mark Guntrip, Product Manager at Cisco Systems joins me to discuss Cisco ScanSafe, a Cloud Web Security Offering and debate client- versus network-based zero day threat defense.

March 15th, 2010

By Voltaire

Applying the scalability, effciency, and fabric virtualization capabilities of InfniBand to Converged  Enhanced Ethernet (CEE).

These trends have signifcant impact on the fabric architecture of the data center. Fabrics must now support larger-scale Layer 2 (L2) networks since server virtualization and mobility, new storage protocols, and low latency messaging must reside on the same L2 domain. The new data center infrustracture must also be set to overcome the management complexity and address virtualization from the ground up.

March 9th, 2010

No matter where you look today the structure of IT is fundamentally changing. Applications are increasingly being accessed from mobile devices along with traditional laptop, desktop and even kiosk machines. SaaS has taken off and is far more prevalent than most executives realize as they are acquired by line of business and divisional budgets, leaving many IT leaders blind-sided and out of control with their relevance coming into question. As a result corporate application portfolios are shifting in their mix under IT leaders from one of total control to partial control to none. In short, IT leaders are finding that the largest application growth in their corporation is coming from outside of their traditional perimeter and with no control knobs. In essence applications and networks are becoming borderless.

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