Neowin.net - Experts: Microsoft tweaks, new laws won't make '04 safer

Experts: Microsoft tweaks, new laws won't make '04 safer

Posted by malebolgia on 24 December 2003 - 22:58 · 10 comments & 421 views

For computer security experts, 2003 started with the Slammer Internet worm and went downhill from there. The year, which included four major worm and virus outbreaks just in August, has been labeled the "year of the worm" and "the worst year ever" by more than one computer security expert. All that activity meant good news for antivirus software companies, such as Symantec. It was bad news for organizations of all kinds, which expended precious resources disinfecting everything from desktop workstations, to airline reservation systems and automated teller machine (ATM) networks that were hobbled by virus outbreaks.

Will 2004 bring more of the same, or will it be remembered as the year in which Internet users "took back the streets" from virus writers, malicious hackers and spammers? A little bit of both, say corporate security experts and computer virus specialists. When it comes to computer viruses and worms, Internet users will not see any letup in virus outbreaks in 2004, despite high-profile prosecutions of some virus authors and a Microsoft bounty on the head of the original authors of the Blaster and Sobig viruses, according to Chris Belthoff, senior security analyst at Sophos PLC. Prosecutions and bounties do not prevent crime in the physical world, and should not be expected to work any better online, Belthoff said. Such programs also misunderstand the motivation of virus writers, who are often looking for attention and recognition, rather than financial gain, he said.

News source: InfoWorld

TDM is also known as circuit-switched technology because it creates an end-to-end connection to complete a call. IP, on the other hand, uses packet switching, a method that involves breaking a call into pieces for more efficient delivery and then reassembling it at the other end.

Depending on the size of the company and the state of its existing IP infrastructure, rolling out a VoIP network can take years to complete. For example, Grant Thornton, a Chicago-based accounting and consulting firm servicing midsize companies, is already three years into a VoIP deployment that began in 2001.

The company has 51 offices throughout the country and employs roughly 3,500 workers installed a hybrid PBX solution from Avaya, which allowed it to maintain portions of its switched telephone network, so that some employees could continue using their existing digital analog phones while others used the IP phones.

"Once you begin a deployment like this, you realize how much there is to it," said Kevin Lopez, national manager of telecommunications for Grant Thornton. "When we first implemented the five-digit dialing system, we saw how many IP addresses we had to change. We realized how much work it was going to be to rollout the entire network, so we decided to do it over a longer period of time."

Since then the company has slowly deployed other services, such as unified messaging, and it is about to implement "soft" phone technology that will allow employees to make phone calls from their laptops. A few of the company's locations are all IP. But most locations still use a mix of IP and the traditional switched telephone network. In those locations, the VoIP network is only about 7 percent saturated.

Up goes the work load

The larger the company, often the longer it takes to deploy the service. Not only is the basic installation of the IP phones time-consuming and labor-intensive, but the IP technology used today also requires more management and maintenance than traditional digital phones.

"You never have to update a regular digital phone," Lopez said. "You just plug it in and it works. But the IP phones need software updates. You need to be sure you have the staff and a user base that understands when those updates need to happen."

Larger networks also require more testing to make sure the existing IP infrastructure can handle the additional load from the IP voice services. Some companies may even have to deploy additional infrastructure.

For example, Jenny Craig, the nationwide weight-loss company, has spent the past year and a half IP-enabling its network. It started with basic connectivity linking its 430 remote locations in North America and an additional 130 offices in Australia and New Zealand together via encrypted IP tunnels. The company is now just starting to roll out IP telephony to its branch offices.

"I'd say we are still dabbling in the technology," said Jeff Nelson, director of technology for Jenny Craig. "Going forward, everything will run over IP. But we are taking our time getting there."

Slower rollouts could mean that companies won't be spending as much on VoIP gear over the short term as some have predicted, Infonetics' Riggs said.

"With a staged environment, companies can move to the next phase of deployment whenever they're comfortable," he said. "That could be next year, or it could be in 2010."

But Cisco doesn't seem worried about revenue delays. The company boasts that it sold its 2 millionth IP phone in June. It also said that it's sold an additional 400,000 IP phones in the third quarter of this year, proving that momentum is building.

Rick Moran, vice president of product and technology marketing for IP communications for Cisco, admitted that some companies may take longer to deploy VoIP end to end than others. Either way, the movement toward VoIP means more business for Cisco--at some point.

"Some companies will be faster than others," he said. "It's interesting how companies are starting to look at VoIP like it's a business application rather than a telephony service. As a result, they tend to try it out in certain remote offices or in a particular department before they roll it out to the entire company."

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(5 replies) #1 Posted by stezo2k on 24 Dec 2003 - 22:59: when has windows been safe anyway?

#2 Posted by VikingStorm on 25 Dec 2003 - 04:15: I wonder how many jobs would be lost without security bugs and malicious code.

#3 Posted by twyst3d on 25 Dec 2003 - 04:32: the only pc that is secure is one that is not online unplugged and put in a bank vault, i use windows and linux and they both are insecure unless they are properly patched ^_^

#4 Posted by scyphe on 25 Dec 2003 - 08:43: One wonders if those worms aren't actually released by freelancers hired by the AV-companies just to make a huge profit.

#5 Posted by iguanas on 25 Dec 2003 - 21:34: the system is as secure as trustworthy the administrator they say
i dont use antivirus, i dont use firewall at all, and i never , never (well, the first time i installed samba, i left it wide open to the world, but for 2 hours(until i learn)) had problems neither in my linux or windows machines.

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