Stories by Linda Musthaler

Improving network access security for unmanaged devices

"Lions, and tigers and bears! Oh, my!" Anyone who has ever seen The Wizard of Oz knows that's the sum of the fears of Dorothy, Scarecrow and Tin Woodsman as they head into the woods on their way to Oz. For the network security administrator dealing with unmanaged devices, that refrain might be something like "handhelds, and laptops and guests! Oh, my!"

Lost: A $49,000 laptop computer

About fifteen years ago, my husband and his colleague had their laptop computers stolen out of a car. They were fearful of reporting the incident to their boss, largely because the laptops had cost the company about US$7,000 each. A $14,000 hit to the departmental budget was a serious blow. And back in those days, no one gave much thought to exposure of the data on the stolen devices.

Engineers fix the shortcomings of the traditional firewall

Sometimes, the problems we experience with computers are a result of a legacy design. Hardware or software might have been architected 10 or 20 years ago when the world of computing was vastly different from the way it is today. As a result, the product in use today isn't as effective as it could be because of aging or obsolete design.

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