Link: http://dc.naisg.org/meetings

WELCOME FROM THE WASHINGTON, DC CHAPTER OF NAISG

NAISG is a national, information security association that provides presentations, education and networking opportunities at no cost to the general public.  The quality of its meetings and members and its TechTips email list have attained international recognition.  You can visit the main Web site at http://www.naisg.org or the Washington DC chapter site at http://dc.naisg.org.

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National Information Security Group (NAISG) – Washington, DC Chapter
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In this newsletter:
1. July and August meeting topic
2. Meetings count for CISSP recertification credits
3. Network with other NAISG members on LinkedIn
4. Online resources
5. TechTips email list - Post your security questions/answers here
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1. JULY MEETING (7/30, 6:30 PM)

Add the meeting to your calendar!  All meeting notices are available in ICS format so that you can easily add them to your Outlook or other ICS-compliant calendar system.  Access the ICS file at http://dc.naisg.org/meetings.

Presentation: "IT Security Threat Landscape" Brett A. Scudder, President of The IT Security Suite Network, will be presenting a workshop focusing on Information Technology Security.   Mr. Scudder has worked in the security threat landscape for 10 years covering a range of topics from viruses, worms, hacking, denial of service attacks and patching.  He has worked with some the industry’s finest vendors, professionals, executives and consumers which allow him to have a holistic approach to resolution and addressing the IT Security Threat Landscape. 

During the workshop Mr. Scudder will address the current IT Security Threat Landscape, how companies currently secure and protect its users and data, and the types of issues that you should be aware of going forward.  He will also be available for a Q&A session to answer any questions that you may have regarding the IT Security Threats Landscape. 

If you have not yet done so, please send a courtesy e-mail to Meetings-DC@naisg.org indicating that you plan to attend the meeting so that we can orderthe correct quantity of pizza.

AND SPEAKING OF PIZZA…Does your company want to sponsor pizza for an upcoming meeting?  We need organizations to provide the pizza sponsorship.  If interested, please see http://www.naisg.org/Sponsors for costs and benefits and then let us know.

The meeting will be on Wednesday, July 30, at 6:30 PM. It will be held at the CSIS headquarters. [Directions are on our Web site at http://dc.naisg.org.] The meeting will start with a general introduction to the group, followed by an open Q&A period and then the presentation.

THERE WILL BE NO AUGUST MEETING - SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER

2. MEETINGS COUNT TOWARD YOUR CISSP RECERTIFICATION

During the three year recertification period, each CISSP must earn 120 continuing professional education (CPE) credits.  Your attendance at NAISG meetings is valid toward these credits.  If you are a CISSP, please print a copy of the form at http://dc.naisg.org/Meetings and bring it to the meeting.  Give it to the meeting moderator to sign, after which you can submit it to (ISC)2 as needed.  Details on the recertification requirements are at https://www.isc2.org/cgi-bin/content.cgi?category=24.

3. NETWORK WITH OTHER NAISG MEMBERS ON LINKEDIN

Feel free to join more than 650 other NAISG members on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/43269/7DC2303017E0.

4. ONLINE RESOURCES

NAISG maintains an increasingly-popular Resources page that includes an Internet bandwidth test utility as one additional tool available to our membership. This tool is hosted on our own server and provides accurate readings of upload and download speeds. Just click the Start button on the page to initiate the test. Bookmark this page and tell your friends about. http://www.naisg.org/Resources.

5. "TechTips" E-Mail List

NAISG maintains an email list server for subscribers to post their security-related questions and answers as well as occasional special interest announcements. This is a great forum for members to get quick answers for their day-to-day or out-of-the-blue questions, and includes individuals from all over the world. If not already subscribed, you can do so at http://www.naisg.org/Lists.

Link: http://www.htc.com/us/FAQ_Detail.aspx?p_id=75&act=sd

HTC’s Sprint Mogul 6800 and Touch Windows Mobile v.6.1 Upgrade

So HTC finally released the highly anticipated WM v.6.1 upgrade for the Mogul on Monday July 21st and I couldn’t wait to install it. I was still a little worried about it so I installed it on my primary test Mogul and boy was a happy with it until, until, UNTIL, I saw how much it ate up the battery.

Some of the new features that were added are not of value to me but hey, it’s still good to have as others will benefit from them. I’m not into the TV stuff but it was a nice added compliment. I checked out a few stations and was quite pleased with the reception and service. I tried playing with the GPS but had some issues because I may need to setup an account or something.

One thing is for sure, it is the fastest loading Windows Mobile OS i’ve seen to date. Wow, I was very impressed with the speed of loading up even after I loaded up all my apps and utils on it. Restarting the device took under 30 seconds, WOW. It’s much faster and I no longer had that glitch when creating or responding to new emails where the screen only showed one side of the page.

I love the new text messaging features. It’s like an IM session that runs over the course of the conversation with the same person. It makes it so much easier to track back to previous IMs but I fear the "loading messages" part consumes memory. I do over 4000 (and counting) txt messages per month so managing my txt and txt’g for is critical for me. Yes, but of course I have an unlimited txt messaging plan.

If only the battery life was improved, oh the pain, oh the hurt. Anyway, it could have been worse so thank goodness for the new features, enhancements and well needed speeds.

Why update the ROM on your device?

The software upgrade posted below provides several key enhancements for your Mogul:

Here’s some additional release info for the HTC Touch as well HTC’s Web site.

Here are some screen shots of my Mogul and settings.

















The new Task Manager


I love my Mogul, can you tell?

Thank you HTC and keep up the great work, we apprecilove it.

~Brett A. Scudder~

Link: http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/dynamickc.do?externalId=KB15766&sliceId=SAL_Public&command=show&forward=nonthreadedKC&kcId=KB15766

Environment

• BlackBerry® Enterprise Server software version 4.1 Service Pack 3 (4.1.3) through 4.1 Service Pack 5 (4.1.5)

• BlackBerry® Professional Software 4.1 Service Pack 4 (4.1.4)

view

This advisory describes a security issue that the BlackBerry Attachment Service component of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server is susceptible to. The issue relates to a known vulnerability in the PDF distiller component of the BlackBerry Attachment Service that affects how the BlackBerry Attachment Service processes PDF files.

This vulnerability has a Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) score of 9.0.

Problem

A security vulnerability exists in the PDF distiller of some released versions of the BlackBerry Attachment Service. This vulnerability could enable a malicious individual to send an email message containing a specially crafted PDF file, which when opened for viewing on a BlackBerry smartphone, could cause memory corruption and possibly lead to arbitrary code execution on the computer that the BlackBerry Attachment Service runs on.

Resolution

Upgrade to BlackBerry Enterprise Server software version 4.1 Service Pack 6 (4.1.6).

Research In Motion (RIM) has also issued an interim security software update that resolves this vulnerability in earlier affected versions of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Professional Software.

For BlackBerry Enterprise Server

Visit http://www.blackberry.com/go/serverdownloads
to obtain the interim security software update for affected release versions earlier than BlackBerry Enterprise Server software version 4.1.6.

For BlackBerry Professional Software

Visit http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/downloads/#tab_professional
to obtain the interim security software update for affected BlackBerry Professional Software versions.

Workaround

Note: As a mobile device best practice, RIM recommends that BlackBerry smartphone users open attachments from trusted sources only.

Prevent the BlackBerry Attachment Service from processing PDF files in a BlackBerry Enterprise Server environment

You can prevent the BlackBerry Attachment Service from processing PDF files by editing the list of file format extensions that the BlackBerry Attachment Service opens, and then preventing the PDF attachment distiller from running on the BlackBerry Attachment Service.

To remove the PDF file extension from the list of supported file format extensions, complete the following actions:

1. From the Windows® Desktop, open the BlackBerry Server Configuration tool.

2. Click the Attachment Server tab.

3. In the Format Extensions field, delete
   pdf: from the colon–delimited list of extensions.

4. Click Apply.

5. Click OK.

attachment distiller from running, the BlackBerry Attachment Service still detects a PDF file with a renamed extension (in other words, its extension is not .pdf) and attempts to process the file automatically. To prevent the PDF attachment distiller from running, complete the following actions:

1. On the Windows Desktop, open the BlackBerry Server Configuration tool.

2. Click the Attachment Server tab.

3. In the Configuration Option drop-down list, select
   Attachment Server.

4. In the Distiller Settings section, next to the distiller name Adobe PDF, clear the check box in the Enabled column.

5. Click Apply.

6. Click OK.

7. On the Windows Desktop, in Administrative Tools, open
   Services.

8. Right-click BlackBerry Attachment Service and click
   Stop.

9. Right-click BlackBerry Attachment Service and click
   Start.

10. Close Services.

ronments, complete the following additional steps:

1. On the Windows Desktop, in Administrative Tools, open
   Services.

2. Right-click BlackBerry Dispatcher and click
   Stop.

3. Right-click BlackBerry Dispatcher and click
   Start.

4. Close Services.

STRONG> Restarting certain BlackBerry Enterprise Server services will delay email message delivery to BlackBerry smartphones. For more information, see KB04789.

In IBM® Lotus® Domino® environments, complete the following additional steps:

1. Open the IBM Lotus Domino Administrator.

2. Click the Server tab.

3. Click the Status tab.

4. Click Server Console.

5. In the Domino Command field, type tell BES
   quit and press ENTER.

6. In the Domino Command field, type load BES
   and press ENTER.

7. Close the IBM Lotus Domino Administrator.
   
   

Additional Information

You can install the BlackBerry Attachment Service on a remote computer and then place that computer on its own network segment to prevent the spread of potential attacks from the BlackBerry Attachment Service to another computer within your organization’s network. In a segmented network, attacks are isolated and contained on a single area of the network. Using segmented network architecture is designed to improve the security and performance of the BlackBerry Attachment Service network segment by filtering out attachment data that is not destined for other network segments. For more information about placing the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution components in a network rchitecture that is segmented to prevent the spread of potential malware attacks, see Placing the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution in a Segmented Network.

Visit www.blackberry.com/security for more information on BlackBerry security.

CVSS is a vendor agnostic, industry open standard designed to convey the severity of vulnerabilities. CVSS scores may be used to determine the urgency for update deployment within an organization. CVSS scores range from 0.0 (no vulnerability) to 10.0 (critical). RIM uses CVSS in vulnerability assessments to present an immutable characterization of security issues. RIM assigns all security relevant issues a non-zero score.

Link: http://titssn.net/titssn-anniversary-meeting-2008.htm

Good day to you,

On behalf of TITSSN I would like to say many thanks to all who attended our anniversary dinner meeting and for taking the time to be with us and participating in this another anniversary meeting of thanks. Your presence was well received and I hope you enjoyed the evening’s formalities.

To the new members we say welcome and we’re happy to have you with us. You’re now a part of the network family and as such will benefit from its awesome resources. As we continue to develop and grow so will you and the abundance of resources.

To our existing members, where would we be without you and your continued support?
You’ve been there, done that, had that, seen that and learnt that but the best is still yet to come. We look forward to your continued support going forward and thank you for your patronage.

So here’s to a new year and exciting times for us all as TITSSN. Cheers.

Here are a few images of the dinner meeting. I look forward to your feedback.

The group members (well, those who came out).



Brett doing his preso.






The food and refreshments






Group pics - members












TITSSN extends a warm and hearty thank you to Mr. E. Fred Sher (our professional photographer/member) for his invaluable support in capturing our events and the moments. Even with the poor lighting issues of the room he’s still able to capture the moments in a great way. Thank you Sir and we hope to have your continued eye on capturing these moments.

Thank you and have a great day. We’re looking forward to this new year ‘2009′.

~TITSSN~