David Strom

In my role as curator of the Dice Security talent community, here are my favorite stories for the past week. Domain Security Needs More Than Registry Locks Kevin Mitnick Details Modern IT Threats Government employees feel left out of UK cybersecurity, survey reveals Best tools for protecting passwords (my review for Network World) Lawyers report steep rise in employee data theft cases NetTraveler Variant Adds Java Exploits, Watering Hole Attacks to Bag of Tricks Where, oh Where, Does That QR Code Lead? Github Adds 2 factor auth ... (more)

Restaurant Technology: Intro to Geofencing

Geofencing, or the ability to closely target particular computer users based on their current location, is still a relatively new field when it comes to restaurant marketing and branding. There are dozens of vendors in this space (this is a long list of who exhibited at last year’s Local Advertising Conference), but very few of the ones we contacted have actually had any restaurant customers yet. The tools span several different kinds of products, too. You can view my article here in the premiere issue of Restaurant Technology Magazine that provides a primer for those interested... (more)

Time to improve your password hygiene

Let’s take a brief quiz on password hygiene. Don’t worry, the answers are all yes or no, and I won’t reveal your individual grades. 1. Do you avoid reusing the same password on multiple websites? 2. Have you changed your email password in the past 90 days? 3. Do you use the two-factor authentication for Google, Apple, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, GitHub, and others? If you answered no to any of these questions, it is time to consider upping your game. I have been spending a lot of time looking at various password-related security products for Network World, and my latest review j... (more)

Always Be Composing

You started a blog, good for you. Now it is a year or two later, and you are running out of things to say to the Internet. Should you give it up? Not a chance. Take a cue from the Alec Baldwin character in Glengary Glen Ross: Always Be Composing, ABC. That isn’t quite what he said, but it fits my message. In the movie, Baldwin’s acerbic speech is filled with cursing, abuse and venom in his attempt to get his lackluster group of real estate salesmen back on track. While the speech backfires, the message is on target. I came to writing in my mid-20s, after a couple of jobs. This wa... (more)

Why your small business needs a better firewall

When I set out to test a collection of new small business firewalls for Network World, I wanted to find a place that could illustrate their need. I was fortunate to find Mercury Labs, which despite their name is a video production and public relations company of about 10 people located in midtown St. Louis, not far away from my office. Over the course of a couple of weeks, I brought in several different unified threat management boxes to try out, including Check Point Software’s 640, Dell/Sonicwall’s NSA250MW, Elitecore Technologies’ Cyberoam CR35iNG, Fortinet’s FortiGate 100-D, ... (more)