Sunday, March 18, 2007

Privacy Digest | News that can impact your privacy. It seems that my current CMS(Content Management System) for Privacy Digest is getting sick. Since I was already planning to switch to a different CMS to manage the site, its not worth putting a lot of research and effort into cleaning up the new problems (probably a corrupted database) with the old one. I will probably doing a switch over in the next or so. There will probably be a few hiccups with the RSS/XML feeds and maybe other things. The old pages will stay in place till I can import/convert them to the new system. But since they aren't actually in the CMS they will not be visible in the local search function. I'll look at adding the Google search back for my site since they have will have the old and new content. Until the switchover goes live, you can check it out at http://www.PrivacyDigest.com/index.php And yes the index.php part is required till the switchover. But it will not be needed afterwards. Editor. 4:50:31 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Microsoft security guru wants Vista bugs rated less serious Microsoft's own bug hunters should cut Windows Vista some slack and rate its vulnerabilities differently because of the operating system's new, baked-in defenses, according to the developer who is often the public persona of the company's Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) process. Michael Howard, a senior security program manager in Microsoft's security engineering group, said that the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) is being too conservative in its Vista vulnerability rating plans. Because Vista includes security techniques and technologies that Windows XP lacks, the MSRC should reconsider how it ranks Vista when a vulnerability affects both Microsoft's new operating system and its predecessor, Windows XP, he said. "The MSRC folks are, understandably, very conservative and would rather err on the side of people deploying updates rather than trying to downgrade bug severity," said Howard on his personal blog last week. "Don't be surprised if you see a bug that's, say, Important on Windows XP and Important on Windows Vista, even if Windows Vista has a few more defenses and mitigations in place." The operating system, released to consumers in late January, includes a number of new security features that randomize memory, check code for buffer overflows and require user permission for potentially risky operations. Not surprisingly, the MSRC rejects Howard's argument. "Windows Vista will not be treated any differently, and severity ratings for any issues will be based on vulnerability traits and merits, along with technical mitigating factors," an MSRC spokesperson said. "This process is the same for all Microsoft products." Although the MSRC's security bulletins may qualify a bug's severity in some specific environments, its rating system is clear-cut. If an Internet worm can spread without user action -- the MSRC's definition of "critical" -- on Vista, the vulnerability will be so tagged, Vista-specific security technologies notwithstanding. Analysts and outside Microsoft security professionals took the MSRC's side -- and blasted Howard's idea. 4:39:51 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Slashdot | MS Security Guy Wants Vista Bugs Rated Down   jcatcw writes  "Gregg Keizer reports that Michael Howard, an MS senior security program manager, says that the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) is being too conservative in its Vista vulnerability rating plans. Microsoft's own bug hunters should cut Windows Vista some slack and rate its vulnerabilities differently because of the operating system's new, baked-in defenses." 4:31:59 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []