http://www.cio.com.au/index.php/id;75487924 By Ken Pfeil 07 February, 2007 As we all know, not everyone is fortunate enough to have a blank cheque for security-related procurement and implementation. Making the best of your allocated budget may at times call for primary or supplementary solutions that are freely available. This strategy cuts procurement time completely out of the loop as well. Here's a list of security tools available on the Web for free that you should add to your toolbox. BartPE: Preinstalled Environment Troubled by that incessant spyware or virus that just doesn't seem to go away? Need a way to troubleshoot a system without booting the operating system installed on it? BartPE and the right plug-ins will let you do this. www.nu2.nu/pebuilder Snort: Open Source Intrusion Detection System Arguably the world's most used Intrusion Detection System. Both Windows and Linux binaries are available. www.snort.org VMWare Server: A virtual environment It finally happened: VMWare is available for free. Patch management, QA, vulnerability remediation testing and other daily activities are now available without a significant capital investment. VMWare also offers images of various environments, configurations and operating systems available for download (they're called "appliances") and ready to use in conjunction with the main product. Just download, point VMWare to the image and test away! www.vmware.com/products/server DataRescue's IDA Pro Freeware 4.3 disassembler and debugger Although not posted on the DataRescue site any more, the free version of their utility will turn up with a quick Google dig. Try www.programmersheaven.com/ OllyDbg disassembler and debugger Probably the world's most used debugger disassembler. Gives most commercial debuggers a good run for their money. www.ollydbg.de eEye Digital Security's Binary Diffing Suite A good, free suite of binary diffing tools you can use to see the effect that a released patch may have on your environment. Read the Web site, as there are some platform dependencies. research.eeye.com/html/tools/RT20060801-1.html Cygwin: Linux-like environment for Windows Need to run some scripts or programs that previously ran only under Linux? Do you miss your Linux command line when running Windows? www.cygwin.com Nagios: An open-source host, service and network monitoring program Not for security only, but Nagios can be used to monitor for events that typically have security implications. This is one that both the CIO and CISO will agree upon. www.nagios.org iptables and Firewall Builder: Firewall and Management Interface Don't have the deep pockets for a Checkpoint, Cisco or Juniper? iptables comes with most Linux distributions. Not comfortable using a command line to manage it? Firewall Builder is an intuitive way to install and manage the rule set. Get a couple of credit card CDs, create a bootable distribution, and you've got a firewall in your pocket. www.iptables.org and www.fwbuilder.org Apache SpamAssassin: Fight Spam at the Gateway Not really a secret to most people. With the right configuration this is difficult to beat no matter how much you spend on an antispam solution. spamassassin.apache.org/index.html OpenSSH for Windows: Secure Shell for Windows Because FTP is so passe (and insecure), use OpenSSH on the server side coupled with "PuTTY" and WinSCP on the client side for a cheap way to secure your file transfers. sshwindows.sourceforge.net, www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty and winscp.net Cheops-ng: "The Network Swiss Army Knife" A tool for mapping and monitoring your network. This is an excellent free way to track down most of the systems on your network. cheops-ng.sourceforge.net/download.php ACID (Analysis Console for Intrusion Databases) An analysis engine to search and process security events generated by various intrusion detection systems, firewalls and network monitoring tools. acidlab.sourceforge.net -=- 7 Things You Should Never Say in E-Mail by Sarah Scalet 1. We've just got a heads up that we're going to be served with a subpoena, so please clean up your files before next Monday. 2. Can we push the numbers here? 3. Hey sexy, meet me in the coat closet in 5 mins. 4. [Insert CEO name here] is such a [insert expletive here]. 5. I don't think we should hire a woman for that job. 6. To all: I know I had a lot to drink at lunch today, but . . . 7. I should never have put that in an e-mail. -=- SIDEBAR: Want more? Here are a bunch of other tools the cheapskate infosec exec should investigate: Nessus Nmap Paros Netcat Metasploit MBSA (Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer) WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) Ecora Auditor 4.x SpyBot Search and Destroy Ad-Aware SE HijackThis Windows XP Built-in Firewall RootKitRevealer Tor -=- Ken Pfeil is an information security industry veteran ______________________________________ Subscribe to the InfoSec News RSS Feed http://www.infosecnews.org/isn.rss
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