The Death of the Security Industry

The entire IT security industry is an accident: an artifact of how the computer industry developed. Computers are hard to use, and you need an IT department staffed with experts to make it work. IT security is critical, but there's no earthly reason why users need to know what an intrusion detection system with stateful protocol analysis is, or why it's helpful in spotting SQL injection attacks. As IT fades into the background and becomes just another utility, users will simply expect it to work. The details of how it works won't matter.     

University Networks and Data Security

In general, the problems of securing a university network are no different than those of securing any other large corporate network. But when it comes to data security, universities have their own unique problems. It's easy to point fingers at students--a large number of potentially adversarial transient insiders. Yet that's really no different from a corporation dealing with an assortment of employees and contractors--the difference is the culture.     

Polymer compatibility III. The system poly(methyl methacrylate)–poly(vinyl acetate). Characterization studies

Blends of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc) were prepared by mixing the polymers in the melt and in the absence of a solvent. PMMA was the major constituent of the blend. The polymer blends were tested, using various methods, to determine if they are compatible as solids. Data obtained from dynamic mechanical and DSC measurements show that, when they are mixed under given Brabender mix conditions, the blends exhibit properties characteristic of polymer pairs compatible as solids. If the mix conditions are altered, a two-phase system is evidenced. Using micrographs obtained by light microscopy in phase contrast as criteria, two companion blends containing PMMA/PVAc 80/20 would be classified as incompatible as solids because of the differences in refractive index of PMMA and PVAc. The micrographs also show that, in the system that would otherwise be listed as compatible, the PVAc domains appear to be relatively uniform in size and distribution through the PMMA matrix. In its companion blend, large, irregularly shaped particles of PVAc which are poorly dispersed in the PMMA matrix are evident.     

SIMS: solution, or part of the problem?

The author evaluates security information management systems, or SIMS, which promise to solve a serious network security problem: log analysis. The idea behind log analysis is that if you can read the log messages in real time, you can figure out what the attacker is doing. And if you can respond fast enough, you can kick him out before he does damage.     

Security and Function Creep

Far too often we build security for one purpose, only to find it being used for another purpose—one it wasn't suited for in the first place. And then the security system has to play catch-up.     

Security and compliance

It's been said that all business-to-business sales are motivated by either fear or greed. Traditionally, security products and services have been a fear sell: fear of burglars, murderers, kidnappers, and, more recently, hackers. Despite the computer security industry's repeated attempts to position itself as a greed sell - "better managing your risks will make your company more profitable" - fear remains the primary motivator.