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Security Freebies For The Budget-Busted
SecurityProNews
Staff Writer
2008-12-29
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After our ritual annual money-purge (some call it Christmas), free more than ever is a good thing. With that in mind, here are some security freebies for developers and network managers.
 | | Security Freebies For The Budget-Busted |  |
For cash-strapped security-minded surfers, forums and reviewers out there seem to agree Avira and Avast still offer the best free antivirus programs. Avira's, though touted as the crème de la antivirus, is a bit more insistent with the upgrade sales pitches. Small price to pay for free, though right?
Michael Zalewski of Google's Security Team recently announced the availability of the "Browser Security Handbook." Google considers the 60-page document a comprehensive comparison of security features and characteristics used in browsers. It also has commentary and tips for application developers.
Why is this needed?
The team explains:
Although all browsers implement roughly the same set of baseline features, there is relatively little standardization - or conformance to standards - when it comes to many of the less apparent implementation details. Furthermore, vendors routinely introduce proprietary tweaks or improvements that may interfere with existing features in non-obvious ways, and seldom provide a detailed discussion of potential problems.
While that's good for the development side of Internet security, what about the business end? Security is expensive enough before software, which is why Branden Williams' review of open source systems is a welcome tour of community-based, budget-friendly solutions:
PCI DSS 1.2 has several sections that require a security application to be used to satisfy a requirement. Some of these areas are file integrity monitoring, firewalls, encryption, wireless scanners, intrusion detection/intrusion prevention and anti-virus.
All of these areas have several tools available to address the specific requirement. However, what if a merchant needs to keep the budget to a bare minimum? What if there is absolutely no way a merchant is able to purchase several of these solutions straight off the shelf and pay the licensing associated with them without severely impacting the business?
Open-source solutions exist for practically every requirement identified in the DSS.
Check out the rest of Williams' overview.
About the Author:
SecurityProNews is a daily online and email publication focusing on internet security issues.
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