Windows IT Pro UPDATE-Special Edition--If You Can't Beat 'Em, Buy 'Em

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1. Commentary--If You Can't Beat 'Em, Buy 'Em

2. What's New in the Latest Issue

May 2006 Issue - Focus: Office Empowerment - Cover Story: 42 Tips to Empower Your Office Users - Features - Columns - Products & Reviews - Buyer's Guide - Ask the Experts - Reader to Reader

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==== 1. Commentary: If You Can't Beat 'Em, Buy 'Em ==== by Mark Minasi, senior contributing editor, help@minasi.com

I don't know Symantec's PR people, but I think I might hire them. Let me explain why. A long time ago, I was a columnist for a magazine called "Compute!". (No, the exclamation point isn't there because I was excited about it.) I wrote a monthly column about PC hardware and topics such as how mice work, how to buy a SCSI drive, and what's the difference between a hub and a switch. Someone must've been reading the magazine, because I'm told that it sold pretty well, and I got a lot of email. So, I was surprised when my editor told me that I didn't have to file any more columns. He hastened to add that it wasn't anything personal; I was just one in a long list of people he had to call because the magazine was shutting its doors. Another firm was starting a new magazine aimed at the same audience, and to avoid troublesome competition, the well-funded company was buying Compute! magazine--and then shutting it down. I'm not trying to beat up on the folks who bought Compute!, as it really didn't do me any harm. It seemed a nearly unique event--capitalism in its ultimate expression. So, I was quite surprised to see it happen to another company. Anyone who's involved with security knows that one of the biggest challenges for a security officer is managing passwords. Good password-auditing tools are a must-have; as the saying goes, "bad passwords always beat good security." If you've never used one of these tools, then you're probably wondering, "What the heck is a password auditing tool?" To be honest, it's just a password *cracking* tool. You log on to a domain controller (DC) as a domain administrator and start a program that pulls out the hashed passwords (obscured versions of the passwords that OSs store instead of actual passwords) from the DC's hard drive, then reverse-engineers the hashed passwords into their original, unhashed form. I'm not trying to prove that the password-cracking program can crack passwords; by definition it can. If given enough time, any password-cracking program will crack any password hash. What's important is how long it will take the cracker to crack the password hash. A well-chosen password, in theory, requires more time to crack than the Sun's expected lifetime. Poorly chosen passwords--those that include actual words, someone's name, important dates, or fewer than eight characters--can usually be cracked in a matter of minutes. Over the years, three major password-cracking programs have appeared: Cain and Abel, John the Ripper, and L0phtCrack. The hacker group that wrote L0phtcrack later became security consultants. (I'm giggling at the thought, too.) The group changed the company name to "@stake," prettied up the UI, and renamed the L0phtcrack program as "LC5." LC5 had a very nice feature called "audit mode." You could use audit mode to crack passwords without telling you the actual passwords. Instead, the tool would tell you how long it took to crack the passwords. This was excellent because it countered a large objection to password crackers: privacy violations. If I'm a domain administrator at Boeing and start cracking the vice president's passwords on some DC, a lot of people would be reasonably troubled, and I'd soon be looking for a job or, worse, a defense attorney. But by offering the audit-only option, @stake turned a seemingly sinister tool into one that makes good management sense. Which brings us to Symantec. Last year, Symantec bought @stake and stated that it would soon announce its plans for LC5. Recently, the company announced those plans: it isn't offering LC5 for sale. That's right; Symantec bought @stake to close it. Huh? If I recall correctly, this is the company that also bought a neat little utility called Ghost and raised its price. Ghost had a competitor in PowerQuest's DriveImage program, so Symantec bought PowerQuest. Again I say, "Huh?" If Microsoft did something like that, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the European Commission wouldn't sue Microsoft--they'd NUKE it; Redmond would glow green. But no one's ever spanked Symantec for creating a monopoly; instead, in what must be one of the great ironies of the year, Symantec complained to the European Commission last October about Microsoft's allegedly monopolistic practices. That's why I'm going to hire the Symantec PR people. Heck, we can all use that kind of PR. Unless, of course, it involved a deal with a guy with cloven hooves, horns, and the subtle aroma of brimstone--hmmm, NOW I'm wondering?

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==== 2. What's New in the Latest Issue ==== May 2006 Issue Office Empowerment Enable your Microsoft Office users with the power of know-how. Try these lesser- known tips on Outlook, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Access.

Windows IT Pro subscribers can access the May 2006 issue online at http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=28370:610453

Cover Story 42 Tips to Empower Your Office Users Our Microsoft Office-applications experts offer dozens of tips you can use to make your users more Office-savvy--and cut down on tedious support calls. With an introduction by Amy Eisenberg. --Michael Otey, Sue Mosher, Douglas McDowell, Dan Holme, Alan Sugano, and Jean Hsi http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=28364:610453

Features

Competitive Internet Access on the Cheap With a dual-WAN router and two ISP connections, your small business can set up competitive Internet access for less--and even connect multiple locations in one WAN. --Randy Franklin Smith http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=28362:610453

Per-Machine Printer Connections + Custom Plug-In Per-machine printer connections are valuable but relatively undocumented and awkward to manage. The PMPMgr plug-in simplifies using these connections. --Bill Stewart http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=28363:610453

Columns

IT Pro Perspective Virtual Labs Put You in the Driver's Seat Microsoft's TechNet Virtual Labs let you test-drive many Microsoft products in a risk-free environment. --Karen Forster http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=28369:610453

Need to Know What You Need to Know About The Windows Vista Development Time Line Windows Vista and Longhorn Server are slated to be released at about the same time but are using different types of development methodologies. Find out what's different about the new CTP development cycle. --Paul Thurrott http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2835E:610453

What You Need to Know About OneCare Live and Defender All the bases are now covered. Midsized and large enterprises have Microsoft's Client Protection package, and for small businesses and individual users there's OneCare Live and Defender --Paul Thurrott http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=28361:610453

The Business End The Art of the Executive Presentation Sooner or later, you'll need to make a presentation to your company's executives. Follow Ben Smith's guidelines for turning these opportunities into successes. --Ben Smith http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=28367:610453

Windows Power Tools Rediscover Net User Check out this built-in tool that lets you create, delete, and manage local and domain user accounts?all from the command line. --Mark Minasi http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2836B:610453

Top 10 New Features in Windows Server 2003 R2 Windows Server 2003's replacement, R2, has some interesting new featurs--here are my favorites. --Michael Otey http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2835C:610453

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The following product news, reviews, and troubleshooting content are freely available. Check it out at http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=28370:610453

Products & Reviews

New & Improved Check out the latest products to hit the marketplace. PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: Visual Click Software's DSRAZOR --Blake Eno http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2836E:610453

Email Archiving for Compliance Products from GFi Software, Sherpa Software, C2C, Symantec, Mimosa Systems, and Quest Software aim to help you store and manage messages to meet regulations. --Jason Sherry http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=28360:610453

SharePoint Backup and Recovery Need a SharePoint backup and recovery solution? We do the legwork for you on Symantec Backup Exec 10d, CommVault's Galaxy Backup & Recovery, AvePoint's DocAve 3.1 with SPDR 1.0, and Webfox's Backup Elite SC V 3.0. --Daniel Webster http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2835D:610453

Buyer's Guide Essential UPS Are you worried about unexpected power outages, often resulting in data loss? Check out our buyer's guide for insight into UPSs that will help protect your equipment. --Blake Eno http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2836F:610453

Vendor Briefings, May 2006 Our editors share insights from their conversations with Postini, St. Bernard Software, Symantec, and Mirage Networks. --Editors http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2836C:610453

What's Hot, May 2006 Readers highlight favorite products: Network Instruments' Observer Suite, Altiris's Client Management Suite, Configuresoft's Enterprise Configuration Manager, Argent Software's Argent Guardian --Blake Eno http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2835F:610453

Ask the Experts

Encrypting an Exchange Database While the Database Is in Use Understand why you want to encrypt an Exchange database before deploying EFS or a third-party encryption product. --Paul Robichaux http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=28366:610453

Improving the Performance of a NAS Solution Bob Chronister discusses a few suggestions for improving the performance of a NAS setup. --Bob Chronister http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2836A:610453

The Antispyware Conspiracy Are some antispyware vendors actually helping to grow the need for the products they sell? --Mark Russinovich http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2836D:610453

Reader to Reader

An Alternative Approach to Building an SBS Branch Office If you've been tasked with building a branch office in an existing SBS 2003 network, you might be interested in learning about an alternative to the "Install from Media" method. --Readers http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=28368:610453

Before You Give Uncle Bill a Call, Check the Logs One reader practices what he preaches and solves a problem with an upgrade to Small Business Server 2003. --Readers http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=28365:610453 ====================

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==== Events and Resources ==== (A complete Web and live events directory brought to you by Windows IT Pro: http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=28376:610453 )

How do you ensure that your email system isn't vulnerable to a messaging meltdown? In this Web seminar, Exchange guru Paul Robichaux tells you what you should do before you have an outage to increase your chances of coming out of it smelling like roses. http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=28359:610453

Learn the best ways to manage your email security (and fight spam) using a variety of solutions and tips. http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=28355:610453

Expert Ben Smith describes the benefits of using server virtualization to make computers more efficient. Download this exclusive podcast today! http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=28357:610453

Make sure that your DR systems are up to the challenge of a real natural disaster by learning from messaging survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Live Event: Tuesday, May 2 http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=28354:610453

Ensure that you're being effective with your internal network security. Are your DIY options protecting you against worms, BotNets, Trojans, and hackers? Make sure! Live Event: Tuesday, May 23 http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=28353:610453

==== Featured White Paper ====

Examine the risks of allowing unwanted or offensive content into your network and learn about the technologies and methodologies to defend against inappropriate content, spyware, IM, and P2P. http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=28352:610453

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