Certification Prep – The 20 Minute Workout

This story appeared on Network World at http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/092810-obama-ipv6.html   NTIA workshop is current administration's first attempt at promoting next-gen Internet By Carolyn Duffy Marsan , Network World September 28, 2010 09:07 AM ET The Obama Administration bills itself as the most tech-savvy political team ever, but until now it has ignored one of the biggest issues facing the Internet: the rapid depletion of Internet addresses using the current protocol, known as IPv4, and the imminent need for carriers and content providers to adopt a new standard called IPv6.  No IPv6 plan? You're behind schedule Today, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will host a workshop on IPv6 that features high-profile executives from government, industry and Internet policymaking organizations. This workshop is the first time the Obama Administration has given IPv6 any publicity in the 21 months it has been in

As originally published from INFOWORLD on September 13, 2010 Organizations will migrate about 250 million PCs to Windows 7 over the next few years, and Gartner predicts there won't be enough qualified IT staffers to handle the task. It's not a Y2K-style crisis, but there's only a four-year window until Microsoft ends support for Windows XP. The need to migrate from XP to Windows 7 "will create an extra budgetary and resource burden on companies from 2011 to 2012," according to recent report by Gartner. The research firm estimates that large and midsize organizations worldwide will migrate about 250 million PCs to Windows 7 over the next few years. [ Get all the details you need on deploying and using Windows 7 in the InfoWorld editors' 21-page Windows 7 Deep Dive PDF special report . | Stay abreast of key Microsoft technologies in our Technology: Microsoft newsletter . ] Gartner predicted that demand for IT staffers qualified to handle Windows 7 mig

So here’s the deal as provided by http://secunia.com/advisories/41340/ and http://www.adobe.com/support/security/advisories/apsa10-02.html   This is an Adobe issue. Secunia Advisory SA41340 Adobe Reader / Acrobat Font Parsing Buffer Overflow Vulnerability Secunia Advisory SA41340 Release Date - 2010-09-08 Last Update - 2010-09-09 Criticality level - Extremely critical Impact - System access Where - From remote Solution Status - Unpatched Software: Adobe Acrobat 8.x Adobe Acrobat 9.x Adobe Reader 8.x Adobe Reader 9.x   CVE Reference(s) CVE-2010-2883   Description A vulnerability has been discovered in Adobe Reader, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's system. The vulnerability is caused due to a boundary error within the font parsing in CoolType.dll and can be exploited to cause a stack-based buffer overflow by e.g. tricking a user into opening a specially crafted

Microsoft is bringing back the Windows 7 Family Pack in time for the Anniversary of Windows 7 - Oct. 22 is Windows 7’s 1 year anniversary. This is set to occur starting October 3 in the U.S. when Windows 7 Family Pack will be available for purchase through retail outlets and online at the Microsoft Store . The Windows 7 Family Pack gives you three upgrade licenses of Windows 7 Home Premium for $149.99 where a normal price for the upgrade version of Windows 7 Home Premium is suggested at $119.99 per license. To take advantage of the Windows 7 Family Pack offer, you’ll need a PC running a genuine copy of either Windows Vista or Windows XP that is capable of running Windows 7.

There is a blog post over on the TechNet website that discusses User State Virtualization (USV) which is a collection of Microsoft technologies that enables synchronization of user state information from individual computers to a central location. The blog post can be found via the Nexus SC: The System Center Team Blog at http://bit.ly/cTPCrb and there are some additional resources outlined as follows: Download the Beta Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide Review a demonstration on Microsoft User State Virtualization Watch a video on the Windows Springboard Series about Microsoft User State Virtualization (from 2008) Browse the other IPD Guides now available Check out the new Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit Get the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 Update 1

As a follow up to my recent post of offering a Certification Class for Exam 70-680 TS: Windows 7, Configuring certification class for this upcoming January, I wanted to re-post my Exam 70-680 TS: Windows 7, Configuring - Skills Being Measured article as these will be the topics of study that we’ll be covering. The skills measured from each of the domains within the 70-680 exam TS: Windows 7, Configuring are: Installing, Upgrading, and Migrating to Windows 7 Perform a clean installation. Identifying hardware requirements Setting up Windows 7 as the sole operating system Setting up Windows 7 in a dual or multi boot configuration Leveraging different installation methods Booting the system from the source of installation (DVD, network, image, WDS, etc) Preparing the installation source (DVD, network, image, WDS, etc) Upgrade to Windows 7 from previous versions of Windows. Performing an in-place upgrade f

This post will only be worthwhile I suppose to the folks in Connecticut and perhaps the general vicinity surrounding. At this time I am announcing classes that I am going to be instructing beginning in January 2011 for Exam 70-680 TS: Windows 7, Configuring. This is a 40 hour class / workshop that will be held over five dates focused on the body of knowledge required to pass the 70-680 Exam for Windows 7, Configuring which is a Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist (MCTS) certification that is one of the certifications that is needed as part of the  MCITP: Enterprise Desktop Support Technician 7 certification (both 70-680 TS: Windows 7, Configuring and 70-685 Pro: Windows 7, Enterprise Desktop Support Technician are required for this) as well as the MCITP: Enterprise Desktop Administrator 7 certification (both 70-680 TS: Windows 7, Configuring and 70-686 Pro: Windows 7, Enterprise Desktop Administrator are required for this). Additionally, the 70-680 TS: Windows 7, Configur

Hi gang. This post will only be worthwhile I suppose to the folks in Connecticut and perhaps the general vicinity surrounding. I have teamed up with Wallingford Computer Center to announce classes we are putting together for the fall. Working in conjunction with Wallingford Computer Center I am going to be instructing a Security+ certification class. This is a 40 hour class / workshop that will be held over five dates focused on the body of knowledge required to pass the CompTIA Security+ certification exam (2008 Edition). The table below lists the domain areas measured by this examination and the approximate extent to which they are represented in the examination: Domain % of Examination 1.0 Systems Security 21% 2.0 Network Infrastructure 20% 3.0 Access Control 17% 4.0 Assessments & Audits 15% 5.0 Cryptography 15% 6.0 Organizational Security 12% Total 100% The CompTIA Security+ (2008 Edition) Certification is a vendor neutral credential. The Secur

On the Security Research & Defense blog there is a new post regarding the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) version 2.0 which users can download free of charge . EMET provides users with the ability to deploy security mitigation technologies to arbitrary applications. This helps prevent vulnerabilities in those applications (especially line of business and 3rd party apps) from successfully being exploited. The full blog post is available via http://bit.ly/cJdCrN   A prior post titled Announcing the upcoming release of EMET v2 has a lot more of the detailed information that you might be looking for so be sure to check that out as well.

One of the ways to remember something you’re always forgetting to to write it down. It’s one of the reasons I like blogging. I was so caught up in the middle of something I was doing today that when asked what should have been a simple question on the differences between symmetric and asymmetric encryption my mind locked up. So again, repetition is the best way to memorization. Symmetric Encryption Symmetric encryption uses a secret key which can be any set of characters. When that key is applied to the text of a message to change the content in a particular way. This might be as simple as shifting each letter by a number of places in the alphabet. As long as both sender and recipient know the secret key, they can encrypt and decrypt all messages that use this key. So if A=01 and B=02 and so on to Z=26 then 1001191514 becomes JASON.  Obviously this is a very simple example and it would be somewhat easy to figure out. The problem with secret keys of any strength is tryin