Radical Development

December 23, 2012
by Steven Swafford
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Password Rant Redux

Today I ran across the video on Youtube title Password Rant and All that I can say to the individual in the video is to be careful what you ask for. There is very good reason to require a strong password that is make up of lowercase, uppercase, numbers, and special characters. For example, I am always amazed that people think they are using a strong password when they use special characters and numbers. I hate to break the news, but the fact is a password of mypassword1! will take no time at all to crack. There are a great …

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December 15, 2012
by Steven Swafford
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The 2nd Generation Nest Thermostat Replaces My Outdated Thermostat

I finally decided some time ago to replace the original thermostat that was installed when my house was built with the . I must say that I waited for the second generation and the idea of spending $249.00 for a thermostat was not easy to swallow, but if all of the reviews that I have read are true then I expect with one year I will have recovered the cost of the thermostat and at that point the monthly savings will be money in my pocket. First let me say that the installation was much simpler than I expected and …

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October 27, 2012
by Steven Swafford
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Personal Journey To Obtain The CISSP Certification

I am putting together a six month study plan for taking the (ISC)² CISSP exam and I thought I would outline resources and the study plan that I will be using. You may be asking yourself why six months. Well I have spoke with a great number of individuals who hold this credential and the consistent feedback that I received was to study, study, and do more study. The fact is some individuals do better than others and while I have over 15 years working in Information Technology (IT), I still feel for me it is best to prepare. That …

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September 17, 2012
by Steven Swafford
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Studying for the CompTIA Security+ Exam

Those of you who know me personally know that I am one class away from obtaining my Masters degree in Cyber Security and recently I have been studying for the Security+ exam and I thought I would share some study tips. I will not and I do not advocate by any means of seeking out exams or other mechanisms that allow the candidate direct access the the exam. Face it, cheating will get you nowhere and you eventually will be called out to carry out your expertise and knowledge. CompTIA Security SY0-301 First, be sure to pick up study material …

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June 23, 2012
by Steven Swafford
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Find And Address Security Vulnerabilities With Tenable Nessus

Have you ever really stopped for a moment to consider just how vulnerable you are every time you turn on your computer? If your answer is no, I implore you to take security seriously as the threat is real and the reality is it is not difficult at all for the black hat (attacker) to find a vulnerability on your end and possible then exploit that vulnerability. HP’s 2011 Top Cyber Security Risks Report states that while vulnerabilities are down over recent years roughly 24% of recent vulnerabilities were classified as critical. The percentage is important because even though vulnerabilities …

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May 28, 2012
by Steven Swafford
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What makes a strong password?

In today’s day and age the importance of a strong password cannot be over stated, but have you really stopped for a moment and considered just what makes a strong password? Many organizations have policies concerning passwords and while a policy is an absolute the reality is that passwords often are weak. For example, consider for a moment that a policy states that passwords must be at a minimum of eight characters and include upper case, lower case, one special character and a number. If an employee was to use a password of P@ssword1 then they would be conforming to …

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