WebJunction

The most effective means of protecting computers from viruses, worms, and other security concerns is to keep them off your computer in the first place.  Up-to-date anti-virus software, operating system and application software are crucial in this task.  Also recommended are installing personal and hardware firewalls, Microsoft's XP service pack 2 and scanning for spyware and Trojans periodically.  In addition to keeping software updated, you should also keep your understanding of security issues current - especially if you're responsible for a medium-to-large sized library network.  So, how does one find the latest information on security issues?

There are several ways to keep current with security news. In this article we’ll look at RSS newsfeeds, e-mail notifications and mailing lists, and newsletters.  Each has the benefit of delivering current information but they vary in the freshness of their content.  RSS delivers the most current news so we’ll start there.

RSS newsfeeds

News aggregators are applications that regularly query web sites for certain changes and then deliver current content.  The applications have the look and feel of a browser or they can display content in Microsoft Outlook.   There are several aggregators freely available:

• Amphetadesk.  http://www.disobey.com/amphetadesk/index.html
• Feedreader.   http://www.feedreader.com/
• Sharpreader.  http://www.sharpreader.net/

There are several formats that web sites can use to deliver their content.  Icons that denote feed type are   .  Most readers can handle these and RDF or Atom.  Configuration of the reader to query the sites is easy and usually involves pasting the URL into the reader after hitting one of the icons shown above.

Security-Related Feeds

Listed below are several feeds, but feel free to search your favorite security site for RSS or XML feeds.  As of this writing, most anti-virus sites don't offer newsfeeds, but the Cybersleuth tool described at the end of this article can query these sites for changes.

• Most recent anti-virus headlines: http://z.about.com/6/g/antivirus/b/index.xml
• Cert.org is an excellent resource and their us-cert.gov RSS feeds are configurable for technical, non-technical and general audiences: http://www.us-cert.gov/channels/tips.rdf
• Network World security research center: http://www.nwfusion.com/rss/security.xml
• Sans.org is an excellent training and security resource.
  http://www.sans.org/newsletters/newsbites/rss/
  Their Internet Storm Center watches trends and has information:
  http://isc.sans.org/rssfeed.xml?isc=f19768f24ca6f16d9147eae6c79ecd34
• Securityfocus.org  - for more advanced information. 
     - News: http://www.securityfocus.com/rss/news.xml
     - Vulnerabilities/bugtraq: http://www.securityfocus.com/rss/vulnerabilities.xml
• Microsoft security RSS: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/secrss.aspx
• Cybersleuth is an email notification service from  Dartmouth University .  https://www.ists.dartmouth.edu/cybersleuth/
  There are three services you can configure.
     - Keyword searches via their search engine, over specific time intervals, i.e. 1, 3, 7, 14, 30 days.
     - Enter up to six web sites and they'll monitor for changes at time intervals.
     - Subscribe to an Interest Profile and they check daily for page changes.

  E-mail notifications and mailing lists

Another effective tool is the use of e-mail alerts and mailing lists/listservs.  These are services set up by vendors or a group so you can subscribe and receive e-mail notifications when content is available.  Many are moderated so their content can be filtered and mailed when appropriate.  They vary in timeliness and technical degree but the great thing about lists is that you can subscribe to very specific topics.  If you’re interested in honeypots, security basics or in-depth analysis lists will have these and more.

http://securityfocus.org/archive - the most comprehensive and current lists available.  The security basics list is a great place to start in your quest for security information.  For more detailed information, Bugtraq is the source and is widely respected.

http://listserv.utk.edu/archives/libnt-l.html - library-focused listserv with active members and current content.  Post your questions here and you will receive an answer. 

http://webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=711 - a great resource that also covers forums and boards.

http://register.microsoft.com/subscription/subscribeme.asp?ID=135 - Microsoft’s email notification service that is notoriously late in delivering content.

Newsletters

Newsletters are perhaps the least current but in many ways their readability outweighs their timeliness concerns. 

http://www.sans.org/newsletters  - sans.org is an excellent and well-respected security organization that also provides newsletters.  Check out OUCH! for basic security concerns like phishing or e-mail scams. 

http://dispatch.mcafee.com/us - anti-virus vendor McAfee offers a newsletter

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/newsletter.html - anti-virus vendor Symantec offers a newsletter

http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,1738,1356337,00.asp - PC Magazine offers a security newsletter.

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