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NEWS YOU CAN USE FROM VANDYKE SOFTWARE® Have you ever been stuck on some problem that later turns
out not to be such a big deal to fix? If so, then this month's newsletter
has ideas that could be tailor-made for you: a golden opportunity to start
using public-key authentication, access mapped network drives from within
a session, automate a daily file transfer, or get organized to improve
your productivity and quality of life. As a side note, as we foretold
recently, the Secure Shell standard documents have finally been published
as formal RFCs, meaning the protocol has been officially adopted by the
Internet Engineering Task Force. Hip, hip, hooray for the SecSh Working
Group! ------------- 1. Web Resource: Public-Key Authentication Tutorial -------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you grind to a halt somewhere in trying to use public-key authentication (PKA) with your Secure Shell server? If so, take a look at a tutorial created by Rick Martinez, a SecureCRT user, freelance developer, and high school student (yes, you read that correctly) from Florida, USA. The tutorial could also be useful if you need an introduction to PKA for your end users. The tutorial assumes some familiarity with UNIX or Linux, up to using root and superuser accounts, but explains the key security concepts involved. The tutorial walks you through setting up a new Linux account that will use public-key authentication. First, you create a public-private key pair using the SecureCRT wizard. Then the tutorial shows you the steps needed to transfer the public key to the server and set file permissions. Because the example uses an OpenSSH server, the tutorial also includes converting a SecureCRT-generated key to OpenSSH format. Finally, Rick reviews the settings in SecureCRT to connect using PKA. Point your web browser to Rick's tutorial. If you are connecting to a VShell server, you can upload your public key using the Public Key Assistant by following the instructions in the online VShell Guide. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you have a need to protect data in transit as outlined by FIPS 140-2
or NIST 800-53? If you are interested in trying a pre-beta version of
VShell, SecureCRT, or SecureFX that use a FIPS-validated cryptographic
module, please contact Maureen Jett at
. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This month's highlight from the online forums addresses an obvious need: how to access a network drive or shared directory from within a SecureCRT session. The solution involves one of the handy Windows "net" commands, "net use", to identify a shared resource within your session. User wanluo liked it, and we hope you will, too. For the complete thread, visit the VanDyke Software Forums. Become a forum member today! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- An interesting recent thread on the VanDyke Software forums involves a user who wants to automate downloading files to a local computer using the Windows Scheduler tool. Once adapted to your network environment, the sample VBScript code accomplishes the file transfer using SFXCL, the SecureFX® command-line file transfer client. View the complete forum thread. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- While many focus on the technical side of preventing identity theft, a November 2005 article from TechNewsWorld points out the potential for identity theft by people like restaurant staff or retail salespeople. In "Forecast: Insiders ID Theft to Grow Dramatically in 2006", leading computer security analyst Joseph Ansanelli of the data security firm Vontu emphasizes that "as employees continue to learn about the value of sensitive customer information... there is a real risk that this information will increasingly be misused by retail employees." He promotes increased focus on educating employees about the importance of protecting customer information as the primary way for companies to avoid identity theft liability. To read the complete article, visit TechNewsWorld. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If one of your New Year's resolutions is to get your work life more in control, or to cut down on the number of outstanding tasks you always seem to have, "Time Management for System Administrators" from O'Reilly Press can help. The focus of Thomas Limoncelli's "Time Management for System Administrators" is to help you who "manage chaos for a living", to borrow a phrase from Chapter 4. If your first reaction to the subject is "Time management -- how will I stay awake?" you should know that Limoncelli has a sense of humor on top of a lot of everyday experience as a sysadmin. In a key chapter titled "The Cycle System", Limoncelli explains the method he recommends, but not before he outlines a system that doesn't work, called "The Ever-Growing To Do List of Doom". The hallmark of this system is a notebook that contains a serial list of tasks, crossed off as they are completed, but which seems (and is) never-ending. You can laugh, but most of us have done this before, whether by mistake or on purpose. Read more on "Time Management for System Administrators" on the O'Reilly web site. January is "purge month" at VanDyke Software, which you'll
be glad to know is *not* a corrective measure to deal with holiday overeating.
A "purge" is an event in the "Getting Things Done"
(GTD) productivity method to clear out your office and get ready to work
more effectively. To learn more about the GTD methods championed by world-famous
productivity guru David Allen, visit his web site at http://www.davidco.com. ---------------------------------------- Here is a list of the latest
official product releases: SecureCRT 5.0.4 All VanDyke Software products may be downloaded and evaluated free for 30 days. Licenses include one year of free upgrades and technical support.
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on any page on our web site, as you'll see on our What's
New page. VanDyke Software, AbsoluteFTP, CRT, Entunnel, SecureCRT, SecureFX, and VShell are trademarks or registered trademarks of VanDyke Software, Inc. All other products and services mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. |
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