Making Copies!

There has been a lot in the news lately regarding the security of copier hard drives. I have to admit I haven't been thinking much about what make the inner workings of copiers and multi-function office machines tick until now. Because of this, we turned to our copy machine vendor to find out the options for the machines we have in the office.

Of course, whenever security is at stake there is a chance to make a little cash with the resolution. Our copier vendor is no exception. I'm not sure if these options have been around for a while or are recent additions, but if you have copiers or the popular network attached copier/printer/scanners, you may want to see if your vendor has similar offerings. These are for Ricoh brand machines and for our leasing plan, these options come with a monthly fee.

DataOverwriteSecurity System (DOSS) Option - To provide enhanced security for our MFPs and printers, Ricoh offers the DataOverwriteSecurity System (DOSS) for its MFP and printer products. DOSS verwrites the sector of the hard drive used for data processing after the completion of each job. During the overwrite process, the data is destroyed to prevent recovery. Additionally, DOSS also offers the option of overwriting the entire hard drive up to nine times. This feature may be used at the end of the lease or if the MFP or printer is moved to another department, and may be added before or after the initial sale.

Hard Drive Encryption Option - The Hard Drive Encryption Option meets international standard “AES 256 CBC” and provides security for information that needs to be stored on the MFP or printer and reused again. Examples of information that may need to be stored for reuse include administrator and user passwords and address books. The Hard Drive Encryption Option differs from DOSS in that the information encrypted is not destroyed, but locked up so only authorized users may access the information.

DOSS destroys data so it cannot be reused. The Hard Drive Encryption Option and DOSS may be used in conjunction and will not interfere with MFP or printer operation. In addtion, Ricoh offers a wide range of network security features such as user authentication, network communication encryption and the ability to close unused network ports.

Go forth and copy.

Let's not "View All Site Content"

I've been managing our company's new SharePoint (WSS 3.0) "intranet" for about a month or so now and have been slowly introducing features to different departments based on needs. Most of the time, I've simply been setting up the sites, pages or libraries they need and making them accessible through the navigation areas.

Some things were left off of the navigation intentionally, like subsites for special projects and other bits of the SharePoint content that were really meant to stay in the background. However, all of it is accessible using the "View All Site Content" link on the top of the default left navigation bar, much to my dismay.

Turns out, I'm not the only person who wants that link to disappear easily and there are a variety of solutions available on the Internet, depending on your needs. For my organization, I really just needed the link to not be visible. I'm not deeply concerned about people having the permissions to access that view, I just want it to be difficult to get to that view in the first place!

Since I'm not a SharePoint designer guru, nor am I very good at CSS, I wanted a simple solution that would give me the option of removing the link without having to poke around in the "master pages" and whatnot. I found Mark Wagner's post How To: Hide/Remove "View All Site Content", complete with a downloadable solution package that was perfect for my needs. It was quick and easy to install and didn't even require the restart of IIS.

Upcoming Events for Techies

The Citrix and Microsoft Roadshow – a free, half-day event being held in multiple locations across the US covering desktop virtualization. If you are in CA, catch it in Sacramento on May 25th, inSan Francisco on June 10th or in Los Angeles on June 17th.

Enterprise Content Management in SharePoint – another free, half-day seminar hosted by Microsoft, QuickStart Intelligence, and KnowledgeLake. Learn how to lower costs and increase productivity by transforming your existing Microsoft SharePoint into an Advanced Enterprise Content Management system using SharePoint 2010. This is being held June 18th in Microsoft’s San Francisco office.

Also don’t forget about the Microsoft Bus Tour if you’ll be on the east coast, which starts today! I’m hearing some cities are already fully booked, so don’t miss out if you can still grab a slot.

The Bus Tour ends at TechEd in New Orleans and I’m looking forward to a fun-filled week of learning. Visit me at the Springboard booth in the TLC area if you are going to be there.

Oops.

Did you miss techbunny.com for a bit yesterday? So did I! Turns out time flies when you are blogging and I let the renewal of my domain slip away. Ouch.

Don’t know why I didn’t get an email reminder, but I was renewed pretty quickly and after a few hours everything was back to normal. But while I was logged into my domain registrars website (I use DotEasy) I figured I’d check out some of their domain management features.

First on the list is “Domain Lock”, which is an annual paid service that blocks requests to transfer the domain to another registrar or hosting company will automatically fail. This can be used to help prevent domain theft, hijacking or other fraudulent transfers of domain names. I usually pass on this service, because email confirmation and authcode requirements should make it pretty difficult for someone change domain registrars without notification.

In addition, if you are using a private registration service, transfer requests will likely fail. Private registration masks your personal information from WHOIS searches and the like. Private registration is sometime free depending on your hosting package, so I make sure to keep that on. The ones that allow you to keep official control of your domain name and just mask the information are the best. Seems worth it from an identity protection standpoint too.

Finally, check to see if your registrar offers automatic domain renewal. Obviously, every registrar would love to keep your business and automatic renewal is handy offering to make that happen. I turned it on for my domain after this week’s oversight and remember to mark my calendar so I won’t make this mistake again!

Check out the IT Grand Prix to TechEd

Start Your Engines! The IT Grand Prix is coming!

Four teams of Microsoft Certified Professionals are revving their engines! From June 1 through June 4, 2010, they’ll race from Washington D.C. to TechEd 2010 in New Orleans, where the winning team will award a $10,000 check to the charity of their choice.

Along the way, they'll overcome challenges and help local non-profits. But they need your help: pick your favorite team, join their virtual Pit Crew, and help them meet the challenges they’ll face during the race by solving on-line challenges to earn points for your team. It’s your opportunity to help four great causes in a way that only MCPs can.

Register for an online Pit Crew today – I’m on the Red Team, but all four teams are racing for some great causes!