Michael Mullins

PCs aren’t the only hardware you need to worry about erasing corporate data from before donating—you should apply this best practice to any network device you’re discarding, including Cisco routers and switches. Mike Mullins walks you through the process of clearing the configurations of both routers and switches.

Sometimes all the preventive care in the world won’t protect your systems from the inevitable malware infection. What’s the best way to handle it? According to Mike Mullins, an effective malware response plan includes these six steps.

NTFS permissions offer a great deal of control when it comes to resources on your systems. When it comes to the old NTFS (from Windows NT) and the current NTFS (from Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP), there are a lot of similarities and a few differences. In this edition of Security Solutions, Mike Mullins takes a closer look.

One of the most overlooked and most important passwords in a Windows network is the Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM) password on a domain controller. This is a powerful password that’s the key to the entire Active Directory structure. In this edition of Security Solutions, Mike Mullins tells you how to update this password to make it more secure.

Is Windows Firewall up to the task of securing your network? Mike Mullins has his doubts. In this edition of Security Solutions, he delves into the details of Windows Firewall and weighs its pros and cons.

Open relays on corporate networks are a contributing factor to the volume of unsolicited e-mail currently flying around the Internet—and the presence of such relays is often unbeknownst to the owners of those networks. Are your e-mail servers vulnerable to mail relaying? In this edition of Security Solutions, Mike Mullins tells you how to determine if they are.

Properly synchronizing your network with a consistent and accurate time source is very important. However, it’s not enough to simply synchronize the time on your network devices—this effort should extend all the way to the desktop. In this edition of Security Solutions, Mike Mullins discusses how to synchronize time throughout an entire Windows network.

If you’re using Telnet to control network devices, you should consider switching to something more secure. Mike Mullins tells you how to replace Telnet with Secure Shell (SSH).

The ICMP protocol facilitates the use of important administrator utilities such as ping and traceroute, but it can also be manipulated by hackers to get a snapshot of your network. Learn what ICMP traffic to filter and what to allow.

A thorough understanding of Windows’ authentication methods will enable you to troubleshoot problems and improve network security. Here’s a look at what you need to know.

Have you ever performed surgery on data packets? There are times when that may be the best way to troubleshoot and optimize your network. This edition of the Packet Professor will get you started in examining TCP/IP packets.

Your enterprise needs a firewall, but how much will it cost? In this installment of the Packet Professor, Mike Mullins outlines the real costs of his recent firewall installation. He also explains that keeping your data secure is worth every penny.