text:
Mike Livingstone has a nice summary here of what he (rightly, I think) calls "the most extraordinary day in recent Italian history" -- yesterday, when the results of the election were announced and, simultaneously, Bernard Provenzano, the leader of the Sicilian mafia who had been in hiding for forty three years, was finally arrested. It looks as though Romano Prodi, head of the center-left coalition, has won the narrowest of victories; his coalition received around 20,000 more votes than Berlusconi's. But under Italy's "bonus" system -- put into place, ironically, by the Berlusconi regime, and opposed at the time by most of the opposition center-left parties -- the coalition (not the party, but the coalition of parties) that receives the highest number of votes gets a bonus allocation of 40 seats in the Camera, the lower house of the national assembly. A razor-thin electoral vote margin can therefore produce a more substantial governing majority, and it looks like that's what Prodi has now; it was very weird, though, to try to follow the election results and to see the majority in the Camera flipping from one side to another as the votes were counted and Prodi's percentages went from 49.8 to 49.7 . . . . Prodi, as it happens, lives about 2 blocks from us here in Bologna. On the last night of the campaign, last week, his campaign held a big "comizio" -- sort of like an American political rally, but much less stage-y, much more serious -- in the big central square in Bologna, at the end of which Prodi just walked home . . . followed by thousands of supporters (mostly drawn from among the huge student population here) singing revolutionary anthems and waving their giant flags in the air. It was quite a scene; I'd let myself get more swept up in it all if I thought that Prodi really had good answers to what ails Italy. It will probably be a step up to be rid of Berlusconi -- but governing Italy with a left-wing coalition, a substantial portion of which consists of the Communists, will be no mean feat. During the campaign, Prodi attacked one of Berlusconi's labor law reforms, which had (shades of France!) raised the mandatory retirement age from 57 to 60; not, in my opinion, the move made by someone willing or able to tackle the very serious economic problems Italy faces at the moment. But I certainly wish him well -- if any country deserves good economic times, it's Italy.
[David Post, April 12, 2006 at 10:48am] Trackbacks
Italy, continued:


text:
Peanut-Chocolate Macaroons
James Carrier
Most French-style macaroons are made with almonds, but these chocolate ganache sandwich cookies shine with peanuts.
Yield: Makes about 18 sandwich cookies
More From Sunset
Recipe Time
1 Hour
Nutritional Information
Amount per serving
- Calories: 202
- Calories from fat: 44%
- Protein: 4.4g
- Fat: 9.9g
- Saturated fat: 3.2g
- Carbohydrate: 27g
- Fiber: 1.2g
- Sodium: 21mg
- Cholesterol: 3.6mg
- 2 1/3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/3 cups unsalted roasted peanuts (about 7 oz.)
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 4 large egg whites
- Chocolate ganache (recipe follows)
- 1. In a food processor, whirl powdered sugar and peanuts until nuts are very finely ground.
- 2. In a 3- to 4-quart pan over medium heat, bring 2 to 3 inches of water to a boil; adjust heat to maintain a very low simmer. In a large bowl or the bowl of a standing mixer, whisk sugar into egg whites. Set bowl over simmering water in pan (bottom of bowl should not touch water) and stir constantly until sugar is dissolved and mixture feels warm to the touch. Remove bowl from water and, with an electric mixer on high speed (fitted with the whisk attachment if using standing mixer), whip egg white mixture until thick, stiff peaks form. Gently fold in powdered sugar mixture.
- 3. Spoon mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain tip and, with the tip almost touching the parchment, pipe into flat 2-inch circles about 1/8 inch thick, 1 inch apart, on two cooking parchment-lined 12- by 15-inch baking sheets (see notes).
- 4. Bake cookies in a 300° oven until tops are shiny and dry and edges are cracked, about 15 minutes; if baking two pans at one time, switch pan positions halfway through baking. Let cookies cool completely on sheets (about 1 1/4 hours), then remove by gently lifting them up and peeling the parchment away from the bottoms.
- 5. Spread the flat side of each of half the cookies with about 1 teaspoon chocolate ganache. Top each with a second cookie, flat side toward filling.
- Chocolate ganache. In a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water (bottom of bowl should not touch water), occasionally stir 6 ounces chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, 2 tablespoons whipping cream, 1 tablespoon corn syrup, and 1 tablespoon butter until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and let cool until thick but not firm, about 15 minutes. Makes about 1 1/4 cups.
- Note: Nutritional analysis is per sandwich cookie.
For best results, bake these French-style macaroons on cooking parchment. They're best eaten the day they're filled; however, you can make both cookies and filling up to 3 days ahead. Stack cookies carefully in an airtight container and store at room temperature; cover ganache airtight and refrigerate. Melt ganache over hot water and cool before filling cookies.
My Notes
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Peanut-Chocolate Macaroons Recipe at a Glance
- COURSE: Desserts, Cookies
- CONVENIENCE: Entertaining, Kid-Friendly
- CUISINE: American
- DIETARY CONSIDERATION: Low Sodium
- COOKING METHOD: Bake
- PUBLICATION: Sunset
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Photo with 1,134 notes
Alice statue in the Garden's beside Guildford Castle. Reverend Charles Dodgson, a.k.a. Lewis Carroll, the author of children's classic "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland", died in Guildford on January 14, 1898, and was buried at The Mount Cemetery. Although he did not spend that much time in Guildford, his family lived in a roomy house, "The Chestnuts", located next to the Guildford Castle grounds.


text:
-- Robert Preidt
THURSDAY, Sept. 9 (HealthDay News) -- About one in 10 athletes
who competed at the 2010 Winter Olympics suffered an injury and
about one in 14 became ill, according to a new study.
Researchers analyzed reports from the 82 national team doctors
who looked after a total of 2,567 athletes and found that there
were 287 reported injuries and 185 illnesses. That works out to
111.8 injuries (11 percent) and 72.1 illnesses (7 percent) per
1,000 registered athletes at the games in Vancouver, Canada.
About 22 percent of the injuries resulted in athletes being
unable to train or compete, according to the report in the
September issue of the
British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Athletes competing in bobsledding, ice hockey, short track
skating, alpine freestyle skiing or snowboard cross were most
likely to suffer an injury or illness (ranging between 15 percent
and 35 percent). The lowest risk (less than 5 percent) was among
athletes in Nordic skiing events (cross country skiing, biathlon,
ski jumping and Nordic combined), luge, curling, speed skating and
freestyle moguls.
The head, spine and knees were the most common injury sites, and
these injuries were almost as likely to occur during training (46
percent) as during competition (54 percent). However, three out of
four injuries suffered by snowboarding, freestyle cross skiing,
short track skating, figure skating, skeleton and biathlon athletes
occurred during training, reported Lars Engebretsen, of the Oslo
Sports Trauma Research Center, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences
in Oslo, Norway, and colleagues.
Among the other findings:
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and
Skin Diseases has more about
sports injuries.
Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Copyright © EBSCO Publishing. All rights reserved.


text:
Greece problems won't hurt US stocks
The Greek situation will affect U.S. equities only to the extent that the media spooks investors.
By Jim Cramer, TheStreet
So I am answering some Twitter questions last night on the way home from work -- @JimJCramer if you want to play -- and some guy screams at me that he can't believe I didn't mention Greece in my whole opening monologue. And I am aghast. The whole segment was devoted to Greece, with two specific mentions, I tell him, except it wasn't devoted to Greece in the way that everyone else is doing it.
The devotion to Greece was an homage to the United States, which does not have Grecian bond problems. Again, as I have said several times now, I think the economy is so strong in this country that we will have much higher receipts and a lower deficit than people think.
The fact that we are not Greece and that the dollar has nothing to do with Greece and that our country's currency isn't linked by law to a desperate state is all the more reason why we will get bargains after stocks get hit by this situation.
Do you really think that 3M (MMM) or United Technologies (UTX) will be affected by Greece? Or keep it real simple -- McDonald's (MCD) and Darden (DRI)? They will insofar as 1) The media can instill fear about Greece, and 2) The S&P takes all of its members down.
Do you want to buy or sell Cisco (CSCO) off of Greece? Do you want to own or short Teva (TEVA) off of Greece?
You see, if the coverage were about individual stocks -- which, alas, are prosaic and for simpletons -- rather than about world tensions and currency ripples -- which are exciting and for geniuses -- you would see it the way I do, too.
But it isn't.
So you won't.
At the time of publication, Cramer was long Cisco and Teva.
Jim Cramer is co-founder and chairman of TheStreet. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO.
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text:
Bernie (2012)
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Reviews Counted: 147
Fresh: 133 | Rotten: 14
Richard Linklater's Bernie is a gently told and unexpectedly amusing true-crime comedy that benefits from an impressive performance by Jack Black.
Average Rating: 7.9/10
Critic Reviews: 41
Fresh: 38 | Rotten: 3
Richard Linklater's Bernie is a gently told and unexpectedly amusing true-crime comedy that benefits from an impressive performance by Jack Black.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 38,902
Movie Info
In the tiny, rural town of Carthage, TX, assistant funeral director Bernie Tiede was one of the town's most beloved residents. He taught Sunday school, sang in the church choir and was always willing to lend a helping hand. Everyone loved and appreciated Bernie, so it came as no surprise when he befriended Marjorie Nugent, an affluent widow who was as well known for her sour attitude as her fortune. Bernie frequently traveled with Marjorie and even managed her banking affairs. Marjorie quickly
Apr 27, 2012 Limited
Aug 21, 2012
Millenium Entertainment - Official Site
Watch It Now
Jack Black
Bernie Tiede
Shirley MacLaine
Marjorie Nugent
Matthew McConaughey
Danny Buck
Brady Coleman
Scrappy Holmes
Richard Robichaux
Lloyd Hornbuckle
Rick Dial
Don Leggett
Brandon Smith (I)
Sheriff Huckabee
Larry Jack Dotson
Rev. Woodard
Merrille McCommas
Mathew Greer
Richard Jones
Professor Fleming
Charles Bailey
Friend of Deceased
Suzi McLaughlin
Mrs. Pebworth
Grant James
Mr. Eckles
Julie Erickson
Mrs. Eckles
J.D. Young
Dwayne Nugent
Charlie Stewart
Dwayne Jr.
Joe Stevens
Raquel Gavia
Amparo Garcia-Crow
Toby Metcalf
Oil Worker
Doug Moreland
Chainsaw Artist
Edward Ji
Jill Blackwood
Guys & Dolls Perform...
David Blackwell
Gabriel Luna
Deana Newcomb
David Steakley
Assistant Director
Peter Harrell Jr.
Bank Manager
Joe Reynolds
Deputy Sheriff
Christian Stokes
Truck Driver
John Hornbuckle
Generator Operator
Wray Crawford
Sheriff's Deputy #2
Margaret Ann Hoard
Cafe Waitress
Charles Allen Eskew
IRS Man
Quita Culpepper
TV Reporter
Mona Lee Fultz
Jerry Biggs
Robert Works
Lead Juror
Gary Teague
Neighborhood Onlooke...
Tommy G. Kendrick
Larry Brumley
Latest News on Bernie
April 27, 2012:Critics Consensus: The Pirates! Band of Misfits Is Certified Fresh
This week at the multiplex, we've got a little something for everyone. There's Aardman's stop-motion...
April 27, 2012:Interview: Jack Black on Bernie
Jack Black and Richard Linklater need to do more movies together. The actor and director first...
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All Critics (147) | Top Critics (41) | Fresh (133) | Rotten (14) | DVD (2)
"Bernie' isn't a monumental film, but it is a finely tuned character study with some nice innovations.
The question of why the law must always be upheld, regardless of consequences, gives this light, amiable movie a surprising heft and weight.
Bernie has chuckles, but it's hardly riotous. And this is a good thing.
Propelled by a perfectly cast trio of stars whose eccentricities shine in singular character roles, Bernie is charmer.
Black is terrific. Rather than winking at the audience, he plays Bernie as a guy who's thoroughly unaware that there's anything unconventional about his behavior.
"Bernie" unfolds into many equally rich narrative strands: love story, southern Gothic slice-of-life and, finally tragedy and legal thriller...
But the troubling question at the heart of this liberating, sunlit, deceptively simple but extremely complex and fairly formidable film is: should the law or the community itself decide the fate of its citizens?
It manages to feel unique and different ... It's funny too, which certainly helps, and is benefited immensely by a wonderful cast of big names and unknowns that help make this Linklater's freshest film in quite some time.
a well-rounded dramatic film taken from a refreshingly uplifting perspective.
It looks like a southern gothic and feels like a particularly hilarious farce, but Bernie is not at all what you think.
Black is a marvel as Bernie, reining in his usual manic persona to give his prissy, camp character an endearing sweetness but leaving what really makes him tick a puzzle.
Richard Linklater mixes comedy, drama and documentary to tell a frankly outrageous true story, and in the process he also gives Jack Black one of his best-yet roles.
It's been a long time coming, but it turns out Bernie has been worth the wait.
Based on a true story, Black offers a surprising degree of depth as an assistant funeral director with secrets in a town where 'all of the widows had a crush on Bernie'.
Linklater observes it all with an ironic smile on his face. But he's never patronising enough to sneer.
I didn't find it very entertaining, but it is at least trying something different.
Almost vaudeville in spirit, it delights in American social clich�s and kinks.
This is a bizarre and intriguing tale but Bernie remains essentially unknowable and the picture lacks big laughs.
Hugely entertaining, smartly directed and darkly funny black comedy with a superb script and a terrific central performance from Jack Black.
A sweet, dark, funny true-crime story with a dream cast - and that includes the real-life residents of the town of Carthage, Texas.
There's not many movies that leave you wanting to give a convicted killer a great big hug. But this is one.
Linklater's Fargo, it's funny peculiar and funny ha ha, with Black a delight and Linklater in impressive control of superbly judged content and tone.
Audience Reviews for Bernie
Super Reviewer
Bernie arrives into this often histrionic little sub-genre much like its main character: it's a polite, orderly, cheery soul who does things rather differently. Reuniting Jack Black with director Richard Linklater, ten years after they collaborated on School of Rock, it is a surprisingly naturalistic blend of comedy and docudrama which raises several interesting moral questions. While it doesn't quite do enough to enter the pantheon of truly great dark comedies, it is nonetheless a very fine and memorable piece of work.
Throughout his long and variegated career, Linklater has had a knack for two things: creating believable and naturalistic characters, and then keeping said characters at the forefront. This is true of whatever genre he's working in, whether romance (the Before trilogy), sci-fi (A Scanner Darkly), musical comedy (School of Rock) or historical drama (Me and Orson Welles). His approach is often akin to documentary, in that he allows characters to speak and develop for themselves; you never get the sense of his camera pushing or telling people to go and do things a certain way.
For a film which is to all intents and purposes a comedy about death, Bernie is surprisingly gentle in both pace and attitude. Many black comedies are stylistically and narratively aggressive: the likes of Heathers and Kind Hearts and Coronets push their characters at you, surrounding them with dark tones and shadows to compliment their acid tongues and cruel intentions. Bernie, on the other hand, is a film which puts you with its characters in fairly inviting surroundings. Even the scenes in the funeral home are pleasantly lit, with an emphasis on achieving a naturalistic tone rather than setting up a given joke.
Being a comedy about death, which is slow-burning in nature and more focussed on character than on plot, the natural point of comparison would be Harold and Maude. Both films revolve around a romantic relationship with a big age gap, whose lovers are brought together by their experience of funerals. And with both couples, the relationship is not exactly orthodox, nor is it the toast of the town; the residents of Carthage are perplexed why someone as nice as Bernie would want to spend any time with someone as spiteful as Marjorie.
But in fact, the film is much to closer to another Hal Ashby work, Being There. Not only do both films feature Shirley MacLaine, but Bernie Tiede has several character traits which are very similar to that of Chance, played brilliantly by Peter Sellers. Both characters have an angelic innocence to them, a childlike quality which makes them instantly appealing or intriguing as characters. And both, more importantly, are seemly impossible to dislike. They make a huge difference in people's lives, improving their sense of well-being and leaving lasting memories. The only marked difference between them, aside from Bernie's eventual criminality, is that he is more conscious of his good will, while Chance has little to no idea of the impact that he is having.
The film also draws to a certain extent on the work of Alexander Payne. Both he and Linklater (at least in this film) try to strike a balance between observing human behaviour in an empathetic manner and a dry, dark and often spiky sense of humour. This film is not quite as successful in this regard as the likes of Sideways or About Schmidt, nor is it as touching or as weighty as Being There. But it's still very touching in its own way, and there is much to like about both the story and the way in which is told.
Chief amongst the film's assets is the central performance of Jack Black. What's extraordinary about it is how he manages to play the part so sweetly without it ever feeling fake or forced. Comedians often base their performances and routines on big, broadly comedic gestures, which can often mean that they don't come across as genuine when trying to act dramatically. But Black, having also worked with Stephen Frears and Peter Jackson, knows when and how to be serious, and he does it very well.
The other great asset of Black's performance is its understatement. When doing press for King Kong, he remarked that the trick to good screen acting was "moving the eyes rather than the eyebrows", a trick that pays dividends here. Black is a larger-than-life character, which works well in his comedic performances, but here he turns everything right down to make Bernie a very still, sweet and likeable man. He is called upon to sing on several occasions, and you would think that in those moments Linklater would indulge him, given his work on School of Rock. But even then he dials it back, resisting the urge to go off on a Tenacious D-style tangent.
Black is flanked on either side by two other good performances which round out the central cast. Shirley MacLaine is very well-cast, bringing a lot of charisma to an unlikeable role and treating those around her with as much contempt and disdain as Si�n Phillips' Livia in I, Claudius. Matthew McConnaughey continues his streak of career-resurging nasty guys, turning in an appealingly warped performance as the Sheriff bringing Bernie to justice. Together these two form the malignant forces of spite and suspicion which eventually cause Bernie to snap and commit his terrible crime.
At the heart of Bernie is an interesting moral dilemma. According to the law Bernie is guilty: he confessed to the crime and all the evidence supports this verdict. Yet Bernie was so enamoured to the people of Carthage, achieving so much practical and moral good, that punishing him seems somewhat unjust even when we know all the facts. The film treads close to the territory of The Green Mile or A Man For All Seasons, asking us to condemn someone in the face of all the good they have wrought. It makes us question the power and purpose of the law, seeing it as both a worthy standard to uphold and something that can be twisted to all manner of personal whims.
This desire of Linklater's to question the boundaries of morality both situate Bernie as a black comedy and compliment the docudrama feel. Like many of the classic Ealing comedies, particularly Kind Hearts and Coronets, the film invites us to conflate notions of justice and morality, asking us if not to embrace the crimes than excuse them as serving some kind of greater or higher purpose. By structuring the film around the testimonies of local residents, the film builds up a more compelling portrait of the man. Rather than being simply told what Bernie did, it is demonstrated to us and we come to accept it more readily.
There are a couple of shortcomings with Bernie which prevent it from being elevated to the pantheon of truly great black comedies. The story is ultimately quite slight, not going into as much depth as it could have or bringing out deeper thematic implications of Bernie's actions, as happened in Being There. Moreover, the film is not quite as funny as it could have been. Not every comedy has to produce hysterical levels of laughter, with many of the examples I've quoted here being dry and slow-burning. But a lot of the time the desire to laugh must take a back seat to Bernie's backstory, with the talking heads cutting in over potentially comic situations.
Bernie is a very good, heart-warming little film which charms its way into your hearts and lingers there for some time afterwards. Black's fantastic central performance, together with those of his two main co-stars, are well-complimented by Linklater's soft, steady head and abiding sense of empathy for his characters. It's not perfect by any means, but just like its main character it will leave a lasting impression.
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
- Neighborhood Onlooker: There were people in this town, honey, that would have shot her for five dollars.
- Cafe Waitress: He must have wanted to get caught, all he had to do was put her body on one of his airplanes. Fly her out over the gulf and push her out. No body. No Arrest.
- Churchgoer: Ms. Nugent is in a deep freezer headed for Dallas!
- Lloyd Hornbuckle: [the jury] had more tatoos than teeth and not a brain cell among them.
- Bernie Tiede: Can I tell you? I am not fond of cremations.
- Danny Buck Davidson: Frozen like a popsicle.
Discussion Forum
Discuss Bernie on our Movie forum!
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text:
Security Monitoring on the Microsoft Enterprise Network
Published: January 2010
The Microsoft Enterprise Network is one of the world's largest and most prominent networks. Learn how Microsoft monitors the security of its network and responds to malware and suspected intrusions or policy violations.
|Intended Audience
|Products & Technologies
Article, 99 KB Microsoft Word file
Technical Decision Makers
The Network Security team at Microsoft is responsible for conducting security monitoring on the Microsoft enterprise network. The team also provides digital forensics for the entire company and conducts outreach with members of the broader information ecosystem in the interest of helping to secure it. This article focuses primarily on how the Network Security team does security monitoring to safeguard Microsoft's intellectual property and corporate assets.
Structural Organization
The Network Security team is composed of the following three teams:
- Security Monitoring. The Security Monitoring team watches over the Microsoft enterprise network. The enterprise network does not include MSN or the other online services. Those networks have their own monitoring team. The Security Monitoring team looks broadly across the enterprise network and identifies anomalies. Where these anomalies involve a machine misbehaving (for example, because of a virus), the Security Monitoring team or the Microsoft IT Compliance team investigates and remedies the problem.
- Investigations. If it is determined that a person is misbehaving (for example, someone is trying to get access to the network without authorization or is downloading inappropriate content), the Investigations team steps in. This team is highly skilled in the areas of due process, chain of custody, and preservation of evidence. The team's knowledge of due process becomes important when the team is involved in an employee discipline matter or when an issue must be referred to law enforcement.
- Engineering Support. The Engineering Support team builds tools and keeps the infrastructure running for the Network Security team.
The Network Security team is a part of the Trustworthy Computing Organization at Microsoft. The team has a partner relationship with Microsoft IT but is not part of Microsoft IT. Microsoft IT owns the preventive controls—the policies, architecture of the network, how the infrastructure is configured, firewalls, patching, and the Access Control Lists on the routers. The Network Security team owns the detective controls. Preventive and detective controls complement each other, but it's important to have a separation of duties, so the organizations are separated. The first place where the Trustworthy Computing organizational chain and the IT organizational chain meet is at the CEO level.
Corporate Governance Roles
The core activities of the Network Security team involve corporate governance. As the team sees it, corporate governance consists of ensuring that the company:
- Does what it must
- Does what it has promised
- Does what it should
Doing What the Company Must
"Conducting very intrusive monitoring and investigations might improve security and enable the team to exceed their goals. But if employees feel that they are working in a surveillance state, these measures would be counterproductive."
This category of compliance involves laws and regulations. Sarbanes-Oxley is an example of a federal law that applies to Microsoft and others. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which requires certain data-protection standards for credit-card processing, is a regulation that applies to Microsoft in transactions involving the use of credit cards.
Laws and regulations don't offer much flexibility. If a law or regulation says that a company must do something, it must do it.
Doing What the Company Has Promised
This category of compliance has to do with Microsoft's own internal policies and standards of business conduct. These policies and standards are essentially a promise to Microsoft shareholders and others about how the company will operate. The company promises that it will restrict the use of the network to acceptable business purposes as it has defined them.
The standard of care required to support internal policies and standards is more self-defined than that of laws and regulations, but there nevertheless is a written policy corpus that the team uses as a basis for their work.
Doing What the Company Should
Ensuring that the company does what it should is a vague requirement. Companies can be held accountable for failing to follow accepted industry practices for protecting corporate assets and customer data, as well as for failing to meet reasonable expectations. Part of the Network Security team's mission is to ensure that Microsoft meets these expectations.
Since expectations and industry practices continually change, there is no standard reference that specifies precisely what Microsoft must do. The team uses good sense and continually reviews industry best practices.
The Balancing Act
The Network Security team has to comply with laws, regulations, and internal policies, and monitor best practices and industry standards. At the same time, the team has to balance business-agility needs and the needs of Microsoft's employees and stakeholders. Conducting very intrusive monitoring and investigations might improve security and enable the team to exceed their goals. But if employees feel that they are working in a surveillance state, these measures would be counterproductive. Business agility is also very important. The team does security monitoring to help the business. They don't want to be a business impediment. Privacy laws also impact the team's capabilities. The team's network-monitoring capabilities in the US may differ from its capabilities in other countries due to variances in law.
The Security Monitoring World
Performing security monitoring on any large corporate network is challenging, but Microsoft's network has unique characteristics that make it even more so. The network is:
- Large. There are nearly one million machines on the enterprise network, spanning over 90 countries on every continent except Antarctica. The network contains a great deal of valuable information, ranging from customer data to Microsoft intellectual property.
- Complex. Much of the network is centrally managed. For example, all of the datacenter and all of the day-to-day line of business (LOB) applications are IT managed and are fully patched. But a significant portion of the enterprise network is comprised of self-managed environments. This is because product teams need the ability to test on machines with a variety of operating systems, service packs, and patches. Microsoft also has a very large extranet that the company uses to communicate with partners. The Microsoft enterprise network interfaces with a number of partner networks.
- Dynamic. The network is continually changing. The most dramatic example involves the fact that groups self-host developmental versions of their own products. The Network Security team sometimes sees completely new protocols appear in network traffic from one day to the next.
Problem Domains
"The team has developed three different categories of complementary sensors to address the needs of each of the domains. They don't view any one sensor as being superior to the others. Their goal is to use a mix of sensors from these categories in order to achieve balanced coverage for all three domains."
The Security Monitoring team's work encompasses three domains:
- IT Domain. The IT domain is focused on machine uptime. Often, what appears to be a security issue is actually a benign malfunction of some kind. In these cases, the team contacts the appropriate people (sometimes this is the owner of the machine; other times, it may be a datacenter operations team) and provides information to help them put the machine back into service.
- Compliance Domain. Compliance-domain issues often involve shortcuts that people take to get some kind of business result. They may or may not realize that the thing that they are doing compromises security and is against policy. There are also cases in which people knowingly violate policy maliciously, but these are much less frequent.
- Security Domain. In the Security domain, the team faces determined human adversaries who try to conceal their actions. The team assumes in some cases, without trying to anticipate how, that a person with malicious intent has managed to penetrate all of the preventive security measures. How would the team detect when that happens and how would they figure out who the person was who managed to penetrate all of that security?
Three Categories of Sensors
As the team designs their security-monitoring systems, they differentiate between the three problem domains and make sure that their security-monitoring controls are appropriate for all of them. The team has developed three different categories of complementary sensors to address the needs of each of the domains. They don't view any one sensor as being superior to the others. Their goal is to use a mix of sensors from these categories in order to achieve balanced coverage for all three domains.
Signature-Based Tools
The base platform is the classic signature-based tools like network-intrusion detection systems (NIDS). These sensors perform pattern-matching on network traffic. When they recognize a bit pattern that's characteristic of a particular type of attack, they put up an alert and one of the team members responds. These are very good, manageable tools and many of them are enterprise scale. They are also an important foundational layer, because they catch a lot of the problems in the IT and Compliance domains.
Signature-based sensors have two chief drawbacks, however. First, being signature-based, their great strength is in finding things they know how to find. But especially in the Security domain, the team is concerned with novel attacks. Second, these sensors are commercially available, so an adversary could buy a copy, train on it, and learn how to evade it. For this reason, the team views signature-based tools as being most effective for detecting issues in the IT and Compliance domains.
Metadata Monitors
Metadata monitoring involves observing the behavior of infrastructure, for example, monitoring the flow data from a router. If, for example, a router suddenly comes under exceptionally heavy load, it's probably worth looking into even if none of the signature-based tools generate an alert.
Metadata monitors tend to be less easily spoofable than signature-based systems because an attacker has no choice but to use the infrastructure. However, there are fewer solutions available, and they are not as enterprise-ready as the best signature-based tools.
Unconventional Sensors
For lack of a better term, the team refers to a third category of sensors as "unconventional sensors." These sensors typically leverage a knowledge advantage that the team has over an attacker. Dark IP is an example of a quintessential sensor of this type. With Dark IP, a certain number of IP addresses are never allocated for use on the network. If a networking packet is seen with one of those IP addresses in either the source or destination field, it can be assumed to be malicious. A sensor of this type is very difficult to spoof, because the attacker has no way to know which addresses weren't allocated.
Sensors in this category are particularly effective against issues in the Security domain. They are difficult to spoof and avoid. However, because they involve very specific knowledge of one's own network, they tend to be custom-built rather than bought off the shelf, and are often less manageable and scalable.
Achieving the Right Mix
In general, the tools in these categories form a spectrum, with signature-based tools being strongest against IT and Compliance issues, unconventional sensors being strongest in the Security domain, and metadata monitoring lying in between. The key to success is to architect an overall solution that uses an appropriate mix from all three categories in order to achieve the desired amount of coverage in the three problem domains.
Purpose-Built Sensors vs. Instrumented Network Infrastructure
"The team foresees a day when Microsoft might not have a network core at all, but would instead consist of company-operated resources directly connected to the Internet."
The Security Monitoring team has a certain number of sensors that are purpose-built—they are designed to be sensors. NIDS are an example of purpose-built sensors. These sensors have the advantage of having correlation engines already available for them, as well as a console that analysts can use to view alerts.
The team also uses data from the network infrastructure. For example, they harvest data from various network devices, effectively turning them into sensors. They do the same thing with the logs from line-of-business application servers. The team uses a Security Event Manager (SEM) to help make sense of this data. All of the data goes through the SEM, where it is correlated according to the rules that the team writes and is displayed in a console. The team also maintains a very large historical database. This data serves two purposes. As it arrives, it is used by the Security Monitoring team to detect anomalous activity. The Investigations team also uses the data to identify a particular person's activities over time.
Security Monitoring Process
The Security Monitoring team collects, analyzes, and responds to events detected on the network. The team also does a lot of checks, confirmations, and recalibrations. The following list describes the process:
- Collect and analyze the data. Data is pulled from a number of different sources and then it is harmonized so that it can be compared. The data is then correlated to develop a comprehensive view of what's happening on the network. This view is then vetted to see if it is consistent with other indicators of the network's state.
- Remedy the problem. When the analysis indicates a problem on the network, the problem
is assigned to the appropriate team to resolve. The problem is assigned to the:
- IT Compliance team, if it involves a policy or regulatory-compliance issue
- Security Monitoring team, if it involves a potential security issue
- Investigations team, if it involves a violation of standards of business conduct
The responsible team determines the right course of action and engages other teams for help as needed.
- Review. The team always takes steps to independently confirm that the remedy was successful, and that the problem no longer exists. This is an important step, and one that many companies overlook.
The team continually recalibrates their process. Recalibration consists of three things:
- Maintaining a baseline to understand what the team can actually see and do
- Developing a target to specify what the team would like to be able to see and do
- Adjusting the monitoring to move the baseline as close as possible to the target
Partnerships Are Key
"A proxy server has value even in the absence of a network core, because of its ability to help protect client machines from harmful Web sites. The team therefore believes that there will be "proxies in the cloud" that can be used as monitoring platforms."
The Microsoft enterprise network is a very large network, so it's very important for the Security Monitoring team to have healthy and vibrant relationships with partner teams. The team partners with the following Microsoft teams and external organizations:
- Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC). The team works extensively with the MSRC to get insight into the different types of vulnerabilities. For example, what has been recently patched and how much are different vulnerabilities being exploited?
- Microsoft IT. The team works with Microsoft IT to understand the preventive controls that Microsoft IT is deploying and what the team should be seeing on their monitors as a result.
- Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC). This is Microsoft's internal anti-virus team. Other companies should work with their anti-virus vendors. These vendors can often provide more information about malware than is available on a public Web site. This can provide a company with useful information to help them build signatures, to know when signatures from the vendor will be on their way, and so on.
- IT Security Engineering Department. The team works extensively with the IT Security Engineering department to understand where the network is headed. How is it changing? What will it look like in one year? How is it going to impact the way that they have to do monitoring?
- IT Operations Team. The team gets occasional help from the Operations team to get access to certain parts of the infrastructure where there are problems.
- MSN and Other Online Services Monitoring Team. The team collaborates closely with this team to share information and to take collective action if they see something happening.
- External Organizations. The team stays in touch with a number of external organizations, including anti-virus vendors, Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs), and other organizations that help the team stay abreast of events in the larger information ecosystem.
"As the network core disappears, the team anticipates that sensor locations will be driven by asset value so they will place the sensors near the things they protect."
The Security Monitoring team faces several key challenges:
- Network Growth. Like many corporate or enterprise networks, the Microsoft enterprise network is continually growing. It is an ongoing challenge to know exactly where sensors should be placed and which assets are most important. Meeting this challenge requires the team to stay in close touch with the IT Network teams, as well as asset owners around the company.
- Data Volume. It would be easy for the team to gather data indiscriminately
and collect more than it can analyze. To avoid this, the team instituted a business-driven
process with the following steps:
- Analyze the key questions that the team must answer.
- Determine the analytic techniques and data needed to answer those questions.
- Identify the data sources.
In many ways, this process inverts the usual approach, by helping the analysts to identify the data they don't need, rather than focusing exclusively on the data they do need.
- Legal Framework. A growing number of laws in the US and elsewhere require companies to collect certain data or forbid them from collecting other data. It is an ongoing challenge to meet obligations on a network that spans the globe.
The Security Monitoring team sees the following trends affecting their work:
- Disappearance of the Network Core. A general trend is that companies want to minimize how much network infrastructure that they must own and operate. Few companies today own the Wide Area Network (WAN) media that connects their international networks, and many would prefer to outsource even the media between buildings within a campus. This trend will be accelerated by DirectAccess®, a technology in Microsoft® Windows® 7 that allows machines to access corporate assets through the Internet using Network Access Protection (NAP) and Internet Protocol Security (IPsec). The team foresees a day when Microsoft might not have a network core at all, but would instead consist of company-operated resources directly connected to the Internet. In this case, much of the infrastructure that the team utilizes for sensors might not be available.
- Floating Edges. In contrast to many companies, Microsoft does not believe that the dissolution of the network core portends the end of the network edge. A proxy server, for example, has value even in the absence of a network core, because of its ability to help protect client machines from harmful Web sites. The team therefore believes that there will be "proxies in the cloud" that can be used as monitoring platforms.
- Strong Authentication. Strong authentication will be more and more the norm. This is a good thing for security monitoring.
- New Form Factors. Mobile devices are an example of a new form factor. The fact that an IP address is no longer tied to a physical place is going to change the way that the team does security monitoring.
Coming Doctrinal Changes
Considering the current challenges as well as the trends, the Security Monitoring team anticipates that the doctrine will change in the following ways in the next few years:
- Asset-Bastion Model. Today, the common industry practice is to place sensors in locations where they can see a lot of traffic (topology-based). However, as the network core disappears, companies may only be able to place sensors at or near the critical assets that they continue to host. The team believes that this change will create some advantages, such as allowing companies to better manage the amount of data that they collect, while also giving their sensors access to business-logic data that can help them improve the accuracy of their monitoring.
- Diversity of Sensors. The team foresees a general trend toward a more diverse mix of home-grown and commercial tools. This will be needed not only to ensure that companies maintain the right balance between detecting IT, Compliance, and Security domain issues, but also to take advantage of the business-logic data available in the asset-bastion model.
- Shift from Reactive to Proactive Stance. The team anticipates continuing the shift from a reactive stance to a more proactive one. A security analyst cannot rely solely on a tool to indicate what is happening on the network and to gauge the level of importance of the event. As threats continue to increase, the team will continue to need analysts who apply human ingenuity and open-ended problem-solving skills.
In order to safeguard Microsoft's intellectual property and digital assets, the Network Security team at Microsoft has to comply with federal laws, industry regulations, and corporate policies, while balancing business-agility needs and the needs of Microsoft employees and stakeholders.
The Security Monitoring team, which is a part of the Network Security team, uses a variety of sensors and other tools to monitor the Microsoft enterprise network. These tools include signature-based sensors, metadata monitors, unconventional sensors, and instrumented network infrastructure.
The Security Monitoring team faces many challenges in monitoring such a large, complex, and dynamic network. With rapid network growth, an explosion in the volume of data, and new form factors such as mobile devices, it's very important for the team to have vibrant partnerships with other teams at Microsoft and in the industry.
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products or services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Order Centre at (800) 933-4750. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information via the World Wide Web, go to:
© 2010 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, DirectAccess, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.


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A second man has denied killing a Zion man over the angle of his hat.
Jose Garcia, 18, of Mundelein pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder before Circuit Judge Daniel Shanes Thursday, May 9.
His co-defendant Jose Rebollar-Verara, 25, of Round Lake Park, denied first-degree murder charges at his arraignment last week.
The pair are accused of shooting Gabriel Gonzales, 19, of Zion, just after midnight March 10 in the parking lot at One Stop Food and Liquor Store in the 1000 block of Fairfield Road, Round Lake Beach.
Garcia and Rebollar-Verara mistook Gonzales for a gang member and criticized the way Gonzales was wearing his hat inside the liquor store.
Because a gun was used, each man faces an extended prison term if convicted. Rebollar-Verara faces 35 to 75 years in prison and Garcia faces 45 years in prison to life, Assistant State's Attorney Reginald Mathews said.
Rebollar-Verara is due back in court May 16. Garcia is due back in court May 30.
Both men are in custody at Lake County Jail in lieu of $3 million bonds.
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Are These Beverage Industry Risks Priced In?
Bill is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.
Fructose has been associated with negative health consequences. There is growing scientific evidence in support of fructose leading to higher-calorie diets and obesity. Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) has launched an ad campaign to guide its customers toward healthier lifestyles and change public perceptions of the company. Is this a morally driven campaign to do the right thing for society, or a public relations tactic?
Investors should require low valuations in this industry. Inexplicably, valuation multiples are currently too high for investors to take a sip.
Coca-Cola Uses TV Spots to Show how it's Fighting Obesity
Coca-Cola, the largest global soft-drink manufacturer, has been blamed for the increase in obesity cases. The company has found a new way of fighting this blame through advertisements. A statement from Coca-Cola says that ads will be aired throughout the year to sensitize the public on the importance exercising regularly. The advertisements are Coca-Cola's latest move to counter criticism that it is one of the main contributors of the obesity pandemic. Statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that about 36% of the American adult population are obese, while 17% of American children are obese.
Michael Jacobson, executive director of Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest said, "This is part of Coke's effort to blunt the opposition they are running into in all different sectors. The opposition is not sitting still these days."
In the "coming together advert," Coca-Cola's advice to consumers is to check on the amount of calories they take so that they can control weight gain. The aim of the ad is to highlight that the company is playing an active role in the fight against obesity. On the Coca-Cola advertisement a female narrator points out that it offers 180 low and non-calorie drinks in its wide range assortment of soft drinks. This had helped to reduce the calorie average per each drink sold by 22% in the last 15 years. Furthermore, the ad said that by the end of the year 90% of U.S. consumers will be purchasing smaller-portioned products.
The company intends to air 30 to 60 second versions of the commercial all year via different communication media, including Spanish media, according to company spokeswoman Diana Garza Ciarlante. However, she was not willing to reveal how much the company is spending on these ads.
Health experts concur that soft drinks contain unhealthy amounts of sugars that are harmful to the body in large quantities. According to the CDC, obesity has led to massive job losses and treatment costs for diabetes, a disorder which is associated with obesity, and cost the public almost $147 billion in 2008.
In 2009, President Obama suggested that soft drinks be taxed so that the taxes collected could be used to pay for the health care reforms. This move, however, did not go well with Muhtar Kent, Coca-Cola Chief Executive Officer--he termed the idea "outrageous."
Valuation Considerations
Non-alcoholic beverages are not cheap by any stretch of the imagination:
For comparison the Standard and Poor's 500 average price-to-earnings ratio is 13.25, it's average price-to-book-ratio is 2.02, and its average price-to-sales ratio is 1.31. The multiples of Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola FEMSA (NYSE: KOF), Monster Beverage (NASDAQ: MNST), PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) are off the charts. Dr. Pepper Snapple is priced more reasonably, but it still trades at higher multiples than the broader market. This really make no sense given the societal implications of obesity and the threat of government response.
Health Issues for Energy Drinks
Energy drink stocks are not in as deep a public relations nightmare because the allegations about their products are not substantiated by such extensive data. However, the perception of health problems itself can reduce demand and inspire regulatory action.
The U.S. FDA released a list of health problems that could somehow be connected to energy drinks. The report included incidents associated with drinks like Rockstar, 5-Hour Energy, and Monster dating back to 2004.
5-Hour Energy was present in 92 incidents, including 33 hospitalizations and 13 deaths. Red Bull was mentioned in 21 event reports, including 4 incidents of hospitalizations. Monster was somehow present in 40 reports, including five fatalities and 20 hospital visits. Rockstar was not present in any fatalities, but was identified in 13 incidents. None of this is definitive or evidence of causation, and since energy drinks are very popular they could just be coincidentally present in these cases. However, investors have to accept there is a risk that some connection could be established.
In light of this scrutiny, Monster's stock should not trade at a 26.3 earnings ratio.
Fructose Linked to Obesity
Regardless of media campaigns and diet product launches, fructose remains a huge component of Dr Pepper Snapple, Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola FEMSA, and PepsiCo products. These companies will face headwinds as health advocates and governments find ways to curb their consumption.
A Yale University study published in Journal of the American Medical Association found that fructose might contribute to weight gain and obesity because it doesn't cause the brain to feel full. This research compared the response from the human brain to fructose and glucose through the use of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) as a way to quantify the organ's activity once the sweeteners had been consumed.
Glucose and fructose are sweeteners obtained from natural sources. Fructose tastes a little sweeter and has a longer shelf life. This makes it an ideal addition to processed and refined foods and drinks, so that their sweetness isn't compromised by transportation, a longer shelf life, or any industrial processes such as freezing. Yale professor of medicine Robert Sherwin said, "The data surely suggest that it's probably not in your best interest to have high fructose-containing drinks because they're not going to cause you to be full, and you'll tend to consume more calories."
Put Your Portfolio on a Diet
Investors should cut out these non-alcoholic beverage companies from their investing diets because they are now widely thought to be connected to health risks and do not trade at compelling price multiples. Investors should only buy them at valuations price in risks to future earnings. Today, these equities should be avoided because they are trading at growth price multiples.
BillEdson11 has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Coca-Cola, Monster Beverage, and PepsiCo. The Motley Fool owns shares of Monster Beverage and PepsiCo. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Is this post wrong? Click here. Think you can do better? Join us and write your own!


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Faculty of World Studies
The graduate Faculty of World Studies, established in 2007, is the first academic institution in Iran dealing with the study of countries and regions around the world and is one of a kind in the Middle East. Although in its embryonic stages, the Faculty has established itself as one of the premier institutions in Iran focusing on an inter-disciplinary approach to the study of political, cultural, economic, and sociological aspects of a given country or region. Hence, each program utilizes visiting scholars for different courses as well as lectures through Video Conferencing with many foreign universities such as Columbia University (USA), The University of London (UK), and New York State University (USA). The faculty is also in the process of establishing 13 new programs at the MA level, with the aim to promote the study of various countries and regions as an academic discipline at the theoretical, strategic, and applied levels. All of the programs are taught in the language of the given country.
Websites: http://fws.ut.ac.ir
Email: email@example.com
Contact Info Address:
Faculty of World Studies University of
Tehran Kargar-e- Shomali St., North
Amirabad Campus Tehran, Iran.
Tel: (+98 21) - 88630931-2
Fax: (+98 21) - 88630196
Websites: http://www.fws.ut.ac.ir
Email: email@example.com
Email of the Adviser to the Dean:
British Studies
French Studies
German Studies
Indian Studies
North American Studies


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