Join me for Cisco Press Meet the Author Webinar for one of the hottest topics in Cisco Unified Communications – Security by Default http://goo.gl/eJFWD3.
Register at http://goo.gl/tLwDQg to secure your seat!
The session will be recorded in case you miss the live webcast.
So, this is my second chalk talk in two consecutive months (year end happy)!
This chalk talk featured on Cisco Support Community and Cisco Technical Services Newsletter focuses on Cisco VPN phone feature for small business to enterprises looking for a scalable and secure way to let the remote workers/telecommuters connect and leverage the corporate voice resources.
Here’s an excerpt from the article.
====================================================
In today’s world, organizations are striving to stay connected with their employees. With businesses going 24X7, no organization can afford to have employees disconnected from the enterprise network and not able to access corporate voice or data resources. Understanding that modern day organizations need secure connectivity for their remote employees as well as telecommuters, Cisco has come out with the concept of VPN client on physical Cisco Unified IP Phone. Yes, you read it right, it’s an SSL client installed on a Cisco IP Phone that enables remote workforce and on-the-go employees to get access to corporate UC resources.
This new feature is called Cisco VPN Phone, and it leverages Cisco AnyConnect SSL client built into an IP phone’s firmware to connect to enterprise edge firewall (Cisco ASA). Cisco VPN Phone feature has numerous benefits,such as:
====================================================
For full article visit https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-38492.
For a detailed insight to Cisco Collaboration/UC security read Securing Cisco IP Telephony Networks book that covers every aspect of UC security and beyond.
As always, your comments are welcome. Please share this article in your social network.
Happy holidays!
I’ve always been an advocate of security and that – there’s no discussion that’s complete without security aspect to it.
Cisco and Cisco Learning have released the exam topics and a list of recommended books for CCIE Collaboration – and it resonates the notion – security is now an implicit part of the CCIE collaboration exam.
Naturally, Securing Cisco IP Telephony Networks is in the recommended book list for CCIE Collaboration on Cisco Learning (CCO)
http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/exams/list/cciec.html#~Resources,
So, what are you waiting for? Grab your copy of Securing Cisco IP Telephony eBook / paperback from Cisco Press, Cisco Market Place, Amazon or a local bookshop or an online store and get started with CCIE collaboration written and lab exam preparation.
It’s heart warming to see – Securing Cisco IP Telephony Networks finding a place in the recommended books list for CCIE v4! The recommendation comes from none other than Nat Timms – CCIE Security Program Manager, as seen on Packet Pushers
http://packetpushers.net/ccie-security-v4-reading-list-update-from-the-program-manager/
This is a testament that the title covers not just the UC security aspect but much beyond it – infrastructure, physical and perimeter security, which makes it a must read for anyone interested in network and UC security. Grab your copy of Securing Cisco IP Telephony Networks Today here
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1587142953
Keep learning, keep reading!
Please join Stephen Welsh (UnifiedFX CTO) and myself for a series of educational webinars on Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) Endpoint Security and Compliance.
This series of webinars is aimed at helping UC and Security community understand, uncomplicate and achieve security for Cisco UC endpoints (IP Phones, Softphones) Learn key principles, leading practices and how to effectively manage Cisco UC endpoints for security compliance.
The Essentials of Endpoint Security and Compliance is a 3 session series with following sessions –
• Session 1: The Impact of Security by Default (5th Sept)
• Session 2: Understanding and Managing ITL & CTL Files (12th Sept)
• Session 3: Leading Practices for Endpoint Security & Compliance (19th Sept)
You can register for the webinars at http://events.unifiedfx.com
Unifed FX’s webinar page http://goo.gl/IPZvQg
These sessions will be recorded so in case you’re unable to join for the live session(s) you can view the recording later.
Keep up the security!
This is exciting for me and I guess it would be for any author to be interviewed and published. My interview was recently published on BookGoodies.com
http://bookgoodies.com/interview-with-author-akhil-behl-2/
Here’s the Interview excerpt,
What inspires you to write?
My passion for technology and the spark to share the bit of knowledge I have!
Moreover, I’m inspired by my family which motivates myself to excel and to think and do things differently.
Tell us about your writing process
When I started working on the title “Securing Cisco IP Telephony Networks”, it came through as a rather pleasant revelation was, how I had to be creative in thinking what audience would like to see, vivid in visualizing to ensure that pictures do mean a thousand words, and convinced to decide the best way to explain a concept in a clear and concise manner.
Being an author has changed the way I look at things and the perspective in which I represent my thoughts. In a nutshell, I try and be in a reader’s mood and profile to see what a reader would like to see in the book.
The tools of writing are pretty much simple and unsophisticated as I use Microsoft Word for writing, Excel for tables, Visio and Powerpoint for diagrams, and PrtScrn for capturing screens (for illustrations). When it comes to writing process, I clear my mind, sit down in a relaxed environment, and start working through my thoughts and write down the rough manuscript which I finalize once all done. Overall, a straight forward and simple process.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
For technology oriented books there’re a few publishers however, for Cisco specific books the list is even shorter. When it comes to choice of publisher, it wasn’t a difficult venture as I had my mind made up for Cisco Press. Again, they are a a great platform for technologists like myself and people who wish to invest time and effort into writing a technical literature. So, without a doubt I was going with them, at least for this title
In future I would like to explore more avenues like another publisher for the technical literature or may be even self publishing.
To read the full interview visit http://bookgoodies.com/interview-with-author-akhil-behl-2/
To explore the world of and understanding of VoIP / UC Security read Securing Cisco IP Telephony Networks
Voice over IP (VoIP) is not just need of hour for most enterprises; it’s something their business depends on to a degree that without IP communications in place, their business processes and revenue streams will fall apart. In such case, it goes without saying; security of voice networks is one of the chief concerns when it comes to security of intellectual capital and customer data. More often than not, one of the first thoughts is how to secure the VoIP network itself which is leveraged by IP Telephony / Unified Communication (UC) applications.
So what is that may be the most commonly sought after yet elusive security control which plays an indispensable role in securing a VoIP network? Your guess is as good as mine, it is encryption! Now, you are well within your rights to ask why elusive? The simple answer is – where encryption can help you succeed and protect the privacy of communications, it can also be detrimental for various functions / organizations e.g. monitoring secure calls is not a trivial task and encrypting all endpoints has an impact on platform sizing and performance.
In this article we discuss about the security of Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express (CUCME) which is an integral part of Cisco UC; and more so of Cisco Express Call processing regime.
To read the full article visit http://www.firewall.cx/cisco-technical-knowledgebase/cisco-voice/956-cisco-voice-cme-secure-voip.html
To learn in depth about Cisco Collaboration Infrastructure, endpoint, device and application security refer to Securing Cisco IP Telephony Networks http://www.amazon.com/dp/1587142953
Yes, you read it right! I’ll be hosting a Tweet Chat session on 07 May 2013 at 10 am PST on Cisco UC Security.
Please join me on the Tweet Chat and feel free to ask any questions you have or clarify any doubts related to Cisco UC Security.
Here’s the link to the chat
http://www.ciscolive.com/us/attendees/social-networking/twitter/?cid=000061080 and https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/3916192#3916192
So, what are you waiting for? Join me on the Cisco Collaboration Security Tweet Chat on 7 May 2013 at 10 am PST – tweet to @cisco_support using hash tag #ciscoucsecurity
IP telephony is slowly but surely becoming part of the modern day organization’s day-to day-operations. In fact, some organizations depend on it to the extent of their core business or processes based on IP communications. Sadly though, the security aspect pertinent to IP based communications network, applications, and underlying infrastructure is usually not taken into consideration (or is ignored) when enterprises and businesses think of deploying unified communications.
On the same lines of thought, why should anyone for that matter think of securing an IP telephony network? The answer is simple however manifold:
Today, many organizations depend on a number of IP telephony services like voice calls, instant messaging, conferencing, and video conferencing. A typical IP telephony network can face several threats like toll fraud, reconnaissance attacks, eavesdropping, Denial of Service (DoS) attack, and call hijack. While most organizations do consider that their network needs protection from internal or external threats, such a notion is missing (usually) when it comes to their IP telephony applications/devices.
Read the full article at http://www.ciscopress.com/articles/article.asp?p=1966660
For more insight to Cisco IP Telephony Security refer to Cisco Press book Securing Cisco IP Telephony Networks
I’ve to admit, this is pretty cool!
There’s now an audio review and intro available for the book ‘Securing Cisco Telephony Networks’ thanks to ComputerBookMix.com
To listen to audio preview click here Audio Preview of Securing Cisco IP Telephony Networks
Akhil's Cloud and Security Blog 