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ISACA Presentation August 31, 2006 These notes are for those who attended the ISACA presentation on August 31, 2006. There's some good stuff here, please at least browse through what appears to be boring narrative. Please feel free to give me a call or email me. I will follow-up on the conversations as an extension of the presentation. (i.e. no charge). I do so to help you get pointed in the right direction and it help me better understand your needs, which makes future presentations better. My contact info is on the handout. Many members have my contact info. Remember, the two files I used to demo the recording of user log-in and changes to cells in a worksheet are demo files. The two can be combined in one file very easily. Also, these types of requirements require an in-depth needs analysis as everyone's needs are different. The user and cell change logs can be locked down quite well. They are freely usable in these demo files. I ran out of time and did not get to demo a couple of cool features. Look at the "Listing all Sheets in a File" and "Hiding and Unhiding Menu Items" files. There are two sheets to left of Prod A (not readily visible as the file is opened). One is the sheet that create a list of sheets in a file, which I demonstrated. The next sheet to left shows how to hide and unhide Excel menus. This can be avery effective way to protect sheets (or other uses). If the menu is not available, the user cannot do the task. This came about from a client that had several hundred files that needed to be protected but only for a short period of time. Excel sheet protection is a sheet-by-sheet process. The short version of the story is that using stealthy methods I hid all the files at once, then removed the menu choice to unhide. This worked great, save a lot of time and is more secure that Excel sheet protection feature. OK, some of you are saying, that you can still get in through Excel's backdoor for Sheet properties. Yes, except, I controlled the accessibilty of this also. A reminder---I made representations about how I can make Excel data very secure. While this is true, we must always put things into perspective. First, if someone wants in they will get it. Need proof? Just look at Microsoft's almost daily security upgrades to many of it's products. The big buck applications that tout their security can be cracked just as well. Each issue must be dealt with separately. However, I can say that most of my applications are just as good as the commecially avaiable after market products. But again, a detail comparison must always be made. The question was asked about how large an Excel spreadsheet can be. What I said in the presentation was true, however, I forgot about the new version of Excel that finally deals with this issues. The bottom line is that Excel spreadsheets will be, from a practical point of view, unlimited in size. Click on this link for more details. So we spent a couple of hours talking about securing spreadsheets, tracking changes, trapping errors, etc. Can you image what a mess lies ahead with such large files? It will give the users new reasons "to stay up nights figuring out ways to keep the data in total chaos". Beginning in late September or October, I will be doing these presentation on a regular basis at little or no charge. Each one will be different and cover just one or two topics in-depth. Watch the newsletters or contact me so I can follow-up directly with the announcement. |
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