Mike has made his slides available.

If you're familiar with the UUASC general email list, then you've recently seen terminology used such as SSL, AES, MD5, SHA-1, hash, footprints, and F-14 Shaver Kits. Ok, we're not going to discuss what fighter pilots do and we're not sure if anyone is bringing the hash, but we will be learning what protects our privacy when we submit on-line forms that include our financial and personal information to web sites such as eBay, PayPal, and Providian.

At the December meeting of UUASC-OC, as a follow-up to the September talk, our own Mike Sweeney, author of "Network Security Using Linux", returns to teach us the basics about digital certificates, the layer of protection commonly utilized for security in on-line transactions.

Mike will teach us how to create and use our own certificates, and discuss why we even have X.509. He will attempt to answer the questions, "Can I do this for systems other than Linux?" and "What are the advantages of choosing a commercial product?".

Mike specializes in network design, troubleshooting, security, and analysis. His company, Packetattack.com, produces custom training videos and on-line product demonstrations. Mike's prior published works include contributing to "Cisco Specialist Guide to PIX Firewalls", "Building DMZs for Enterprise Networks", and "Cisco Security Professional's Guide to Secure Intrusion Detection Systems". He sold more than four copies of his book at the September meeting.