Is your SQL Server exposed?

xSQL Software has just released a free service that performs basic SQL Server security checking (http://www.checksql.com) - it attempts to establish a TCP/IP connection on the default port, if successful it then checks the SQL Server version installed to ensure the latest service pack has been applied and also attempts to login using a small number of common username / password combinations.

My boss won’t pay $299!

What a loser was the first thought that crossed my mind, when I saw this comment on a newsgroup – it is not your boss who won’t pay $299 for something that will save you tons of hours of work, it is your insecurity that prevents you from making a trivial case to your boss… but then it dawned on me, it is not really this poor souls fault – it is us, the IT managers (I used to be one of those) who fail to foster a culture of productivity and efficiency but rather blindly focus on budget restrictions. How does a business benefit from having a highly qualified, highly paid programmer spend hours upon hours scouting the web for free tools or worst yet trying to re-invent the wheel because the boss won’t approve spending a few hundred dollars!?

Yes, there are people out there who are willing to drive 50 miles to save $5 on an item and it never occurs to them that in the process they have wasted approximately $20 on the car (using a $0.4 per mile rate) and 1 priceless hour of their life! However, that is not to be expected from IT people who overall have an above average intelligence and reasoning ability. Unfortunately, there are many highly intelligent people out there doing exactly that!

Disappointed!

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