ACL Desktop Gone in 5 Years?

Rumors have it that ACL will no longer be available on the desktop (laptop, or other local machine) in 5 years.

That is, according to an ACL user who attended the 2018 ACL Connections conference.

The Analytic Staircase for Auditors

Building a successful audit analytics program is like climbing a staircase.

The staircase is a set of steps that consist of several items having increasing levels of maturity.

The staircase steps not only help you build your program, but enable you to measure that maturity.

As you view the staircase graphic, mentally insert the word “analytics” before each step.

Download SharePoint Data w/o Rights

At a company I worked at recently, I ran across a Sharepoint site and wondered whether I could download data that I wasn’t supposed to see.

Now I understand the purpose of SharePoint and company intranets is to share data, but even then, some data should be restricted to a limited number of people.

So I decided to check (before doing things like this, you better know How to Stay Out of Jail).

ACL: Automate Active Directory Downloads

Here’s a way to automate the download of data from Active Directory (AD), specifically group members, into ACL using adfind and the ACL Execute command.

I’ll walk you through it step-by-step.

This was posted before ACL released their own Active Directory driver, which I still haven’t figured out.

Even if you don’t use ACL, you might gain a better understanding of AD and LDAP in general….

ACL: How to Create Your Own Scripts

Creating scripts (and editing them) is not as hard as many of you believe them to be.

Sure, it takes practice and time to learn the basics, but YOU can do it.

If you don’t learn scripting, you are NOT using ACL to it’s fullest, nor are you making the best use of your time.

FREE CISA Glossary

ISACA has a free glossary of IT, audit, and security terms that is not only helpful in studying for the CISA exam, but is a good reference guide for new and experienced auditors.

PSPad: Great Text File Audit Tool

PSPad is a great text editor and search tool, so by default, it’s a great audit tool, and it’s free. It can also handle a million lines of text–literally. Are you interested yet? It is also a great file diff/compare tool I’ve ever seen.

PSPad works with text files, such as those ending in TXT or CSV, or any text-based file (like an ini file). It works with DOC files too.

I’ll explain how to do the following with PSPad:

• Search a file (find all lines containing X)
• List all occurrences/matches of a search term
• Export a list of occurrences
• Compare 2 documents (diff)
• Download & install PSPad

Download Domino Database to Excel w/o Rights

I recently downloaded the contents of a Lotus Notes Domino database to Excel without any access to the database. If you’ll recall, I do audit consulting, and was performing an audit at a Fortune 100 company.

Error: ACL Desktop cannot complete this function

When you’re trying to load a new file into an ACL table, you’ll sometimes get this error:: “Application error. ACL Desktop cannot complete this function…contact ACL Technical Support…” (see below).

Here’s the situations in which I’ve encountered this error, and how I’ve fixed it (most common and easiest to fix situations are first).

How to Bypass Security

A recent Lifehacker article makes life easier (and cheaper) for users and harder for companies and their IT and security pros. Top 10 Ways to Access Blocked Stuff on The Web provides tips (not all ethical) on how to go around, over, under, or through the following fences: