A couple of interesting research products have hit the commercial marketplace. Lumeta (www.lumeta.com) is selling a firewall rule analyzer, a pseudo-expert system which lets you ask questions about a firewall ruleset; and a network mapping system which helps find unexpected network connectivity.
Have folks tried the commercial versions of Lumeta's products? Since both products are both essentially discovery tools, did people discover anything they didn't already know? While I would like both the network discovery and firewall analyzer as part of a toolkit, as stand-alone tools they seem limited. If you spend the money, Lumeta's products will tell you either what you already know, or they'll tell you about stuff you didn't know. But how do you know ahead of time whether or not you already know how the movie ends, and its worth the price of the movie ticket? I did like Bill Cheswick's comments on password aging. http://www.lumeta.com/asktheexperts/question17.html Once upon a time I decided to research the source of the change your password every N days rule. I tracked it back to the days of 300 baud modems. When was the last time your changed your 4-digit PIN on your ATM/bank card?