Cisco Australia channel and commercial operations manager Kip Cole has moved to distance the company from -highly inappropriate" advice included in Cisco brochures handed out as part of its current security seminar series.

The locally-produced brochures provided a series of tips on how to combat a variety of security breaches, from viruses to denial of service attacks. The advice relating to spam encouraged systems administrators to -flame the perpetrators by sending them abusive messages, or to reply by dumping a very large and useless file on their Web server".

When asked whether or not it was appropriate for Cisco to encourage users to flame list administrators and clog their systems with useless files, Cole said he had no idea how the text had got there, and added that the brochures had been withdrawn the moment it was brought to his attention.

-It is obviously highly inappropriate advice, and I cannot do anything at this stage but apologise," Cole said. -Cisco absolutely does not condone such a response."

Despite the oversight Cole said the seminar series had been a success, and was expected to attract up to 5000 people as it tours Australia. He said the seminars were designed to provide practical advice as to how to deal with security breaches.

-Security is a very contemporary topic, there is a lot of information around about security breaches, but there isn't much about how to approach security for the Enterprise," Cole said. -Many firms have no formal security policy in place, we are looking at ways to help them get there."

The series of seminars conclude in Wellington on June 27.

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