(Bill Brenner, ComputerWorld) The security community has grown to depend on some basic technologies in the fight against cyber thieves. Here are four techniques and related technologies several cited as underrated in today's security fight.

1. Whitelisting
Application security is something companies increasingly worry about, as the number of business and personal apps proliferate. One of the more overlooked features of the technology is whitelisting - the art of allowing only traffic known to be valid to pass through the gate; thus providing an external input validation shield over the application.
2. Data encryptors and/or shredders
You need shredding machines to securely dispose of unnecessary or unscanned records and data encryption to protect the necessary scanned ones.
3. CPU stress testers
It seems that the current state of firmware security, even in case of such reputable vendors as Intel, is quite unsatisfying.
4. Firewalls and AV
Firewalls and AV may no longer get the glory, but many regard them as absolutely necessary parts of any network security posture.