Security

In December, Check Point Software Technologies acquired personal firewall leader Zone Labs for $205 million, creating a high-powered security firm poised to crank out more products for businesses and consumers. One of the first applications to result from the acquisition is an upgrade to a popular Z...

At the recent RSA conference, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates in his keynote speech predicted traditional passwords are headed for their demise. Any CIO who has walked past a row of desks knows Gates has a point when he says passwords cannot adequately protect security: The number of Post-It notes aff...

Cisco Systems introduced new products Tuesday that advance the company's so-called "Self-Defending Network" strategy. According to the company, its portfolio of new products works in an autonomic fashion to identify threats, isolate infected endpoints and reconfigure the network in response to intru...

How secure are application service providers (ASPs) -- and is too much of that answer riding on customers' usernames and passwords? As it turns out, an ASP's own customers may in fact present a risk, because they (and/or their employees) can all too easily abuse password sharing. New technologies in...

The White House push to secure the U.S. digital infrastructure does not exclude IT systems of federal agencies, according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which released its Federal Government Information Security Report this week. The OMB is required to submit the yearly report to Cong...

For years, Juniper Networks has been Cisco's chief competitor in the networking arena. With its recent acquisition of NetScreen, Juniper seems to have bought some clout that could make a difference in that fight. The $3.4 billion deal brings Juniper into the security and low-end corporate sectors. P...

They may not wear capes, carry futuristic laser guns or live in underground lairs, but members of Internet Security Systems' (ISS) X-Force team are accustomed to being summoned to work in the wee hours of the morning, on holidays and on weekends to fight crime and save the world -- or, at least, the...

The plague of malware appears to be escalating worldwide. As a worm variant called Netsky.D bombards e-mail inboxes around the globe, an even newer version, Netsky.E, already is being analyzed, according to Joe Hartmann, director of North America antivirus research at Trend Micro. "There has been a ...

Major Internet security vendors have formed a lobbying group, the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, to give their industry representation in Washington, D.C., amid continued fears about the United States' critical information infrastructure. The CSIA, to be based in Massachusetts, will form committe...

The latest iteration of the MyDoom worm, "MyDoom.F," has Internet security experts worried because, in addition to triggering denial-of-service attacks, it also can delete files from infected computers. MyDoom.F was first identified last Friday and has picked up steam in just the last few days, Soph...

Microsoft and RSA Security have said they will work together to develop authentication technology, making it easier to secure Windows and keep sensitive corporate information safe. The announcement came at RSA's annual security conference in San Francisco. Specifically, Microsoft will use RSA's Secu...

With a rash of major virus outbreaks still fresh in their minds, network administrators and other security experts will flock in record numbers to the annual RSA Conference this week, where they will be met with a flood of new product and service announcements aimed at quelling security and privacy ...

A new worm known as Netsky.B emerged Wednesday. It is the second worm in the Netsky family; an earlier version, Netsky.A, was first identified Tuesday. The worm, which has been reported primarily in Western Europe and Japan, spreads mainly by e-mail. Like many recent worms, it cloaks itself in attra...

Although companies are tightening the security of Windows-based servers, they face some unknown risks when corporate data takes to the streets on mobile devices such as PDAs, notebook computers and USB memory drives. Many are finding that sound policy is their greatest weapon against data loss. "A p...

In response to Microsoft's latest vulnerability announcement, a group of security analysts at Gartner has released a research note that advises enterprises against using Windows Server 2003 in mission-critical applications exposed to the Internet before the second quarter of 2004. The note also reco...