Brian Prince

Five iPhone Security Tips for IT Departments By Brian Prince Update Firmware to the Current Version iPhones ship with the version of the firmware that was current at the time of manufacturing, but updates may have been released since then. Firmware updates include not only new features and bug fixes, but security fixes as well. […]

Some rules are meant to be broken — including IT security policies, according to a new study by the Ponemon Institute. In a report sponsored by IronKey, roughly half of the 967 end users surveyed said their corporate data security policies are largely ignored by both employees and management. The policy violations ranged from the […]

Security software vendors McAfee and Symantec have agreed to pay $375,000 apiece as part of a settlement with the New York Attorney General’s office, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced June 10. At issue were accusations that the companies renewed customers’ software subscriptions without customers’ knowledge or authorization. In addition to the payment, both companies […]

UPDATED: T-Mobile has confirmed it was breached, but said the attackers did not steal any data that could endanger customers. In a statement released late June 8, company officials released little in the way of details regarding how the breach took place, but reaffirmed its commitment to continuing the ongoing investigation. “Regarding the recent claim […]

Adobe Systems promised it was making changes to its security process, and June 9 it made good. The company issued the first of what will now be quarterly security updates for Adobe Acrobat and Reader, this time plugging 13 “critical” vulnerabilities in Windows and Macintosh versions of the programs. Among the 13 bugs are a […]

Microsoft plugged 31 vulnerabilities June 9 in a hefty Patch Tuesday update. In all, Microsoft released 10 security bulletins. Six of them are critical and address problems in Microsoft Word, Excel, Windows, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Works converters. One of the most serious of the bulletins fixes eight Internet Explorer vulnerabilities, including one affecting IE […]

Aster Data Systems made a play for Microsoft . NET developers June 9 by enabling them to write applications using MapReduce. In Version 3.0.2 of Aster nCluster and nCluster Enterprise Edition, developers can now write MapReduce functions in C# (PDF) and have them execute in the database. The move affects a large number of the […]

Jeff Moss, of Black Hat and DefCon fame, has been tapped to join the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC). Moss is one of 16 appointed to the council late last week by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Comprising experts from state, local and tribal governments; emergency and first responder communities; academia; and the […]

Greenplum is changing its pitch around its data warehousing technology, talking up what the database company calls its “enterprise data cloud” initiative. The idea behind pushing an EDC (Enterprise Data Cloud) platform is to enable enterprises to create and manage data warehouses and marts that can be deployed across a common pool of physical, virtual […]

Twitter officials are working on a way to verify users of the microblogging service are who they say they are. In a blog post, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said the company is experimenting in summer 2009 with a beta preview of a service it is calling, “Verified Accounts.” Details about the service were scarce, but […]

McAfee has outlined its network security strategy, tracing a bull’s eye around companies like Cisco and Check Point Software Technologies. Unveiling three new firewall-related products, McAfee officials said the key to their strategy will be integration and unified management. To that end, McAfee has integrated its Firewall Enterprise (formerly Secure Computing’s Sidewinder), Firewall Enterprise Control […]

T-Mobile is still investigating a claim that hackers swiped a large amount of data from the company’s servers. On June 6, a message was posted on the Full disclosure mailing list in which attackers claimed to have hacked T-Mobile and stolen information. In the message, the alleged hackers posted a massive amount of data that, […]