Brian Prince

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have developed a new analysis technique to help IT administrators assess security risk. The patent-pending technique was developed by computer scientist Anoop Singhal and his research colleagues at George Mason University. Though NIST researchers weren’t available this morning to comment on their findings, Singhal and his […]

With details of the Domain Name System flaw discovered now public and attack code in the wild, security researcher Dan Kaminsky once again is urging IT administrators to patch promptly. The bug can be exploited to poison DNS caches and re-direct Internet traffic to malicious sites. Kaminsky, director of penetration testing at IOActive, held a […]

Microsoft is making a push into the data warehousing space with the purchase of DATAllegro, in a move that could touch off similar acquisitions by other vendors. The acquisition, being made for an undisclosed sum, is aimed squarely at strengthening Microsoft’s position in the data warehousing market, which is rapidly expanding because of the explosive […]

Sybase’s investments in database technology appear to be paying off. In its second-quarter earnings call July 23, company officials announced that license revenue for Sybase database products grew 38 percent year over year, driven by adoption of Adaptive Server Enterprise and Sybase IQ. Overall, Sybase’s place in the RDBMS (relational DBMS) market remains small, at […]

Oracle has bundled together a suite of access management products in a bid to help enterprises secure their Web-based environments and to challenge its main rivals in the space. The new offering is called Oracle Access Management Suite, and combines Oracle Access Manager, Adaptive Access Manager, Identity Federation and Entitlements Server into one integrated suite, […]

The Intrepidus Group has put its own spin on the axiom about teaching a man to fish. In this case, the information security vendor is teaching companies to phish-not so they can feed themselves, but so they can educate their employees on the threats they face. Through Intrepidus’ new software-as-a-service platform PhishMe, organizations can simulate […]

Details of the DNS flaw uncovered by security researcher Dan Kaminsky have found their way into the public arena. Kaminsky, who is the director of penetration testing for the security company IOActive, had planned on keeping the specifics of his discovery close to his vest until the Black Hat conference in August in Las Vegas. […]

Fortify Software released a report July 21 that will likely wake open-source advocates and application developers from their morning calm. Dubbed the “Open Source Security Study,” the Fortify-sponsored report, which was prepared by security consultant Larry Suto, examined 11 of the most common Java open-source packages for vulnerabilities using Fortify’s technology. Two to four versions […]

The open-source database market is continuing its upswing, and shows no signs of slowing down. A market update by Forrester Research puts the value of the open-source database market at $850 million, which includes software licensing, technical support and services. By 2010, the authors of the report estimate that figure will jump to $1.2 billion […]

Efforts at security in the cloud, also called Security SAAS, are currently focused on messaging security, but expect the concept to expand as the enterprise workforce relies more on mobility and applications in the cloud. Messaging security has been a big beneficiary of early security SAAS (software as a service) adoption. Analysts at IDC have […]

DNSstuff.com is offering a free tool for organizations looking to test the susceptibility of their domain name servers to a fundamental flaw in the Domain Name System protocol revealed publicly last week. A provider of on-demand DNS and network analysis tools, DNSstuff made the freeware, which company officials have dubbed DNS Vulnerability Check, available on […]

When reports of a disgruntled network administrator locking his co-workers out of San Francisco’s new FiberWAN first touched my ears, the first thought that raced through my head-besides the word “wow”-was that this was a clear example of how an insider can potentially bring IT operations to a screeching halt. Terry Childs, 43, pleaded not […]