Brian Prince

Symantec has agreed to acquire MessageLabs in a bid to capitalize on the latter’s security software-as-a-service business. Under the terms of the deal, Symantec gets MessageLabs for approximately $695 million in cash. MessageLabs is a leading SAAS provider of messaging and Web security. According to Symantec, the plan is to capitalize on cross-selling and up-selling […]

Even in a time of economic woes, IT security companies have shown themselves to be unafraid of making acquisitions. The latest example came Oct. 8 from Symantec, which is putting up $695 million to buy security SAAS (software as a service) vendor MessageLabs. Symantec officials said the deal would bring upselling and cross-selling opportunities and […]

The 20-year-old son of a Tennessee state legislator pleaded not guilty to illegally accessing the e-mail account of Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin. David C. Kernell, 20, son of state Rep. Mike Kernell, D-Memphis, was indicted Oct. 8 by a federal grand jury in Knoxville, Tenn. According to the indictment, Kernell […]

CA has acquired identity management vendor IDFocus for an undisclosed sum in a bid to bolster its provisioning and enforcement capabilities. According to CA, the deal to purchase the Palo Alto, Calif.-based firm will help CA meet customer needs around regulatory compliance, specifically as it relates to segregation of duties violations. Working in tandem with […]

Adobe has posted an advisory to address concerns about clickjacking as it prepares a patch. The advisory addresses a clickjacking browser issue that affects Adobe Flash Player’s microphone and camera access dialog. If successfully executed, clickjacking allows an attacker to lure a Web user into unwittingly clicking on a link or dialog. While clickjacking itself […]

The amount of e-mail-borne malware attacks jumped dramatically during the month of September, according to security researchers at MX Logic and Symantec. In its “October Threat Forecast & Report,” security vendor MX Logic reported that 5.14 percent of all e-mails in September contained malware, more than twice August’s percentage and more than five times January’s […]

Proofpoint is launching an attack on backscatter spam, joining a chorus of voices supporting Bounce Address Tag Validation that includes Cisco and Webroot. Backscatter spam is far from a new phenomenon. Also called non-delivery receipt spam (NDR spam), backscatter occurs when spammers put someone else’s e-mail address in the “From” field of spam messages. If […]

Microsoft offered the public a glimpse of the future of SQL Server at its Business Intelligence Conference in Seattle. During his conference keynote, Ted Kummert, vice president of Microsoft’s Data and Platform Storage division, laid out the company’s plans to build additional business intelligence capabilities into SQL Server. This version of SQL Server, code-named Kilimanjaro, […]

Oracle OpenWorld 2008 is wrapping up today after a week chock-full of news. The conference, which brought some 43,000 people to downtown San Francisco, included several announcements around Oracle’s application and database products. Here are some of the highlights: Oracle Beehive Collaboration Platform Oracle announced the launch of the Oracle Beehive collaboration platform with much […]