Dennis Fisher

Zone Labs Inc. on Tuesday plans to announce that it has acquired IMsecure Corp., a small developer of security software for instant messaging applications. At the same time, Zone Labs will announce that it is integrating the IMsecure Desktop product into its Integrity enterprise firewall offering. Zone Labs will also be offering a stand-alone version […]

The governments plan to pressure software vendors to build more secure products seems to be gathering a bit of momentum. A major part of the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, the idea involves using market pressures and the governments purchasing power to influence vendors development practices. An important component of this plan is the National […]

Some Network Associates Inc. customers are up in arms over an update for one of the companys antivirus products that is preventing them from accessing the Internet. The problem is caused by an update for McAfee VirusScan Professional 7.0, the companys flagship consumer antivirus application. When update 7.03 is installed on some machines running Windows […]

The majority of users mishandle their passwords and user IDs, forget their passwords on a regular basis and then resort to calling their IT departments for help when they cant log on to their PCs, according to a new survey. The results of the study, done by security vendor Rainbow Technologies Inc. and released Tuesday, […]

The Department of Homeland Security is close to finalizing a selection for the vacant job as the head of the departments Cyber Security Division. Department officials have sent a name to the White House for consideration and hope to have the person at work in the near future, according to comments made by Secretary of […]

A proposed voluntary plan for handling vulnerability disclosures is drawing fire from security researchers and other critics, even as new research shows that such a plan is sorely needed to help protect networks. The guidelines are the work of the Organization for Internet Safety, a group of security companies and software developers, and define a […]

LAS VEGAS—Cats and dogs living together. Thats the only way to describe the party that Microsoft Corp. threw here Thursday night at the close of the Black Hat Briefings. The gathering was billed as a thank-you for all of the people who have helped the software giant improve the security of its products over the […]

The warnings about an imminent wave of attacks on the RPC vulnerability in Windows continued on Thursday as the CERT Coordination Center issued an advisory detailing the tools that crackers are using to exploit the flaw. Officials at CERT said that they have seen several different attack tools for this vulnerability and that the exploits […]

LAS VEGAS—New research unveiled Wednesday shows that while enterprises are fairly diligent about patching critical software vulnerabilities, they are paying less attention to more moderate flaws and thus leaving their networks exposed to a large variety of vulnerabilities. For vulnerabilities identified as critical, the number of vulnerable systems drops by 50 percent every 30 days, […]

LAS VEGAS—Years after the federal government dropped its investigation of him for trying to export his pioneering Pretty Good Privacy encryption software, Phil Zimmermann still has no love for the folks in Washington. Nor is he very happy with his former colleagues at Network Associates Inc. In his keynote speech on the first day of […]

Despite fears that a flaw in the software that controls most of the routers and switches in the Internet would lead to widespread attacks and network outages, security monitoring companies said they have seen little indication of that happening. The vulnerability, which affects nearly all routers and devices running Cisco Systems Inc.s IOS (Internetwork Operating […]

In an effort to jump-start various bedraggled security information-sharing efforts in the IT industry, the CERT Coordination Center and several universities this week will announce a project that will allow for real-time data sharing and analysis among remote organizations. If the project is successful, it could be used as a model for data-sharing initiatives in […]