Dennis Fisher

Thanks to several high-profile vulnerabilities and an overall increase in the number of flaws this year, open-source software has taken over Microsoft Corp.s position at the bottom of the security heap. A research note from two analysts at Aberdeen Group Inc. issued last month calls open-source software and Linux distributions the “2002 poster children for […]

Internet Security Systems Inc. on Monday released to the public the vulnerability disclosure guidelines that its internal X-Force research team uses in identifying flaws and notifying vendors and the public. The guidelines are fairly standard and include a provision that is becoming more and more common among security vendors that also do vulnerability research. The […]

A hacker group on Tuesday released a novel license agreement that gives end-users the power to enforce the agreement and sue governments and other entities that misuse software covered by the license. The Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement (HESSLA) is designed to prevent governments, corporations and other organizations from using Hacktivismos applications to censor Internet […]

Zone Labs Inc. last week announced the first major upgrade to its Integrity client protection software, adding centralized management and deployment tools. Integrity 2.0 gives administrators more granular control over the rules and policies in place on each desktop, making the product more like a traditional network firewall. Integrity 2.0 comprises a central management console […]

Crossbeam Systems Inc. this week will unveil the latest version, 3.5, of its X40S security appliance, which adds a slew of new features in an effort to stay a step ahead in the rapidly growing appliance market. The biggest addition to the appliance is Crossbeams new flow-sequencing technology, which enables administrators to customize the path […]

An apparent delay in the availability of patches for the vulnerabilities in BIND that were disclosed earlier this month is highlighting the seemingly endless debate over when and to whom vulnerability data should be released. Internet Security Systems Inc.s X-Force research team on Nov. 12 released an advisory warning of three newly discovered vulnerabilities in […]

Web security needs are beginning to attract the attention of larger vendors that are combining elements of traditional access control with new protection for legacy and mainframe applications. Computer Associates International Inc., for instance, is readying eTrust Web Access Control, the companys biggest foray yet into Web security and the beginning of a shift in […]

Tripwire Inc. on Monday unveiled a new version of its Tripwire for Network Devices security software, which now includes a Web-based management interface and the ability to output reports with XML data. Version 2.5 of the monitoring software also includes the Product Resource Center, which enables customers to download “device kits” to help them monitor […]

Thanks to several high-profile vulnerabilities and an overall increase in the number of flaws, open-source software has taken over Microsoft Corp.s position at the bottom of the security heap. A recent research note from two analysts at the Aberdeen Group calls open-source software and Linux distributions the “2002 poster children for security problems.” Of the […]

There are three serious flaws in the popular RealOne and RealPlayer media players that allow an attacker to run code on remote users machines. Real Networks Inc. issued a patch for these flaws, but it was subsequently found to not fix the problem and was supposed to be removed from the companys Web site. However, […]

A back door in the operating system that runs on some of Alcatel Internetworking Inc.s LAN switches enables an attacker to gain complete control of the switch. The problem affects the Alcatel OmniSwitch 7700 and 7800 running version 5.1.1 of the Alcatel Operating System. The back door is actually a Telnet server that Alcatel installed […]

While many agencies are still licking their wounds from once again failing their annual information security test, the Department of Defense and the National Security Agency on Thursday will announce a new partnership that could go a long way toward shoring up the security of the governments networks. The new agreement is a joint research […]