Dennis Fisher

A security researcher well-known for finding dozens of vulnerabilities in all manner of software products announced Monday that he will no longer automatically wait for a vendor to patch a flaw before he notifies the general public of the problem. Tired of software vendors lack of responsiveness to security problems, David Litchfield, co-founder of Next […]

While much of the attention surrounding Web services security has focused on standards efforts, software developers and users are realizing that standards alone wont solve the problem. As a result, developers such as RSA Security Inc., Oblix Inc. and even networking manufacturer Cisco Systems Inc. are starting to take a more holistic approach to security […]

Dont envy Scott Charney. He has one of the most difficult positions in the security industry: chief security strategist at Microsoft Corp. The Redmond, Wash., company and its ubiquitous software are the targets of choice for crackers and Internet delinquents of every stripe—so much so that Microsoft has kicked off a very public security-improvement initiative […]

Reeling from a year of slumping revenue, layoffs and a restructuring, RSA Security Inc. is pinning its comeback hopes on the emerging market for Web services security products. Demand for its core cryptographic solutions has dipped, and RSA managers said they believe that the companys future lies in selling authentication and authorization technologies. “Our revenue […]

Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday released a patch for a new critical flaw in the debugger service in Windows NT and 2000 that enables an attacker to gain complete access to a vulnerable machine. The Redmond, Wash., company says there is a flaw in the authentication mechanism in the debugging program that allows unauthorized programs to […]

Reports of active scanning by the worm attacking SQL servers continued late Tuesday and early Wednesday, although the infection rate doesnt seem to be increasing. The worm, variously called Spida or the SQLsnake, attempts to connect on TCP port 1433 to servers running Microsoft Corp.s SQL Server database software and then tries to log in […]

Two virginia universities last week announced a collaborative project designed to provide education, information and research on information security. The Critical Infrastructure Protection Project will be a joint effort of George Mason University School of Laws Center for Technology and Law and James Madison University. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is providing a […]

Microsoft Corp. last week released a hefty cumulative patch to address a number of security problems in Internet Explorer, including six new vulnerabilities rated by the software maker as critical. But a group of security researchers said Microsofts fix is incomplete and doesnt resolve a key problem. The patch contains fixes for all previously discovered […]

Startup PoliVec Inc. on Monday unveiled Enforcer, the third piece of its security policy automation software suite. The product, which has been in a limited beta for several months, gives security administrators the ability to constantly monitor their companys security policies and compare them against a predefined policy to look for any deviations. Enforcer places […]

Searching for relief from the pressures of abundant capacity and intense competition for their core services, carriers such as WorldCom Inc. and Sprint Corp. are rushing headlong into the managed security services business. But the plans are drawing fire from security experts and customers, who say the carriers should look internally and secure their networks […]

Network Associates Inc. on Friday said that it will restate three years of financials, which will result in a narrower profit for 1998 and larger losses for 1999 and 2000. The 1998 net income will drop to $32.4 million from $36.4 million, the 1999 net loss will increase by $3 million to $159.9 million and […]

Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday released a cumulative patch that fixes six new vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. Two of the flaws could enable an attacker to read files on a users machine, although there are several mitigating factors that make such an attack quite difficult. Microsoft, of Redmond, Wash., has rated the new vulnerabilities as critical. […]