Paul F. Roberts

Oracle Corp.s recent acquisitions will transform the company into an enterprise software giant. But there are signs of danger ahead for the company, as reports of a backlog of unfixed software holes and buggy product patches are causing some to wonder whether the fast-growing database software pioneer is headed for a security crisis. In the […]

Symantec Corp. president John Schwarzs decision last week to jump ship and become CEO of Business Objects S.A. marked the end of a long, successful run at the security software maker and the start of a new era for Business Objects, as Schwarz takes the helm from company founder Bernard Liautaud. In an interview with […]

Not too long ago, NAC meant one thing: Cisco Systems Inc.s Network Admission Control technology. No longer. With Cisco moving slowly to introduce NAC (network access control) features across its product line and the price of upgrading to NAC-compliant Cisco hardware steep, the ranks of NAC technology vendors are also set to swell, as a […]

Oracles acquisition of PeopleSoft and Retek for more than $11 billion in recent months, together with the planned purchase of Siebel for $5.88 billion, will transform the company into an enterprise software giant. But there are signs of danger ahead for the Redwood Shores, Calif. company as reports of a backlog of unfixed software holes […]

Microsoft is banning certain cryptographic functions from new computer code, citing increasingly sophisticated attacks that make them less secure, according to a company executive. The Redmond, Wash., software company instituted a new policy for all developers that bans functions using the DES, MD4, MD5 and, in some cases, the SHA1 encryption algorithm, which is becoming […]

A Massachusetts teenager pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston for a string of hacking crimes reported to include the February compromise of online information broker LexisNexis and socialite Paris Hiltons T-Mobile cellular phone account. In a Sept. 8 statement, U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said that the juvenile told U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel […]

In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President Bush commissioned a sweeping plan to secure the nations cyber-assets. At the time, the president said it was vital to reduce cyber-threats “before they can be exploited to damage the systems supporting our nations critical infrastructures.” But four years and billions of dollars later, […]

A dispute has erupted between the Ask Jeeves search engine and anti-spyware software companies that raises questions about the standards used to flag potentially unwanted programs on users computers. At least two anti-spyware companies—Sunbelt Software Inc. and Facetime Inc. —have been asked by Ask Jeeves Inc. to stop flagging or to change the way they […]

John Schwarz, who served as Symantec CEO John Thompsons right-hand man for almost five years, has taken a position as the CEO of Business Objects, according to a statement from the company. Schwarz will replace Bernard Liautaud, founder of Business Objects SA, as CEO. Schwarz was brought to Business Objects to lead the business intelligence […]

The distressing images of looters carrying off electronics, food and whatever other goods they could find in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina have become all too familiar, but the online “looting” that has cropped up in the storms wake may prove to be more financially damaging than the thefts occurring on the ground in New […]

Advertising software bête noir 180 Solutions Inc. said Wednesday that it will release a new version of its client software that will prevent unauthorized installations of the product. 180 Solutions will require its distributors to use the search assistant technology, which it calls Safe and Secure Search, or “S3.” But at least one spyware authority […]

A new Trojan horse program that first appeared in Iran may be the start of a new malicious code trend that might be termed “moralityware,” according to antivirus company Sophos PLC. The malicious software, dubbed Yusufali.A, contains a feature that monitors which Web sites a user visits. The program springs to action when the browser […]