Ryan Naraine

SAN FRANCISCO—Ciscos self-defending network strategy is prime for a new phase of development that involves addressing threats at multiple layers within the enterprise, chief executive John Chambers announced Wednesday. Chambers used the morning keynote at the RSA Security 2005 conference here to outline Cisco Systems Inc.s vision for this next phase—dubbed ATD (Adaptive Threat Defense)—an […]

SAN FRANCISCO—Microsoft on Tuesday confirmed plans to roll out anti-virus and anti-spyware products for enterprise customers, but details on pricing and release dates remain tightly under wraps. Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates used the spotlight of the RSA Security conference to discuss Redmonds aggressive push deliver the first version of “the ultimate mail virus protection” […]

SAN FRANCISCO—After months of hemming and hawing on plans for a standalone Internet Explorer upgrade before Longhorn, Microsoft Corp. now plans to push out a browser refresh by July or August this year. But the news that IE 7.0 will be available only to Windows XP SP2 (Service Pack 2) customers isnt likely to sit […]

Microsoft Corp.s plans to hawk a subscription-based product bundling anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall tools might be the security industrys worse-kept secret, but that has not stopped the guessing games leading up to next weeks RSA Conference 2005. Officials at the Redmond, Wash., company remain tight-lipped on specifics, refusing to confirm or deny widespread speculation that […]

Microsoft Corp. on Friday lashed out at two security research firms for publishing proof-of-concept exploit code for MSN Messenger hours after Microsoft released security patches for the product. In one instance, the software giant said malicious hackers have modified the proof-of-concept code into an exploit that puts millions of users at risk of code execution […]

Harvard researcher Ben Edelman, one of the most vocal critics of spyware purveyors, fell victim to a massive DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack over the past 24 hours. Edelmans Web site, which publishes detailed research reports on spyware, was knocked offline for much of Monday and Tuesday by a DDoS attack that crippled the server capacity. […]

Network security specialist Symantec Corp. has confirmed a high-risk vulnerability in multiple anti-virus and anti-spam products and warned that a successful exploit could lead to code execution attacks. The vulnerability, which was reported by Internet Security Systems Inc.s X-Force unit, is described as a boundary error in the DEC2EXE parsing engine used in versions of […]

Microsoft Corp.s big plans to roll out an enterprise-ready anti-virus product took shape Tuesday with the acquisition of Sybari Software Inc. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition of Sybari comes less than two months after Microsofts purchase of anti-spyware vendor Giant Company Software and is seen as the key to an […]

Microsoft on Tuesday released 12 advisories to cover 17 security flaws in a range of products, including high-priority patches for Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger. The February batch of patches includes eight “critical” fixes, and Microsoft officials say IT administrators should prioritize and deploy patches for four potentially dangerous code-execution […]

Security researchers have set off the alarm for a new phishing scam that piggybacks on Microsofts plans to make its “Windows Genuine Advantage” anti-piracy initiative mandatory later this year. According to an advisory from Websense Inc., Internet scammers are blasting out e-mails with spoofed sender addresses to trick users into downloading a so-called security tool. […]

A high-powered coalition of anti-spyware vendors has collapsed amid a rash of acrimony and finger-pointing. The Consortium of Anti-Spyware Technology vendors (COAST) was rendered toothless when three founding members—Webroot Software Inc., Aluria Software LLC and Computer Associates International Inc.s PestPatrol—withdrew from the group, citing separate reasons for quitting. Another founder, Lavasoft Inc., pulled out of […]

Enterprise anti-spyware software vendor Webroot Software has raised $108 million in a first round of funding. The Boulder, Colo.-based Webroot Software Inc. said the round was led by TCV (Technology Crossover Ventures), a venture capital firm with a track record of big-name investments. Accel Partners and Mayfield also participated. Jake Reynolds, a general partner at […]