Editor's News

There has been a significant increase in boardroom pressure on IT security departments, as board members become aware of targeted and DDoS attacks.   According to research by Fortinet of 1,600 IT decision makers across 15 countries, 63 per cent had experienced greater interest from the board. However the growing awareness of IT security within the boardroom  was also cited as a major contributor to making the IT security job more difficult, with three-quarters rating...

Symantec has confirmed that it is to divide its business into two separate divisions. In a statement, the security giant said that it will split into two, independent publicly traded companies. One will be focused solely on security and be run by President and CEO Michael Brown, the second will be focused on information management and be run by John Gannon. Gannon previously ran HP’s commercial PC business. It said that the decision follows an extensive business review of the company’s strategy...

Almost 75 million websites work on the WordPress content management system (CMS), yet they suffer more Cross Site Scripting (XSS) incidents than any other CMS. Research by Imperva found that WordPress websites were attacked 24.1 per cent more than websites running on all other CMS platforms combined. “We believe that popularity and a hacker’s focus go hand-in-hand,” Imperva said in its report. “When an application or a platform becomes popular, hackers realise that the ROI from...

A framework to establish transnational rules, norms and institutions to manage and reduce risk for global finance and trade is needed for the internet. In an article for the Washington Post, James Andrews Lewis, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that there is no cyber cold war, and that a real attack on the United States would trigger a damaging response and get in the way of business. He said: “To make cyber space...

Technology needs to switch to serve people, and people need to be in charge. Speaking at IP Expo in London, Co3 Systems CTO and cryptographer Bruce Schneier said that as security remains a combination of detection, protection and response, there is a need for response for detection, that protection is not perfect and we need security today for whole bunch of reasons. “In the1990s, we said security was not a product but a process, now...

One part of Big Data is a serious lack of control for users over data about them. In his opening keynote at IP Expo in London, Sir Tim Berners-Lee said that there is always a theory that people are being spied on and “a lot of the model of Big Data is a threat”. He said: “If people find out how to target you with an advert you start to feel queasy and if it...

The 25 year history of the internet has been great for development due to a lack of central control. In his opening keynote at IP Expo in London, Sir Tim Berners-Lee said that in the 25 years since he wrote a memo about the world wide web about wanting to fix the confusion on documentation systems, the internet has changed incredibly to a stage where “young people only know about 'click and you have it'....

Sophos has announced the acquisition of cloud-based security firm Mojave Networks.   In a deal that will strengthen Sophos’s cloud-managed and appliance-based security solutions, Mojave’s cloud-based web filtering engine and protection from emerging threats using real-time threat intelligence will be integrated into its fast-growing Sophos Cloud product line from next year, and later into its appliance-based network security solutions.   The entire offering will be an integrated security platform which brings together best-of-breed PC, Mac,...

Virus Total has been described as a useful tool, but the industry needs something better.   Talking to IT Security Guru, Giovanni Vigna, co-founder and CTO of Lastline, said that it has run malware on Virus Total which is “the wrong tool in a way and sometimes people get upset when people run tests on it, but it is the only one we have”.   Asked if he felt that something could replace it, Vigna...

A free online training course is to be launched to help members of the legal and accountancy professions develop cyber attack protection skills.   Due to be announced by the Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey, the training is part of the Government’s National Cyber Security Programme and will educate legal and accountancy professionals to: understand the basics of the cyber threat including techniques such as phishing and social engineering; help clients understand cyber risks and...