Archive for Vendor News
Author: Dave Lewis
April 9, 2008 at 9:42 pm · Filed under Vendor News
To throw more fuel on Myrcurial’s “cyber” fire I figured I would point folks to this article from the Arizona Star. I have to admit that I completely agree with him on the gratuitous use of the word “cyber” by talking heads and mainstream media.
From azstarnet:
Raytheon Co., which bought data-protection company Oakley Networks last year, created an information security unit to insulate federal government computers from attack and commercial customers from fraud or theft.
The new unit will seek to expand revenue in the federal and commercial data-security markets with combined total annual sales of $8 billion, Steve Hawkins, vice president of information security solutions, said in an interview Tuesday.
The $7 billion government information-security market will grow 20 percent annually over the next five years, Hawkins said. The $1 billion commercial market is increasing 40 percent annually. The new division will combine the assets acquired from Oakley with Waltham, Mass.-based Raytheon’s 25 years of experience in information security.
Yet another defense contractor jumps into the “me too” infosec pool.
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Tags: Raytheon, Defense Contractor, Information Security
Author: Dave Lewis
April 9, 2008 at 9:50 am · Filed under Vendor News
Now, Veracode is a company that I see as an excellent growth company. I’ve been a fan of theirs since I first met them at RSA 2007. The long and the short of it is that this is a company that does binary analysis of your in-house code. For a fee of course. I had some trepidation at first due to the Patriot Act but, they now have agreements with Canadian firms to help assuage these fears.
Gartner has released a list of five companies that they rate as…well, no easy way to put this but, “cool”. The report from Gartner entitled “Cool Vendors in Application Security and Authentication” has given Veracode the Arthur Fonzarelli seal of approval.
From the press release:
Gartner’s listing does not constitute an exhaustive list of vendors in any given technology area, but rather is designed to highlight interesting, new and innovative vendors, products and services. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness of a particular purpose.
Gartner defines a cool vendor as a company that offers technologies or solutions that are: Innovative, enable users to do things they couldn’t do before; Impactful, have, or will have, business impact (not just technology for the sake of technology); Intriguing, have caught Gartner’s interest or curiosity in approximately the past six months.
OK, phew. Just as long as they don’t try to jump the shark tank on their motorbike.
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Author: Dave Lewis
April 1, 2008 at 8:24 am · Filed under Legal Aspects, Vendor News
Oops.
From Yahoo Finance:
IBM Corp. has been temporarily banned from new federal contracts as prosecutors examine interactions between employees of the company and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The suspension went into effect last Thursday “while the agency reviews concerns raised about potential activities involving an EPA procurement,” the agency said Monday in an e-mailed statement. Under a reciprocal agreement among federal agencies, when one issues a ban, the others follow it.
EPA said it will not comment further on the matter.
IBM said it was cooperating with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which served grand jury subpoenas seeking documents and testimony relating to the EPA contract.
This will most likely get worked out in short order. Bad press though. Ouch.
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Author: Dave Lewis
March 25, 2008 at 7:12 am · Filed under Vendor News, Web Security
From ZDNet UK:
Mozilla chief executive John Lilly has hit out at Apple, accusing the company of doing a disservice to Windows users everywhere by including its Safari browser as a default add-on installation in the latest iTunes update, likening the practice to the way malware is distributed.
In a recent blog post, the head of the foundation behind the Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client attacked Apple for including the option to install the browser as a pre-selected default, saying it compromises the security of all users and the entire web.
“Apple has made it incredibly easy — the default, even — for users to install ride-along software that they didn’t ask for and maybe didn’t want. This is wrong, and borders on malware distribution practices,” said Lilly in the post.
“It undermines the trust relationship great companies have with their customers, and that’s bad not just for Apple but for the security of the whole web.”
Yesterday’s Safari Vulnaerabilities.
Article Link
Author: Dave Lewis
March 17, 2008 at 5:54 am · Filed under Vendor News, Web Security
Cenzic, the web application testing firm who brought us such hits as patenting fault injection (despite years of previous art) is getting more funding. The VC top heavy operation has reached 60% of their current funding goals apparently.
From Mashable:
The market in which Cenzic operates is a large one. More and more Web applications are being produced every week, and a good portion are targeted at enterprise customers. Yet Web security is a still a sensitive, porous area. Cenzic claims that some 90% of such applications are vulnerable to infiltration and the compromise of data. Therefore its field of play, as it were, is an expansive one, and will only increase in size and activity. Because businesses will continue to take advantage of the convenience and efficiency for internal and external communications in using Web-based software, the prospects for Cenzic are far reaching.
Hopefully they will spend more time on their product development and less in court.
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Author: Dave Lewis
March 6, 2008 at 8:18 am · Filed under Hardware, Vendor News
Green you say?
From Silicon dot com:
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has claimed that more efficient use of IT is one of the company’s main priorities for the future, despite the fact the company has been widely criticised for producing processor-hungry software.
Speaking at the CeBit technology show in Hanover, the Microsoft boss described how the software maker is collaborating with German nuclear power provider Yello Strom. Yello Strom’s managing director Martin Vesper demonstrated a “Yello-saving counter” - a Vista widget that lets consumers monitor their home power via a PC.
Ballmer explained PCs and other technology still consume far too much electricity. He said: “The lowering of energy consumption is as important for us as new uses of software and IT for the environment.”
And a great deal of this is due to the requirements that are needed to run Vista in the first place. Throwing a can of paint on Vista will not make it green.
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Author: Dave Lewis
February 27, 2008 at 8:01 am · Filed under Vendor News, Virtual
With a headline like that you can’t help but, to shake your head.
From Electronics Talk:
The Padded Cell Secure Hypervisor and its EAL6+ compliant security policies enable breakthroughs for many of the world’s long unresolved security problems
Green Hills Software has released the world’s first secure hypervisor. The Padded Cell Secure Hypervisor supports the widest range of computing platforms, from embedded devices to enterprise desktop and server systems. It runs on top of Green Hills Software’s Integrity separation kernel. ‘Many people believe that hypervisors are the solution to security problems’.
‘But existing hypervisors actually make security problems worse by providing another avenue for attack’, said Dan O’Dowd, founder and Chief Executive Officer, Green Hills Software.
‘Everybody has become accustomed to the fail-first, patch-later mentality adopted by the world’s largest software organisations and products’.
‘The fact is that it is possible to build totally secure, hacker-proof software upon which critical computing assets and resources can depend’.
‘Our introduction of Padded Cell Secure Hypervisor continues to demonstrate this by pushing the envelope of applications that can benefit from our proven approach to safety, security and reliability’.
You know, I wish them well in this endeavour. I really do. I just can’t forget the Oracle “unhackable” campaign or Microsoft’s “more secure than the popemobile” billboards when Windows 2000 came out. It’s like they’re taunting the hackers. And, they will invariably rise to the challenge and smite them.
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Tags: Virtualization, Hypervisor, Hacker, Hacker Proof
Author: Dave Lewis
February 26, 2008 at 7:27 am · Filed under Crypto, Vendor News
In a bid to flush out its offerings the folks at Trend Mirco picked up a UK based crypto provider. The company, Identum, will be used to complimetn their “software-as-a-service” offerings.
From Tech World:
Identum’s Private Post desktop and gateway server products will be integrated into Trend’s existing line of products and rebranded “Identum as Trend Micro.”
The Identum server software, which will automatically encrypt messages depending on the user’s corporate security policy, can be used alongside existing email and compliance products. It gives Trend a way to add email encryption to its InterScan Messaging Hosted Security product line.
Article Link
Tags: Trend Micro, Identum, Encryption
Author: Dave Lewis
February 3, 2008 at 10:49 pm · Filed under Firewalls, Vendor News
After Cisco (CSCO) picked up Network Translation Inc. back in 1995 it now has, or tried to, quietly release an EOS (end of sale) announcement for its PIX products. Namely,
Q. What products are covered by this end-of-sale (EOS) announcement?
A. This EOS announcement covers all Cisco PIX security appliances, software, accessories, and licenses. Products include Cisco PIX 501, PIX 506E, PIX 515E, PIX 525, and PIX 535 systems and spares; Cisco PIX Software Releases 6.2, 6.3, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, and 8.0; and all accessory items such as power supplies, I/O cards, memory upgrade kits, VPN Accelerator Card Plus (VAC+) cards, and software licenses.
This has not gone unnoticed. The folks from Astaro pounced on the opportunity.
From Network World:
So far, the Linux platform based Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution vendor Astaro, has been the only competitor to address the Cisco PIX end-of-sale notice by announcing its Upgrade Your Cisco PIX trade-in program.
Over 100,000 IT administrators entrust their network with security appliances from Astaro.
The Astaro trade-in program offers Cisco PIX users 20% off the list price on all Astaro hardware, software and maintenance for 3 or 5 year agreements, with the return of a Cisco PIX firewall appliance.
Nice deal. Read on.
Article Link
Astaro Upgrade Offer
Tags: Astaro, PIX EOS, PIX End Of Sale, Astaro PIX Trade In
Author: Dave Lewis
February 1, 2008 at 11:13 am · Filed under Vendor News
The Guardian UK has an analysis piece on the potential Microsoft (MSFT) buyout of Yahoo (YHOO).
From the Guardian:
Microsoft’s $44.6bn (£22.5bn) offer for Yahoo confirms months of speculation that the two companies would join forces to tackle Google’s domination of the online advertising market.
If Yahoo’s board accepts the deal, it would be one of the biggest ever takeovers in the technology or media industries and herald a new and more challenging era for Google.
Yahoo is seen as a more consumer friendly brand than Google, but one that is less technologically efficient and has not been as commercially focused.
Microsoft, meanwhile, has a diverse and ubiquitous range of technologies that have made it a household name, but similarly one that has not been seen as consumer friendly as Yahoo.
This Google fixation is unhealthy. Sure this will put a kink in Google’s style but, for how long? The reason I ponder this question is that there is pattern of buy vs build and Microsoft is drifting away from its roots and core competencies. Rather than thrashing about Microsoft could do themselves a world of good by improving their core products such as Vista and innovating. But that would require some visionary leadership.
How will this takeover, assuming it happens and frankly Yahoo would be nuts to pass on it, affect the email users of Yahoo or conversely Microsoft? Yahoo has a bit of a spotty record here.
At two recent conferences I attended, Microsoft employees were very candid when speaking to me about the lack of solid leadership that has been provided to date by Ballmer. While I have grumped about Microsoft products in the past it is clear that the company is in dire need of new leadership to help them navigate the choppy waters ahead. Sure they have potentially gobbled up a search engine with a 17% market share but, did anyone bring the Pepto?
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Tags: Microsoft Yahoo Buy, Microsoft Yahoo Bid, Microsoft, Yahoo
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