Privacy and data protection

Encryption provider BitArmor on Thursday said it would offer a money-back guarantee to customers whose data is breached, but didn't go so far as to offer to pay for any losses incurred from the breach.

"Our ability to protect data exceeds what anyone else is offering in the marketplace," said Patrick McGregor, BitArmor co-founder and chief executive. "If BitArmor data is protected in a way where our controls or protections are breached and the company has to publicly disclose that breach, we will give the money back."

The offer is valid only with the purchase … Read more

Google on Thursday offered administrators of its Premier version of Google Apps more control over the passwords their users choose to access data in Gmail, Docs, and other hosted applications.

Google Apps administrators can now set a minimum password length and will be able to see how strong each user's password remains over time. They can then suggest that users change them if the passwords become weakened. Password strength degrades as the words and names on which they are based become more common and more subject to dictionary attacks.

"Customers were asking for (this) and looking for better … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California -- Symantec is turning to virtualization and cloud computing to protect Web surfers and let them access Web-based applications from one site.

The company demonstrated the technologies, along with another one designed to block malware from getting into corporate networks, to reporters and briefed them on its research and development strategy at an event it dubbed "Innovation Showcase" on Wednesday.

Virtualization technology that essentially creates different machines on the same computer offers a good platform for securing PCs by providing different protected environments, said Joe Pasqua, vice president of research at Symantec Research Labs.

Taking advantage of this trend, … Read more

Antivirus provider AVG Technologies on Tuesday announced that it is acquiring Sana Security, which sells identity fraud prevention software.

Under the deal, whose financial terms were not disclosed, the Redwood City, Calif., headquarters of Sana will serve as Amsterdam-based AVG's first office in Silicon Valley.

Sana's products use behavioral technology to block attackers from stealing sensitive information. The software analyzes normal application behavior and recognizes abnormal behavior caused by malware infections, user configuration errors, and software bugs.

Reports of data breaches in the United States increased 47 percent in 2008 from the year before, mostly as a result of lost or stolen equipment, and accidental exposure of data online, according to a new study from the nonprofit Identity Theft Resource Center.

There were 656 reports of breaches last year, compared with 446 for 2007, and an estimated 35.7 million records were potentially breached based on notification letters and information from breached companies, the study released this week found.

The breaches run the gamut, including: laptops stolen from Merrill Lynch and Starbucks; bank card information stolen from … Read more

There's a scam spreading through Twitter. Direct messages (DMs) are showing up in Twitter accounts with appealing come-ons to visit a site on blogspot.com. The text is, "hey! check out this funny blog about you..." The URL in the message then redirects to a page that looks like the Twitter login page, but is actually not on Twitter--it's a site, twitter.access-logins.com, that masquerades as Twitter to steal your login credentials instead.

If you need to log in to Twitter, do it on Twitter.com itself. And to play it safe, double-check your browser … Read more

In spite of the global economic recession, information security will continue to be a dominant IT priority in 2009. Why? There are simply too many threats and vulnerabilities creating a perpetual increase in IT risk.

With that, here is my top-10 list (in no particular order) of technologies and trends to watch for in the new year:

1. The evolving definition of endpoint security: Some analysts have declared that, antivirus software is dead. I disagree and submit that endpoint security is simply evolving as a function of the changing threat landscape. This is the primary reason why Sophos (a legacy antivirus company) bought Utimaco (… Read more

Check Point Software Technologies announced Monday it plans to acquire the security appliance business of cell phone giant Nokia.

With the acquisition, the security software maker plans to use Nokia's security appliance business to broaden its footprint in the security appliance market.

Check Point, which is predominately known for its security firewall business, has branched out into the security appliance business over the past five years, beginning with its VPN-1 Edge device.

Nokia's security appliance business currently serves 23,000 customers throughout the world and is already designed to work with Check Point's firewall, virtual private network (… Read more

Chinese networking vendor Huawei Technologies has slammed as "ludicrous and inaccurate" claims that it had links to the Chinese military and government that could cause security problems for the National Broadband Network.

The Australian newspaper reported on Thursday that security agencies would "closely examine" any Huawei involvement in Optus' bid to build the National Broadband Network due to international concerns about the company's links with Chinese authorities.

But in a statement released Thursday afternoon under the name of its vice director of public relations for the Asia-Pacific region, Thong Poh Wah, Huawei denied the claims. … Read more