scansafe

Cisco to buy cloud security firm for $183 million

Cisco Systems said Tuesday it plans to buy privately held Web-based security software company ScanSafe for about $183 million.

The all-cash deal, which also includes retention-based incentives, is expected to close in Cisco's fiscal second quarter, which ends in January 2010.

ScanSafe is a cloud-based software service that allows customers to license the application on demand. Cloud-based services help customers save on costs, because they don't have to buy licenses to software and manage the software applications themselves.

The ScanSafe technology will help Cisco expand on capabilities it added when it bought IronPort in 2007, the company said. … Read more

Experts: Gumblar attack is alive, worse than Conficker

Updated May 29 at 11:25 a.m. PDT with more details, quotes throughout.

Gumblar, a new attack that compromises Web sites, has added new domain names that are downloading malware onto unsuspecting computers, stealing FTP credentials to compromise more sites, and tampering with Web traffic, a security firm said on Thursday.

The Gumblar attack started in March with Web sites being compromised and attack code hidden on them. The malware downloaded onto those sites came from the gumblar.cn domain, a Chinese domain associated with Russian and Latvian IP addresses that were delivering code from servers in the U.… Read more

Daily Tidbits: TomTom takes aim at Google Maps

GPS vendor TomTom announced Thursday that it has launched an online mapping solution to compete with MapQuest and Google Maps. Dubbed TomTom Route Planner, the free service provides door-to-door route planning options to any address in the U.S. or Canada.

Using TomTom's MapShare technology, the service provides users with continued map improvements made by TomTom users that see flaws and correct them. According to the company, improvements are uploaded regularly to provide up-to-date driving conditions. TomTom's IQ Routes feature will offer more accurate arrival estimates by accessing average speeds for each road instead of employing posted speed … Read more