Reactions positive on federal cybersecurity chief, but privacy a concern

Reactions positive on federal cybersecurity chief, but privacy a concern

Positive reactions from the security industry are coming in response to President Obama’s decision to set up a high-level cybersecurity coordinator within the federal government.

Obama said the coordinator — pointedly not named czar, which sounds dictatorial — would lead an effort to beef up both… Continue Reading

Symantec snaps up Mi5 to grow its small business protections

Symantec announced that it has bought web security firm Mi5 Networks to expand its portfolio of security software tailored to small businesses. With the Sunnyvale, Calif. company’s technology, the corporation plans to strengthen its abilities to analyze all of the web traffic entering and exiting… Continue Reading

DEMO: Symantec launches Project Guru for family tech support

DEMO: Symantec launches Project Guru for family tech support

Everyone seems to have a “go to” geek among their extended family or group of friends — someone who handles all their tech problems for them. But that go-to geek doesn’t necessarily live close enough to drop in whenever there’s a problem. Symantec’s new “Project… Continue Reading

Will Symantec’s CEO repeat his success with our economy?

Will Symantec’s CEO repeat his success with our economy?

Symantec chief executive John Thompson is widely reported to be President Barack Obama’s top choice for Secretary of Commerce, the only remaining spot on Obama’s cabinet. Thompson seems like a solid choice, and not just because he was an early and vocal Obama supporter —… Continue Reading

Roundup: RPX takes on patent trolls, Facebook revamping Marketplace, and more

Roundup: RPX takes on patent trolls, Facebook revamping Marketplace, and more

Here’s the latest action:

RPX Corp takes on patent trolls — The company is buying patents to keep them from so-called “troll” companies that use patents for lawsuits or to collect licensing payments. Companies that pay a fixed yearly fee to RPX get licenses it holds; RPX… Continue Reading

Black Hat: Typosquatting the presidential election web sites

Black Hat: Typosquatting the presidential election web sites

Bad hackers haven’t caused much damage this year during the online-heavy presidential campaign. But the potential is there. Consider “typosquatting.”

There are about 160 different ways to type in the wrong web site for www.barackobama.com. Oliver Friedrichs, former director of research at Symantec, knows this because… Continue Reading

Roundup: A longtime Yahoo employee leaves, speculation that Loopt beat out Whrrl for WWDC keynote position and more

Roundup: A longtime Yahoo employee leaves, speculation that Loopt beat out Whrrl for WWDC keynote position and more

Here’s the latest action:

Another long time Yahoo employee departs — Jeremy Zawodny, a programmer who had been with the company since 1999, is moving on to a unnamed smaller company. Zawodny helped launch the Yahoo Developer Network and worked on several internal projects for the company…. Continue Reading

Vontu’s $350M win shows how patience, focus pays off

Vontu’s $350M win shows how patience, focus pays off

If you’re an entrepreneur, you may want to avoid the Web 2.0 area, which is littered now with unpromising me-too ideas. You may want to consider something less sexy — data security, for example.

Vontu, a six-year-old Silicon Valley (Cupertino, Calif.) company which makes software to… Continue Reading