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ayJanuary/February 2005

Kavado goes defiant

Web application security

supplier Kavado has

launched a threat management

system designed for large-

scale, distributed deployment

of web applications and serv-

ices.

Branded ‘Defiance TMS’, the

product is made up of a web

application level intrusion de-

tection system, an intrusion pre-

vention system, a centralized

repository of logs, and a con-

sole enabling unified adminis-

tration, management, reporting,

and forensics.

"Web application security

and web services security has

been brought to the present

with this", said Vikram Desai,

chief executive officer. "Frankly

it had been stuck around 2001".

"Very large customers are

adopting this very swiftly," he

said. "We saw that at the end of

2004 and right now".

"They had been aware that

web application security was

an issue for them, but they did

not have a way of deploying a

defence that was manageable

within their own enterprise.

"It's been a technology per-

spective that's been predomi-

nant in the past. Customers

have been scanning code and

then filling in the holes, but all

of that takes too long to make

business sense", he said.

Defiance TMS is available for

trial, and pricing starts at

$52,980.

News In Brief

Oracle patch up-date

The first quarterly release

of Oracle's Critical Patch

Update was made public in

mid-January.

Oracle announced in

November that all patches

would be released simultane-

ously, four times a year, after

customer complained that the

sporadic release of patches

when they were ready was

too confusing.

SSH goes for IBM mainframe

News In Brief

Spy virus creatorcaptured

The creator of a virus

which infected webcams

and allowed secret recordings,

has been arrested in Spain.

Information gained from the

webcam recordings allowed

the author access to bank ac-

counts as well as spy on vic-

tims.The virus is thought to

have spread through peer-to-

peer file sharing sites. No oth-

er information has yet been

released.

Carnivore de-voured by com-mercial rivals

The FBI's custom built sur-

veillance ware, known as

Carnivore, has been replaced

by a commercial product.

Developed to read online

communications between sus-

pected terrorists and spies,

the system was first used in

2000, but barely used since.

The FBI has not divulged

which commercial products it

is using instead.

Microsoft claims50% of UK usersare infected

After talking to 1500 of

their British customers,

Microsoft has announced that

44% have had a virus on their

PC in the last year.Despite this,

some 20% say that security

doesn't bother them at all —

and 51% of the people sur-

veyed are most worried about

losing an email.

Weblogs, one of the most

popular ways for people

to share their thoughts and

opinions on the internet has

been plagued by spam.The re-

sult? Increasing segregation of

the internet and the help of

Google to resolve it.

More and more people are

only accepting mail from peo-

ple they know in an attempt to

cease the flow of spam.

Accordingly, spammers have

started posting on weblogs,

bringing the page to the top of

Google's PageRank system by

entirely duplicitous means.

Google have hit back, by ac-

cepting that a link that regular-

ly features on blogs will re-

move the page from the sys-

tem, meaning that spammers

are once again frustrated.

While this means less spam

and more accurate searching, it

also means that once again,dif-

ferent opinions and views will

be harder to find, and the inter-

net will seem just like an easy

way to contact people who you

already know and support what

you already think.

Google aids web cliques

Finnish security vendor SSH

has targeted the IBM zOS

mainframe operating system,

with a version of its Tectia se-

curity middleware suite.

The company says this will

enable banks and large finan-

cial institutions to benefit

from SSH secure shell tech-

nology and managed security

middleware for secure file

transfer.

Timo Rinne, the supplier's

chief technology officer said

"our big financial sector cus-

tomers have signalled a need

for a single security solution

that goes from the Windows

desktop to the Z-series main-

frame.

"IBM has ported the open

source secure shell to the

zSeries, however it is not a

supported product in any spe-

cific way.”

Asked to comment on the

industry significance of the

product, Rinne said: "this is an

opening for a system where

you can apply the same secu-

rity policy through a hetero-

geneous system — from

Windows desktops and

servers through Unix servers

to mainframes.

"Mainframes are sold more

and more every year", he

added. "It is nothing new but,

it is a factor constantly adding

heterogeneity to IT environ-

ments".

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