Category: Product

The portfolio, rolling out this week, is the latest addition to its Adaptive Enterprise strategy. Todd DeLaughter, vice president and general manager of HP’s Management Software organization, said the suite will integrate with the outfit’s OpenView management platform. The idea is to help CIOs link business and IT for real-time management, a key ingredient for HP’s Adaptive Enterprise play, the executive said.

In the Business Management sector, HP OpenView Business Process Insight is software that monitors business processes and their relationships to the applications, and IT resources on which they depend, DeLaughter told internetnews.com.

Infrastructure Management watches over servers, storage, networking, PCs, printing and imaging and utility-based resources.

HP has long offered management products and services under its OpenView platform, but the Palo Alto, Calif., systems vendor has shifted its focus to help CIOs drive out complexity in environments with disparate products, as well as the cost associated with managing those zones. But HP has also struggled to define Adaptive Enterprise — its version of utility, on-demand computing or real-time computing — in a market populated by IBM, Computer Associates, Sun Microsystems and VERITAS Software.

More info: http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3367461

Primary Response 2.2 is software you install on Windows NT, 2000, 2003, or Solaris servers. It “immunizes” your servers against undefined intrusions, the way the human body defends itself against biological viruses it’s never seen before, according to its developer, Sana Security.

The basic security features of Primary Response 2.1, the software’s previous version, have just been certified by ICSA Labs, an independent testing firm, according to a lab spokesperson. This is the first such certification given to a new kind of program known as host-based intrusion prevention systems or HIPS, according to Dr. Steven Hofmeyr, Sana’s founder and chief scientist.

A NIPS solution is typically a hardware appliance that’s plugged in between a company’s servers and the Internet. Such devices monitor network traffic and protect the servers from inappropriate packets, such as hacker attacks. NIPS, however, cannot protect applications that are running on individual PCs or defend against the behavior of insiders, which most intrusions are.

Host-based intrusion prevention systems, such as Primary Response, install on each server that you wish to protect. Installing a HIPS solution, unfortunately, doesn’t eliminate the need for companies to also purchase NIPS and client-based security software.

But corporations can save big bucks with HIPS by installing Microsoft patches only once every calendar quarter, instead of once a month or more, Hofmeyr says.

A Primary Response 2.2 installation consists of at least one “management server,” which lists for $6,500, and one “agent” per server you wish to protect.

More info: http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/columns/executive_tech/article.php/3364491

SecurID is one of the most popular two-factor authentication systems and is already used by many large enterprises. The token is about the size of a matchbox and generates a new six-digit code every minute. Users are given an easy-to-remember PIN number to type in alongside the code displayed on the token.

With an integrated SecurID system within Windows, enterprises should find easier and cheaper to ensure users do not use weak passwords or forget them.

George Anderson, IT security business development manager at services firm Computacenter, which is one of the participants in the beta trial, said the SecurID and Windows combination is a welcome relief. “We recognise that password-only security has for some time been inadequate for truly protecting Windows workstations,” Anderson said.

The beta test programme is being rolled out to a small number of companies and is expected to last around a month.

RSA Security expects the full commercial version to be available in shortly after the trial ends. Jason Lewis, vice president of product management at RSA Security, said the technology complements RSA’s core business, which is to authenticate remote users. “We’ve been traditionally focused on security issues outside the firewall and although securing remote access is critical, the RSA SecurID for Microsoft Windows solution addresses a real threat to exposing an organisation’s sensitive data within the enterprise,” said Lewis.

The integration of SecurID and Windows was first announced at the RSA Security conference in San Francisco earlier this year. At the time, Microsoft’s chairman Bill Gates said the development signalled the death of the traditional password.

More info: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,39020351,39156548,00.htm

According to Hoe, the Firewall Services Module 2.2 can be deployed and configured through any of three Cisco management consoles so that network managers can establish “logical firewalls” between Catalyst switching points, each with its own policy and rules.

The PIX Device Manager v.40 would only support a single Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Firewall Services Module.

Firewall controls can be set based on IP address, protocols, and network access control lists, Hoe said. The Firewall Services Module is wholly separate from the module for IPSec VPN, which is also available for the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series switches, as are modules for intrusion detection.

In addition, Cisco also announced what amounts to a re-branding of the Riverhead Networks equipment, Guard and Detector, which Cisco gained in its acquisition of Riverhead this March for $39 million. Guard and Detector are used to monitor traffic flows and combat distributed denial-of-service (DoS) attacks that can flood networks with unneeded traffic so that legitimate traffic is obstructed.

The Cisco Guard XT 5650 is a network appliance that compares traffic flows to profiles of normal traffic patterns, behavior and protocol compliance, among other features, and can be used to block attacks. The Cisco Traffic Anomaly Detector XT 5600 is used to identity a broad range of distributed DoS attacks and automate activation of the Cisco Guard XT 5650.

More info: http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/0602cisco.html

As expected, Ballmer’s opening keynote included several references to security as the software giant’s “number one priority” and the announcement of Web Services Enhancements (WSE) 2.0, a security-centric tool upgrade that uses the latest Web services protocol specs.

The issues you are having [with malicious hackers] are unacceptable,” Ballmer declared. “Unfortunately, there is no easy way to deal with it. There is no way to snap our fingers and make it all go away but I want to make it clear that, from top to bottom, security is the number one priority.”

In the midst of Ballmer’s assurances, Redmond released a complete overview of the features of the Internet Security and Acceleration Server (ISA) 2004 which will feature support for unlimited multiple networks and enhanced VPN filtering. ISA Server 2004, which comes in two editions — Standard and Enterprise — is a combination application layer firewall, virtual personal network (VPN) and Web caching repository. The ISA Server upgrade, which powers the filtering and inspection of all VPN traffic, has also been tweaked to offer VPN client inspection for Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based quarantine services. When installed on a system running Windows Server 2003, Microsoft said the ISA Server 2004 would offer the ability to create custom firewall user groups, extensive protocol support and improved support for FTP upload/ download policy and Web publishing.

A Secure Server Publishing feature can also be used to help protect Web servers, e-mail servers, and e-commerce applications from external attacks, Microsoft said.

More info: http://internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3358481

The deal will improve Brightmail’s position, although the prospect of Microsoft entering the anti-spam market is still a significant threat. The deal has long been expected, despite the fact that Brightmail filed its IPO documents just a few weeks ago.

The companies have had a close relationship since July 2000. Symantec owns 11 per cent of Brightmail already, and has a seat on the board.

In the year ending 31 January, 2004, Brightmail made about 20 per cent of its $26m revenue from an anti-virus add-on it offered using Symantec’s software.

Enrique Salem, Brightmail’s CEO, said the deal presents synergies without excessive crossover. “Symantec has the market-leading anti-spam software for consumers, and we have the market-leading product at the gateway,” he said. He also said that Brightmail’s OEM partners, which include IronPort Systems and Borderware Technologies, are safe following the deal.

Andrew Lochart, VP of product marketing at BMS rival Postini, was surprisingly positive about the news. “It eliminates one of the leading independent private companies from the market, which means the other companies, like Postini, all move up a notch,” he said. Mr Lochart also said the firm has rarely seen Symantec in competitive situations in the past. It also gives Postini, which has its sights set on an IPO too, a benchmark by which it could judge its own value.

Brightmail is probably a lot safer inside Symantec, which continues to grow and generate cash rapidly on the back of its consumer antivirus business, than it would have been alone, but both firms see Microsoft as a looming threat.

Microsoft is Brightmail’s biggest customer, bringing in more than 10 per cent of its revenue, but is expected to build its own anti-spam software. It is also expected, at some point, to offer its own flavor of antivirus software, competing with Symantec.

More info: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/21/brightmail_finds_sanctuary/