Stories by Ellen Messmer

GM to standardise on collaboration tool

General Motors has long used collaboration tools and services to set up online meetings and share business data related to vehicle sales, legal and buyer financing issues and vehicle design around the world. Now GM is seeking to standardise on a single collaboration package with appropriate security controls that GM will use on the Internet with suppliers as well as internal employees.

Startup focuses on anomalies

Startup System Detection next week will make its debut with software the company says stands apart through its use of analytics for defining and categorising threats and attacks coming from the internet and inside the corporate LAN.

Bear Stearns is bullish on VoIP

At the New York City headquarters of investment firm Bear Stearns & Co, the murmur of hundreds of traders in stocks and bonds can be heard, hunkered down behind their space-age, flat-screen computers and telecom consoles called turrets.

Auto industry portal kicks into high gear

The Big Three automakers are finally ready to make Covisint, the business-to-business web portal they founded three years ago to reach suppliers, the central engine in their e-commerce and messaging systems.

Watching the shop

The idea of turning to an outside firm to manage your firewall, VPN, intrusion-detection system or vulnerability assessment still raises a few eyebrows. But outsourcing security has become a popular step, either as a way to hold down costs or because it's difficult to hire security professionals for round-the-clock monitoring and management.

UK keen on wireless LAN hot spots

The future of wireless is a topic of major concern to the British government, which would like to coordinate with the United States as much as possible in terms of technologies, standards and regulation, says an official from the British consulate, which had its own booth at NetWorld+Interop 2003.

Slapper worm slowly spreading

The Slapper worm identified late last week is slowly but surely infecting thousands of vulnerable Linux Apache Web servers across the Internet, according to security firms monitoring its progress.

Experts warn of error in 'Secure Shell' protocol

Security experts are advising Linux and Unix software users to apply an update for the OpenSSH protocol since this "Secure Shell" protocol for remote administration of software has been found to have a programming error that would let a local authorized user gain superuser root privileges.

NA to sell off some PGP tools, dissolve unit

Network Associates Inc. has dissolved its PGP Security business unit and plans to sell off the division's gateway firewall and encryption products. PGP's other technologies, including the CyberCop vulnerability assessment tool, PGP VPN, PGP E-Business Server, and PGPfire will be branded and sold as McAfee tools.

Sircam virus eludes Symantec anti-virus scanning update

The Sircam computer virus eluded Symantec Corp.'s corporate and consumer Norton Anti-Virus products, because the first software update Symantec created to combat Sircam failed to detect the virus through e-mail scanning at the gateway and desktop.

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