Security Standards

Your source for the latest security standards news.

PCI standards body moves ahead on payment-application cert
Apr. 16, 2008
PCI Security Standards Council releases list of certified payment applications under Payment Application Data Security Standard, while Council general manager Bub Russo describes upcoming standard efforts, and office- ...

Security upgrades may not buy Hannaford full data protection
Apr. 28, 2008
Hannaford Bros.said last week that it expects to spend

PacketHop unveils first commercial release of WLAN mesh standard
May. 01, 2008
PacketHop is releasing a software stack implementing the draft version of the IEEE 802.11s wireless-LAN mesh standard. Implemented by chipmakers and equipment makers, different WLAN devices will be able to find each ...

Judging if a USB download is really worth the security risk
Apr. 23, 2008
Some of the most sensitive digital data in London resides on the servers of the City of London Police--and a great deal of effort goes into making sure that it isn't downloaded onto portable devices and then lost or ...

Risk-management software gains Web, compliance tools
Apr. 22, 2008
Skybox Security Tuesday announced it plans to release an updated version of its Skybox View risk-management software.

Bull crams crypto chips into bootable USB hard disk drive
Apr. 18, 2008
Bull has a gadget for businesses worried about the security of data stored on laptops: a bootable, portable password-protected hard disk drive with an embedded cryptographic processor that protects data if the device is ...

SanDisk warns of USB drive threat
Apr. 11, 2008
SanDisk has warned that IT managers are unaware of the extent to which unsecured flash drives are being brought into their organizations, backing this with a new study of corporate end-users and IT executives.

PCI light glimmers at tunnel's end for retailers
Apr. 09, 2008
Retailers apparently are mixed in how seriously they take the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, which contains some provisions for securing wireless data along with other mandates. While some retailers are ...

Payment Card Industry (PCI) update
Feb. 14, 2008
Credit card losses to fraud adds up to about $3 Billion per year, depending on who you ask. So we can understand the concern on the part of financial service companies and the need for the Payment Card Industry Data ...

NIST publishes list of approved products and vendors
Jan. 30, 2008
Last issue I talked about some recent updates to existing products. Today we look at another announcement: The National Institute of Standards and Technology has established the NIST Personal Identity Verification ...

10 security threats to watch for
Apr. 09, 2008
From virtual server exploitation to compromised Web sites and mobile Web browsers, a list to 10 security threats to be on the lookout for.

NAC standards a slow work in progress
Apr. 03, 2008
Standards for NAC are still wending their way through the IETF, but don't hold your breath because they're not doing so at blinding speed, which is not surprising based on the history of how standards make their way ...

Best practices: Review shows switches complying for secure management
Mar. 24, 2008
In assessing switch management and security, we sought to answer three questions: Did devices follow current best practices by default? Could users configure switches to follow these best practices? And could switches ...

State agency moves to plug USB flash drive security gap
Mar. 17, 2008
Security officials are issuing USB flash drives to workers in the state of Washington's Division of Child Support as part of a new security procedure established to eliminate the use of non-approved thumb drives by ...

Why won't Microsoft commit to identity management standards?
Mar. 12, 2008
In January, I commented that Bill Gates had never warmed up to identity issues and judging by his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show, he never will. In the last newsletter, I talked about Microsoft's ...

Feds: We will meet June IPv6 deadline
Apr. 02, 2008
U.S. federal government officials are confident they will meet a June 30 deadline to support IPv6 on their backbone networks, but they see challenges ahead in transitioning their production networks to this long- ...

Whether you like it or not, politics and technology are inseparable
Mar. 27, 2008
A potential thin wedge of censorship shows that politics and censorship are intertwined and inseparable.

7 secure USB drives
Mar. 04, 2008
USB flash drives are very small, very portable, very convenient -- and very easy to lose. In fact, the question to ask these days isn't how to avoid losing your flash drive, but how to make sure your data is safe when ...

Google to manage health records for Cleveland Clinic
Feb. 21, 2008
Google will test a new online medical record service with a hospital group in Cleveland allowing patients to control who gets to see their health information. The two organizations hope the trial will lead to the ...

Privacy group sounds alarms over health records systems
Feb. 21, 2008
In some cases, people whose healthcare information is stored in online personal health records (PHR) systems may be exposed to serious data privacy risks, according to a warning issued by a privacy advocacy group.

A big step for Juniper's NAC
Jan. 29, 2008
If Juniper announces its own switches today as expected, it could mean a big step for its NAC program, which Juniper calls Unified Access Control.

Cisco launches faster firewall/VPN appliance
Jan. 22, 2008
Cisco is coming out with a new high-end firewall/VPN device for large businesses that is part of the company's ASA line of security appliances.

Yahoo tests support for OpenID
Jan. 09, 2008
Yahoo appears close to implementing OpenID, a Web authentication standard that relieves people of the need to remember multiple passwords to log into different Web sites.

Group defines cyberattack prevention rules for nation's power grid
Jan. 17, 2008
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, D.C., today approved eight Critical Infrastructure Protection standards for the physical- and cybersecurity of the electric-power grid, in spite of concerns from ...

New payment application security standard on deck
Nov. 07, 2007
The PCI Standards Council announces it will establish a new standard and certification program for payment-application software