NetFlash: Net access control: Ready? Or not?

Net access control: Ready? Or not?

Network companies at Interop last week pushed a clear message about how network security should work: Hardware devices identify users at the network port level, provide virus scanning and authentication services, then allow or deny network access based on strict role-based policies. Whether this actually works or when it will be widely available is less clear. Click here for more.

SOA Software buys Blue Titan

SOA Software plans to add messaging and mediation expertise to its service-oriented architecture platform with the acquisition of Blue Titan Software. Click here for more.

Data breach notification law unlikely this year

In the wake of a series of data breaches in early 2005, Congress seemed ready to move quickly on legislation that would require companies to notify customers when their personal information had been compromised. Now more than a year after data breaches at ChoicePoint and LexisNexis set off a national debate about identification theft and data security, time is running out for Congress to pass a law before it finishes business this year. Click here for more.

Head-spinning chip research at UCLA

Bill O’Reilly’s got the No Spin Zone. Engineers at the UCLA have a Nano Spin Zone. Three professors have created nanoscale semiconductors that use “spin-wave buses” as a virtual interconnect. The researchers believe that the creation of these “spin-wave” nano-packets can be used to build a fully interconnected network of processors on a single chip. Click here for details.

Q&A: Sun’s Radia Perlman speaks out on being stuck with IP

Some people refer to Sun Labs distinguished engineer Radia Perlman as the Mother of the Internet and the creator of the spanning tree algorithm used by bridges and switches. Others know her as the author of network textbooks such as Interconnections. Network World even singled her out in March as one of 20 people who changed the industry over the past 20 years. But when I met with her recently at a security event in Boston I wanted to know this: What have you done for us lately? Click here for the full interview.

Haile’s perspective

As the former CIO of Fidelity, former head of IBM’s network business and now venture capitalist, Don Haile has seen the industry from all angles. What does he think tech leaders need to know now? Find out on this week’s Network World Hot Seat. Watch now.

Today on Layer 8, your winner by six-and-a-half furlongs:

Gates: I wish I wasn’t rich; Apple’s odd sales pitch; rock group lays guilt trip to prevent music theft; and the winner of our latest Weekly Caption Contest; all this today and more at your home for not-just-networking news.

For news updated throughout the day, go to Network World’s NetFlash news page.