NetFlash: Hospitals’ patch fears on the wane

Last year, medical device manufacturers were telling hospitals that they couldn’t patch their off-the-shelf software in a timely fashion because of a lengthy approval process required by the FDA. Network World’s investigation last year revealed that this was a myth – one that left hospitals’ systems open to all sorts of malware. Since then the FDA has issued new guidelines on patching software, and those guidelines have transformed an industry. Hospitals’ patch fears on the wane http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/112805-medical-security.html?net&story=112805-medical-security

Last year, medical device manufacturers were telling hospitals that they couldn’t patch their off-the-shelf software in a timely fashion because of a lengthy approval process required by the FDA. Network World’s investigation last year revealed that this was a myth – one that left hospitals’ systems open to all sorts of malware. Since then the FDA has issued new guidelines on patching software, and those guidelines have transformed an industry.

Hospitals’ patch fears on the wane

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/112805-medical-security.html?net&story=112805-medical-security

Northrop Grumman to deliver $51 million IP conferencing net for DoD

The U.S. Department of Defense is upgrading to a videoconferencing network, and Northrop Grumman is leading the charge, with equipment from Cisco and Radvision, services from AT&T and technology from other companies.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/112805-northrop-grumman.html?net&story=112805-northrop

Sober variant on rise, security firm warns

The latest variant of the Sober worm is aiming for the top virus of the year spot. As of Monday morning, a staggering one in 14 e-mails circulated on the Internet contains the Sober worm, according to the anti-virus vendor Sophos.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/112805-sober-worm.html?net&story=112805-sober-worm

Sun urges Massachusetts to reject Open XML

Sun Monday urged a Massachusetts state official to rethink an opinion that Microsoft’s Open XML meets the state’s parameters for an acceptable open document format just because it has been submitted as an open standard.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/112805-sun-open-xml.html?net&story=112805-sun-open

Q&A: McAfee president discusses what is driving the future of security

McAfee is perhaps still best known as a force in anti-virus tools, but the company’s offerings today range from anti-spam to host intrusion prevention. Network World Editor-in-Chief John Dix recently caught up with McAfee President Gene Hodges for a company update and his view of how security is evolving.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/112305-mcafee-gene-hodges.html?net&story=112305-mcafee

Today on Layer 8, currently considering a name change to “AT&T”:

New Firefox due today; rabbi urges families to dump the ‘Net; Japanese man nabbed for posting fake news story; and where to point your Mom when she keeps sending you all those ‘Net rumor e-mails; all this today and more at your home for not-just-networking news.

http://www.networkworld.com/weblogs/layer8/?net&story=layer8