RSA 2010: Howard Schmidt Lays Out U.S. Security

The nation’s new cybersecurity czar in a Town Hall meeting session here today mapped out his top priorities in the post and provided a glimpse at how the Obama administration may handle security issues with other countries. National cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt also announced that the...

What If Bill Gates Never Wrote the Trustworthy Computing Memo?

The security industry has undergone massive changes in the last 15 years, and in some cases it’s hard to imagine what things would be like had these events not taken place. Think of a world in which Google focuses on security and privacy and Microsoft never started Trustworthy Computing, and you...

An Interview With Howard Schmidt

Howard Schmidt has been involved in just about every aspect of the security industry during his career. After stints in the Air Force and at Microsoft, he served as a cybersecurity adviser to George W. Bush. Now, after heading back to the private sector for several years, he’s been appointed to...

Following the Malware Supply Chain

While many outside of the security industry still perceive “hackers” as teenagers or isolated geeks who work alone, a recent research report encourages the general public to see malware as a cooperative industry that supports specialists, economies, and supply chains. Read the full article. Dark...

Chris Wysopal, Veracode

Chris was one of the first security researchers I met, in 2000, when he and the rest of the L0pht had just become part of @stake. I’ve probably interviewed him more often than anyone else on this list and he’s helped me with dozens of stories over the years. He always had five minutes to explain...

Dan Geer, In-Q-Tel

Anyone who has ever had a single conversation with Dan, or even seen him speak, will understand immediately why he’s on this list. Dan’s as smart as they come he has a Ph.D. in biostatistics! and his widely varied background gives him a truly unique perspective on security issues. His talks and...

By Dennis Fisher

It occurred to me recently that I’ve been covering the security industry for just about 10 years. That’s a long time to be doing anything, and especially to be writing about one topic. But it’s hard to think of something that would have been much more interesting to cover this decade, given the...

The Big Oil APT and Botnet Business

The recent Google Advanced Persistent Threat APT dialogue has been hogging the press for a week now, and each day reveals new and often conflicting insight. As I mentioned on Thursdays blog – “Preemptive Protection” Isn’t – If You’re Battling APT’s – this particular attack doesn’t represent some...

The All-Decade Interview Team

It occurred to me recently that I’ve been covering the security industry for just about 10 years. That’s a long time to be doing anything, and especially to be writing about one topic. But it’s hard to think of something that would have been much more interesting to cover this decade, given the...

Q&A: Ed Bellis on Web-based Business and Software Security

Dennis Fisher: Okay, welcome back to this CSO series podcast, also known as Real World Security. My guest today is Ed Bellis, the CISO of Orbitz Worldwide, one the top travel sites in the world. Ed’s got a pretty broad range of experience in the technology industry, having worked as a web archite...

Companies Unwilling to Disclose Financial Loss

Malware attacks and infections are up 50 percent from 2008 and losses are down, according to a Computer Security Institute report, but the industry organization says very few companies are willing to disclose dollar amounts. Read the full article. Security Focus...

Radiant Systems Sued By Companies Affected by Hack

Seven restaurants in Louisiana and Mississippi, have filed a class-action suit against Georgia-based Radiant Systems for producing a point-of-sale POS system that they say was not compliant with payment card industry security standards and resulted in an undetermined number of customers having...

The Debate Over Naming Botnets

The security industry lacks a uniform way to title botnets, and the result is sometimes a long list of names for the same botnet that are used by different antivirus vendors and that can be confusing to customers. As it stands now, the infamous Conficker is also known as Downup, Downadup and Kido...

SSL Flaw Has Researchers Hustling to Fix

A flaw in the SSL protocol that could affect company networks, hosting environments and key machines has security researchers scrambling. The flaw, which requires a hack in to a network to launch, has devastating consequences and implications on database and mail servers. Discovered in August by...

Online Privacy: Industry Self-Regulation

This Google TechTalk features Aleecia McDonald of Carnegie Mellon University discussing how we arrived at the current state of online privacy and how self-regulation works in practice...

Apathy Creeps In as Cybersecurity Czar Search Drags On

It’s been five months since President Obama announced his plan to appoint a cybersecurity coordinator, and his failure to fill the position has created something worse than anger: apathy. Immediately following the announcement in May, there was tremendous optimism in the security industry and in...

Oracle Releases Critical Patch Update

Oracle has released its Critical Patch Update for October 2009 to address 38 vulnerabilities across several database and server products. The update contains the following security fixes: 16 for the Oracle Database 3 for the Oracle Application Server 8 for the Oracle E-Business Suite and...

Real World Security – Larry Whiteside Interview

Like every other security executive in the health care industry, Larry Whiteside, CISO of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, spends much of his time dealing with compliance-related issues. But the distributed nature of his user population means that he has sensitive patient data on thousands...

Visa Announces New Data Encryption Practices

Visa has announced new global best practices for data field encryption, also known as end-to-end encryption – a much-discussed solution in the wake of the Heartland Payment Systems breach. Announced by the global credit card company on Monday, these best practices are designed to further the...

Google: Cooperation Needed to Combat Malicious Ads

GENEVA — A more comprehensive and serious level of cooperation among industry leaders is needed to help stop the scourge of malicious Web ads and botnets that result from the infected PCs, a top Google executive said Wednesday. Eric Davis, the head of anti-malvertising at Google, speaking to a...