Security

Wed, May 27, 2009 - For our scenario-based test of the Astaro, SonicWall, WatchGuard, and ZyXel UTMs, we simulated a representative corporation with 200 branch offices all connecting back to headquarters for various services. Unlike previous firewall tests, we tested all three major firewall functions -- Internet services, secure remote access, and malware blocking -- simultaneously, in order to better represent the workloads these devices face when deployed in the real world.

Wed, May 27, 2009 - In the beginning was the firewall, and it was pretty good. A big box of rules that sat between your network and the evils of the Internet, the firewall examined ports and protocols to decide which packets got in and which were barred at the door. Then things got, as things often do, complicated. New threats came sneaking in on trusted protocols, ports and protocols became tangled, and looking inside packets became just as important as noting their source, destination, and type.

Thu, May 14, 2009 - It is the rare environment that has only one vendor's product. The dream of integrated network access control (NAC) is that network managers will be able to pick and choose best-of-breed components from different vendors to make a complete solution. It's a dream that started with Cisco and Microsoft, and now rests on standards from the Trusted Computing Group. Today, most NAC solutions are interoperable with Cisco or Microsoft technology.

Mon, April 27, 2009 - The great thing about today's nearly universal connectivity is how easy it is to share information, pictures and other material with your business associates, friends and family. The bad thing about it is how easy it is for strangers to get access to your data. This is especially true when we carry so much on our USB flash drives, DVDs, laptops and other portable media. SafeHouse Explorer (free) can secure your data on all media, protecting it from unwanted prying eyes.

Fri, January 30, 2009 - Apple's Safari, which runs on the Windows platform, OS X, and on iPhone and iPod Touch devices in a mobile edition, leads the browser pack in anti-phishing filtering and pop-up blocking, but also has many security weaknesses.

Tue, May 22, 2007 - Password overload got you down? Looking for relief without resorting to Post-it notes? Mandylion Labs’ über password manager promises a simple, secure method to manage password proliferation, and the gizmo can generate passwords based on administrator-specified schemas. The U.S. Defense Department has deemed the token secure enough for use in its facilities, but it’s not for everyone. We’ll tell you why.

Thu, April 26, 2007 - CIO compares four of the hottest smartphones available, from the perspective of four experienced IT executives. This is not another "which phone is the coolest" review; rather, we tell you which mobile devices work best for business users and which are most suited for enterprise deployment.