Security

Wed, September 01, 2010 - The combination of free open source and virtual machines is hard to beat; here are some of the handiest virtual appliances you'll find.

Wed, July 28, 2010 - Just a few short years ago, all a PC needed for protection was a basic antivirus program to guard against any malware that arrived via an e-mail attachment, embedded in a shareware application or piggy-backed on a floppy disk.

Sun, June 20, 2010 - Despite the fact that network access control hasn't yet lived up to its initial promise, NAC is very much alive, as evidenced by the fact that 12 vendors participated in our NAC test, including industry leaders Microsoft, HP, Juniper, McAfee, Symantec and Alcatel-Lucent.

Mon, May 24, 2010 - As the most important supplier of network infrastructure to enterprises, Cisco's NAC products are a natural point of curiosity for network managers. Unfortunately, though, Cisco's approach to NAC has been riddled with in-fighting, false starts, delayed product releases, and a good dose of chaos and confusion.

Mon, March 08, 2010 - We tested Whale Communications' SSL VPN back in 2003 and the product didn't fare very well. Microsoft bought Whale in 2006, jettisoned some of the strange idiosyncracies of the product, dramatically simplified management, and subsequently integrated several Vista and Windows 7 technologies.

Mon, February 22, 2010 - The VirusTotal.com Web site offers a free but invaluable security service. It will scan any Web download, e-mail attachment or other file you send it with 40-odd different antivirus scanners to let you know whether it's safe for your computer. The free VirusTotal Uploader utility makes sending a file to the site a breeze by adding a new right-click option for any file.

Tue, February 09, 2010 - Laptop computers have become mobile stores of massive amounts of information. Add to that the proliferation of removable hard drives, and it becomes crystal clear how much sensitive data is on the move in the world, most of it woefully underprotected.

Mon, January 04, 2010 - In the endless debates about Mac security--is the Mac platform inherently safer than Windows? what security measures should Mac users take?--one point is often overlooked: The biggest chink in computer security isn't necessarily in the computer itself. Rather, the weak spot is often the computer operator--in other words, you.

Sat, December 19, 2009 - The FireFound add-on for the Firefox browser adds tracking and remote wipe features that can help with lost or stolen computers.

Wed, November 04, 2009 - Remarkably good solutions from Bit9, CoreTrace, Lumension, McAfee, and SignaCert show that whitelisting may be the new best defense against modern malware