Check Point adds encryption with Pointsec buy
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Check Point Software Technologies plans to acquire Pointsec Mobile Technologies in an effort to extend its security offering to laptops and other remote access devices. Check Point made the $586 million offer for Protect Data, the owner of Pointsec, on Monday.
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(InfoWorld) - PayPal unveiled a new Security Key on Friday that will add an additional layer of security to user accounts and help prevent online criminals from gaining access to them. The PayPal Security Key is a small electronic token that generates a unique code that can be used in addition to a user name and password when users sign in to their PayPal account.                                                     The company announced the news as part of eBay's week-long Developer Conference in Boston. It provides PayPal customers with so-called "two factor" authentication that makes it harder for online criminals to raid accounts, even if they do trick users into giving up their user name and password using online "phishing" scams, according to Michael Barrett, chief information security officer at PayPal. "This is something that will help the community to be more secure," Barrett told InfoWorld. PayPal and parent company eBay are top targets for online scam artists, who use dummy Web sites in so-called "phishing" attacks that attempt to trick users into revealing their user name and password. Those accounts can then be raided or used to fraudulently purchase goods. The Security Key isn't a silver bullet for phishing attacks, but just one part of a multi-pronged defense by PayPal and eBay, Barrett said. In recent months, the company has begun digitally signing all outbound e-mail messages and putting pressure on ISPs to take action on fraudulent mail that claims to come from both eBay and PayPal. More recently, the companies have been working with two leading ISPs in a beta program to automatically block all non-signed e-mail that claims to come from eBay or PayPal, according to Barrett and eBay CTO Scott Thompson. PayPal has been testing a beta version of the Security Key program in Germany and has already issued tens of thousand of the password tokens to its users. Already, the favorable response from users has been strong. "We never advertised this. It was all by word of mouth, but it's still been extremely popular," Barrett said. Starting Friday, PayPal will begin making the Security Key, which is part of the VIP (VeriSign Identity Protection) Network, available to its U.S. customers for a one-time fee of $5.00. PayPal users in Germany and Australia will also have the option to receive a Security Key, and PayPal plans to add other countries in the near future, according to a PayPal statement. PayPal and eBay began working closely with VeriSign after a deal to buy VeriSign's payment gateway business in October, 2005. PayPal has no plans to charge its customers for the token beyond the initial $5.00, which covers shipping and handling. Nor will the company levy a subscription fee for the two-factor authentication service. "This isn't something we're making money on," Barrett said. That said, PayPal will be paying attention to the number of users who adopt the password token and to the company's rate of fraud in an effort to figure out whether the tokens are worth the cost of the program, he said. Currently, fraudulent transactions amount to around $35.2 million dollars a year, or one third of one percent of PayPal's total global payment volume of $11 billion, Barrett said. Lowering that fraud rate even a little could offset the cost of the program. PayPal is also taking cues from other online financial services firms like eTrade, which launched a program in 2005 to allow all its U.S. account holders to use an RSA SecurID token for two-factor authentication, Barrett said. "eTrade has been pretty bullish about this," he said. "One thing that they noticed is that the customers who have (the token) use their account more because they feel safer," he said. Even before the news was announced, PayPal and VeriSign were promoting the new program on the floor of eBay Live at the Boston Convention Center, and VeriSign employees were handing out free PayPal tokens to attendees and signing them up for the new program. Charles Hu, an eBay Live attendee who sells concert tickets under the name "SummerComets" on the online auction Web site, said that he liked the idea of having an additional layer of security for his eBay account. "I'm always worried that someone will steal my password," Hu said. "I've seen (the password tokens) used in other industries, too." However, Hu wasn't ready to sign up for the program because he was worried that doing so would lock his wife out of their eBay account. "She's back at the hotel, so if I sign up now and they change our account, she's not going to be able to log in," he said. Barrett said that PayPal was prepared for the increased support calls that will come after the secure tokens are in widespread use but says that his company has a duty to protect customers from scams, even if it adds to the cost of doing business for PayPal and eBay. "Customers have been telling us they want this, so we're going to give it to them," he said.
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(InfoWorld) - Proofpoint Inc. launched a beta version of security software for systems using virtualization technology from VM Ware Inc., the company said Monday. The product -- Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway for VMware -- is aimed at the increasing number of enterprises using VMware to reduce the amount of hardware in their data centers, said Andres Kohn, Proofpoint's vice president of product management. The final version should be available by the end of the year. VMware makes virtualization software that allows multiple copies of an operating system to run on a machine's hardware, using more of its data-processing capability. It allows enterprises to run fewer servers and benefit from lower energy and maintenance costs. Proofpoint's says its product is the first virtual security appliance for e-mail. The software provides antispam and antivirus protection plus data privacy and intellectual property protection features. "It's still very early in the virtual appliance space," Kohn said. "We want to give our customers the flexibility." The product uses the same code base as the software that runs on Proofpoint's hardware security appliances, said Keith Crosley, director of corporate communications. Proofpoint's Messaging Security Gateway for VMware acts like a hardware appliance, but runs on VMware infrastructure. The software can be downloaded to a VMware image running on a machine, Kohn said. It will run on x86 desktops or servers running VMware's Player, Workstation, Server or ESX Server. Proofpoint has different pricing based on what functions are included and how many mailboxes an organization is using. Users can run unlimited images on an unlimited number of servers. Proofpoint gave a sample cost for a one-year license of US$10,000 for 250 users, which would include spam and virus detection, zero-hour virus detection and content compliance functions. The beta is available for download onÂ Proofpoint's Web site . Â
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Check Point's new product will create a sandbox around your browser, and also provide antispyware and antiphishing protection.
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(InfoWorld) - You canât blame check point Software Technologies CEO Gil Shwed for looking outside the United States for his companyâs latest technology acquisition: Swedish firm Protect Data AB. After all, his Israeli companyâs previous attempt to buy a company, intrusion prevention software maker Sourcefire, was unceremoniously squashed by the U.S. government, which expressed "national security" concerns from some three letter U.S. agencies that were Sourcefireâs customers. This time around, Check Point found its partner far afield from the United Statesâ amber waves of grain, but Shwed denied that it had anything to do with the outcome of the Sourcefire deal. According to Shwed, the Protect Data deal grew out of a hard assessment of the security space, future trends, and Check Pointâs current portfolio. The outcome was that Check Point, which almost single-handedly launched the network protection market with its firewall technology, had to do more to protect data, rather than just networks. âToday the infrastructure is protected pretty well,â Shwed said. âYou can always do more, but infrastructure is just one step. We decided that we needed to go all the way and protect data.â Protect Dataâs PointSec technology looked like a good bet for Check Point, which plans to integrate the companyâs data protection software into its unified security architecture, including management tools, VPN clients, and existing end point security products such as the ZoneAlarm desktop firewall, Shwed said. Although the United States is a great market for tech firms, many of the leading companies are outside its borders. That may be a byproduct of strict U.S. laws for exporting encryption technology, Shwed said. But Shwed said that Check Point is still looking for good technology to buy all over the world, including domestically. For now, Shwed said he is optimistic that future buys â about which he declined to speculate â would pass muster with U.S. regulators and the intelligence community.
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Bank deploying software designed to encrypt confidential documents, control access no matter where they travel.
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SecurityCoverage, an innovator in automated computer security services for home and small businesses, announced today that the company has achieved another record quarter in revenue for its SecureIT and SecureIT Plus services.
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Ziff Davis - IBM will use the new devices, designed to make it more difficult for hackers to access a system's data, in its latest line of ThinkCentre PCs.
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With today's announcement of EMC's MozyEnterprise, you can now encrypt, back up, and store your laptop or desktop PC data in a high security data center for not much more than $5 per month.
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In response to what it views as an increasing demand for security in the market, Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. has introduced its newest top-level certification program for network architects.
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PayPal unveiled a new Security Key that will add an additional layer of security to user accounts.
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I need to expand my idea of a secure computing ecosystem into the real world. Let me explain.
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I?ve been involved in a lot of FIPS-compliance Web site testing lately. I?m a crypto hobbyist, not a crypto expert, so I hesitate to write about it, but I?ll explain the basics as well as I understand them. Crypto experts, please write in if I messed up something important.
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Your credit card may be in significant danger at the gas pump, and not (just) from high fuel prices. According to a Gartner analyst, point-of-sale terminals are emerging as a substantial security problem.
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SafeKeeper Trusted I/O devices have a trusted platform module (TPM), which stores passwords, digital certificates, and encryption keys.
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Looking to expand its presence among New York financial companies, security services vendor Perimeter eSecurity has acquired Secure Electronic Communications Compliance Archival System ( SECCAS ), a small seller of e-mail management products.Based in New York, SECCAS sells Web-based software that can be used to archive and manage e-mail, instant message and Bloomberg messaging data, giving smaller financial institutions a quick way of bringing their IT systems into compliance with government regulations.Terms of the deal -- Perimeter&#39;s 11th over the past four years -- were not disclosed.Perimeter sells Internet-based software-as-a-service products to financial institutions, and the acquisition will give the company new services to sell to brokers, registered investment advisors and hedge funds, the company said.Founded in 1997, Perimeter is based in Milford, Connecticut. Last year the company closed two rounds of funding, picking up $104 million in investments. It has a staff of 300.
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In a deal valued at $20 million, Check Point Software Technologies gels a new growth strategy: buy others.