Stories by: Matt Hines

Data leakage prevention has become one of the hottest subsets of the IT security market, but organizations hoping to utilize the tools must retain realistic goals and find the right technologies to meet their individual business models, experts maintain.

While the problem of teen hacking remains a serious concern -- as highlighted in this previous post on the topic -- infiltrating the networks of kids involved in such activity, taking down their malware distribution Web sites, and convincing them to get out of the cyber-criminal game can be relatively easy, according to FaceTime Labs researcher Chris Boyd, better known in online circles under his Paper Ghost screen name.

Washington politicians are frequently pilloried for moving too slowly to respond to emerging problems, and while the adage has proven true regarding the federal sector's response to cyber-security thus far, the US government is making slow progress in addressing the issue, experts maintain.

Online malware threats have taken the next step in their evolution from piecemeal creations to commercialized products, with security researchers charting the arrival of a growing number of hosted data theft services.

Online malware attacks are becoming more pervasive, targeted, and refined as the underground threat economy continues to evolve and take on the characteristics of an organized industry.

One year ago, Microsoft was defending the quality of its products, battling with the world's largest security vendors over features in its next-generation platforms, and pitching the company's nascent promise as a provider of IT systems-defense tools at the annual RSA conference.

Much of the corporate data that gets exposed goes through messaging systems -- not through insider attacks or external hacks -- when users mistakenly send out confidential information via e-mail, instant messaging, and FTP systems, or when they forget to use encryption tools.

Microsoft's chief security strategists are asking for help.

Just as many financial services firms failed to predict the meltdown of the sub-prime lending sector and its ripple effect on the overall US economy, IT and data security teams won't be able to sufficiently secure their assets and information unless they become far more progressive in assessing risk, according to IBM's top expert in the field.

Providers of applications security testing tools say business is taking off, as more customers are building such capabilities into their development lifecycles and large platform providers have picked off some of their closest rivals.

IT industry giant HP is experiencing marked growth of its security business less than one year after re-launching a number of its products and services under its Secure Advantage brand, company executives claim.