Patch Management
Global Secure Systems are one of the UK's premier IT Security providers. Our mission is to be "the Best IT Security Organisation within the UK and beyond." We achieve this by providing both the best service and support for Patch Management, alongside our range of 'best in class' security tools.
Global Secure Systems can cater for all of your Patch Management requirements. For the latest information on Patch Management click on your choice from the links below
About Patch Management
Security experts agree that an overwhelming majority of all security breaches could have been prevented if software patches and updates had been applied when they were first available. In fact, figures from the SANS Institute and FBI show that the majority of commonly exploited vulnerabilities are due to the failure to apply patches that were available from vendors for several weeks or even a month.
The only patch detection and deployment software currently available for managing heterogeneous network servers, PatchLink Update automates the discovery, deployment and protection of corporate systems against patch-related security vulnerabilities.
Patch Management Products
Lumension Patch and Remediation™ (formerly PatchLink Update) provides rapid, accurate and secure patch management, allowing you to proactively manage threats in the most complex environments by automating the collection, analysis and delivery of patches throughout your enterprise.
Patch Management Product Families
Lumension Inc., formed by the combination of PatchLink and SecureWave S. A., is a leading global security management company, providing unified protection and control of all enterprise endpoints, applications and devices. The ineffectiveness of silo endpoint solutions has sparked demand for a shift in the security paradigm as organisations look to a more holistic approach to unified security management.
Patch Management Industry News
Adobe to patch critical Flash flaw Thursday Adobe has been forced to issue a security patch for Flash a month ahead of its planned cycle. Adobe plans to fix critical security vulnerabilities in Flash Thursday rather than waiting for the patch cycle date of 13 July. The firm is also bringing forward the date to issue patches for similar problems with Reader and Acrobat on 29 June. Brad Arkin of the Adobe Secure Software Engineering Team blogged that it was the only option available for the softw......
[more] Security Manager's Journal: Without patch management, you are nothing. Does it all come down to patch management? As a security manager, I pursue many initiatives, striving to protect the company on many fronts. But patch management is a key metric of our risk exposure, since there is a direct correlation between security incidents and patch compliance. So, in a way, it does all come down to something as basic as patch management, because if we fail there, we can't be secure. Of course we have......
[more] The seven deadly sins of cloud security A security expert warns organisations making a foray into cloud computing that knowing familiar terms like multi-tenancy and virtualisation doesn't mean they understand everything about putting applications in the cloud. In the world of cloud computing, those technologies are thrown together to create a new class of applications with their own unique set of governance rules, said Jim Reavis, executive director with the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA)."......
[more] The 5 essential patches of 2009 Fact: Everyone who patches is safer. Fact: Not everyone patches. The gap between the two facts is too deep for even security experts to explain, although they try, with theories running from the conspiratorial -- pirates hate to patch, they say, because they're afraid vendors, Microsoft mostly, will spy them out -- to the prosaic ... that people are, by nature, just lazy. So rather than recite 2009's patch history -- dismal as it was, with Microsoft, for instance......
[more] Microsoft patches 12 bugs, including IE8-only flaws Microsoft today patched 12 vulnerabilities in Windows, Office and Internet Explorer (IE), including three critical bugs in the company's newest browser, IE8. Of the 12 flaws fixed in Tuesday's six security updates, seven were rated "critical," the highest severity ranking in Microsoft's four-step scoring system. Four of the remaining flaws were pegged as "important," one step lower on the scale, while the final vulnerability was labeled "modera......
[more] Microsoft plans monster Patch Tuesday next week Microsoft today said it will deliver its largest-ever number of security updates on Tuesday to fix flaws in every version of Windows, as well as Internet Explorer (IE), Office, SQL Server, important developer tools and the enterprise-grade Forefront Security client software. Among the updates will be the first for the final, or release to manufacturing, code of Windows 7, Microsoft's newest operating system.
The company will ship a total of 13 upd......
[more] 7 Ways Security Pros DON'T Practice What They Preach IT security pros are often driven to drink -- literally -- over the daily battles of their job: bosses unwilling to accept the rationale for some new security investment, employees who regularly infect their computers by doing things that have nothing to do with their jobs, and vendors who don't understand the company's needs. But in a recent, unscientific and informal poll CSOonline conducted over such social networks as Twitter and LinkedIn,......
[more] Cloud computing faces security storm A storm-front is brewing for cloud computing, writes Paul Zimski, vice-president of market strategy at Lumension. As developers continue to reach towards the sky with insecure infrastructure, the chances for a disastrous squall increase every day. The cloud undoubtedly provides organisations with the opportunity to save money and achieve efficiency, by leveraging virtualisation to centralise applications, storage and platforms into pay-as-you-go, scalable bi......
[more] Global Secure Systems Partners With Breach Security, Adds Web Application Solution to Consultancy Offering Breach Security, Inc., the leader in web application integrity, security and PCI compliance, today announced that Global Secure Systems (GSS) has joined the company's worldwide partner network. GSS secures corporate data by delivering full consultancy services, ranging from Data Protection Act issues to ISO 27001 and PCI compliance to penetration and application testing.As a new Breach Sec......
[more] Trend Micro to eyeball malware from cloud Trend Micro has unveiled a major update to its flagship scanning tools that puts your virus signature database online, plus a modular security and system management suite with partner BigFix. Trend Micro's updated OfficeScan Client/Server Suite includes an interesting change to the way its flagship scanning software keeps its list of digital undesirables.The most common method nowadays is letting each individual system store its own virus and malware si......
[more] Ten ways to make your boss love you Worried about job security? These days, who's not? Andrew Donoghue offers some advice for tight times. No matter where you happen to be perched on the IT career tree, the branches are probably looking shaky right now. From chief information officers to IT admin staff, the days of taking continued employment for granted are over. When it comes to job performance, the recession has ratcheted up levels of scrutiny tenfold. That means managers will be measured mo......
[more] Coming soon: Full-disk encryption for all computer drives The world's six largest computer drive makers today published the final specifications(download PDF) for a single, full-disk encryption standard that can be used across all hard disk drives, solid state drives (SSD) and encryption key management applications. Once enabled, any disk that uses the specification will be locked without a password -- and the password will be needed even before a computer boots. The three The Trusted Computing......
[more] Criminal profit-driven attacks are presenting increased threats for businesses and government According to the Information Security Forum (ISF), targeted and organised, profit-driven attacks are replacing random individual hacker attacks and presenting increased threats for businesses and government. This new breed of attack, designed to steal valuable and sensitive information or customer data for major financial gain is being orchestrated by criminal networks that bring together specialist ski......
[more] Does patch management need patching? According to a recent estimate from Verizon, 90 percent of successful exploits these days involve vulnerabilities for which a patch has been available for six months or longer. "For the overwhelming majority of attacks exploiting known vulnerabilities, the patch had been available for months prior to the breach," Verizon says on page 15 of its 2008 Data Breach Investigations Report. "Also worthy of mention is that no breaches were caused by exploits of vulner......
[more] Companies own up to virtual security blind spot The vast majority of companies have little or no security in place for their virtual systems. That is a scary statistic revealed in a survey of attendees at the recent VMWorld 2008 conference in Las Vegas. Shavlik Technologies said that it had surveyed nearly 300 IT virtualisation and security specialists at the conference. It believes the survey demonstrates the high uptake of virtual machines (VM).In general we are finding in talks with customer......
[more] The Patch Window Is Closing When a security hole is uncovered, there is a brief span of time, known as the patch window, in which an SME can patch the system before an attack is unleashed. But according to Scott Montgomery, vice president of product management at Secure Computing, that window is quickly disappearing. Now, attackers are discovering security holes and writing attacks almost instantly, causing the patch window to shrink at an alarming rate. IT departments that are already heavily......
[more] Six burning questions about network security Security issues often seem to smolder more than burn, but these six are certainly capable of lighting a fire under IT professionals at a moment's notice. Handle with care. Is server virtualization worth the risk? The benefits of moving away from traditional servers to virtual-machine (VM) arrangements are the cost savings in hardware consolidation and remarkable flexibility. But less-welcome consequences can be security gaps and virtual-server spraw......
[more] Tackling Virtualized Environment Security As enterprises gallop ahead towards virtualizing their IT infrastructures, security and compliance issues are going to slow them to a crawl. That's because virtual environment security is nothing like security in the physical environment. Security measures in the physical environment are based on the servers being fixed, having a constant identity, and being easy to check on, but the virtual environment is always fluid, always changing and difficult to......
[more] Artist formerly known as Patchlink touts whitelists Lumension Security, formerly called Patchlink, now has a new focus to go with its new name: whitelisting. In a video interview at the AusCERT 2008 security conference last week, Lumension's senior vice president Andrew Clarke explained how whitelists could help fight data leakage. "There is a tremendous amount of data potentially being brought in or taken out [of enterprises]. Whitelisting defines who can bring in devices, what devices th......
[more] Companies struggle as Safari pops up on networks Companies struggle as Safari pops up on networks. For Cody Wilson, the trouble began a few weeks ago, when he noticed that Safari had popped up as a download option with his Apple Software Update, the program that is used to update iTunes and QuickTime. Wilson, a network administrator with Soy Capital Bank and Trust in Decatur, Illinois, soon found out that many of the users on his network had installed the software without realizing it. "I......
[more] Constant patch releases force IT to adopt new processes The first Sunday after the second Tuesday of every month is a big day for the Arlington County, Va., IT unit's network operations team. That's when the group gets to test and deploy the patches that Microsoft Corp. releases each month as part of its regularly scheduled security update process. Some months, the team gets lucky and the vendor issues only a few security fixes. On other occasions, such as this month, the county government's IT......
[more] 'Bricking' bug threatens most HP, Compaq laptops The hacker who posted an exploit last week that threatened a large swath of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s laptop lineup followed up yesterday with new attack code that can "brick" nearly every HP laptop. In a post to the milw0rm.com Web site Wednesday, a Polish security researcher who used the alias "porkythepig" spelled out a pair of vulnerabilities in an ActiveX control used by HP's Software Update, the patch management program bundled with v......
[more] PatchLink born again as Lumension Security Patch management company PatchLink is no more, but its demise is not bad news. The company has changed its name to Lumension Security. Formed from a cross between the word 'luminescence' and the phrase 'new dimension', Lumension's birth probably became inevitable last June on the day PatchLink merged with Luxembourg-based SecureWave. Up to that point, PatchLink had been a well-known software patch management company. After that point, given SecureWave'......
[more] Businesses having second thoughts about Vista Fewer businesses are now planning to move to Windows Vista than seven months ago, according to a survey by patch management vendor PatchLink Corp., while more said they will either stick with the Windows they have, or turn to Linux or Mac OS X. In a just-released poll of more than 250 of its clients, PatchLink noted that only 2% said they are already running Vista, while another 9% said they planned to roll out Vista in the next three months. A land......
[more] Patch Driven Security Policies With more and more risks floating over the network, the need to patch systems for a secured environment is increasing. An IT event cannot be concluded without a session on Security. PatchLink gave an informative session on Security Optimisation-Integrated Vulnerability Management. This session concentrated on drivers of IT security & policy and the approach which needs to be followed to secure an organisation. "Whenever we connect machines we are opening u......
[more] The decline of antivirus and the rise of whitelisting The recent acquisition of SecureWave by PatchLink was not so much an acquisition as a merger, with PatchLink being the senior partner. With 3400 customers it had about twice the customer base as SecureWave and it also had about twice the staff.The merger probably sent a shock wave or two through the declining AntiVirus industry, because it has created a bigger and more powerful whitelisting vendor. As far as SecureWave is concerned, it will......
[more] Patchlink looking for more acquisitions, new name The acquisition of a vulnerability management product earlier this year was certainly not the last, according to Patchlink's international senior vice president Andrew Clarke, who also admitted a name-change is on the cards. At the AusCERT 2007 conference in Queensland's Gold Coast last week, Clarke said that the move into vulnerability management was a natural one -- the product (Harris STAT) acquired in February was already being sold as part o......
[more] Firefox users are better patchers Firefox users have something new to brag about. They're more likely to run fully patched computers than users of other browsers, according to research from Secunia. Secunia's analysis is based on more than 350,000 software checks, performed over the past five months by its free Secunia Software Inspector service. According to Secunia, 5.19 percent of all Firefox 2 users had missed security updates. For IE6, which is used by nearly half of all web surfers, that......
[more] Network access control NAC explained Cybercrime continues to rise, with the primary aim to steal company information or anything that will make a profit for the perpetrators. To avoid the unwelcome headlines provoked by IT security failures, securing the corporate network is more important today than ever before. It's also tougher to achieve, as today's business world means giving partners instant access to the information they need while meeting external regulatory compliance standards. With m......
[more] Patching an entire server farm I am new to the company where I work and responsible for the patch management process, before I started here there was none. Now I have implemented a patch management process, but we have a server farm of 500 Windows servers not connected to the Internet consisting of Windows 2000 and 2003 servers with various service packs. For these servers, I still have to see how to get up to date with the patches (some servers are missing patches as from up 2002). Now I......
[more] PatchLink proactively manages security updates for East Sussex County Council With more than 4000 networked PCs and laptops across 100 different locations, East Sussex County Council had a difficult job making sure its network was secure and all endpoints were patched against the latest exploits.The Council had been badly hit by the "Nachi" virus in 2002, for which a Microsoft Windows patch had previously been released but not fully deployed. With some parts of the Council's network d......
[more] First Vista bug found and fixed A critical vulnerability in Windows Vista has been found and fixed, a Microsoft security manager admitted on Wednesday. However, he argues that the flaw in the company's malware scanning engine isn't in the operating system's core code. Microsoft has repeatedly touted Vista as its most secure version of Windows ever, so watchers are eagerly awaiting the first vulnerability to be spotted and fixed. On Tuesday, Microsoft released 12 security updates to fix 20 vulne......
[more] SC Magazine names PatchLink Update "Best Buy" for 2006 PatchLink Corporation, the global leader for security patch and vulnerability management solutions, has announced that SC Magazine has named PatchLink Update 6.2 "Best Buy" in its 2006 Review.PatchLink Update is an enterprise-level security patch, vulnerability, and compliance management software, which offers IT professionals automated security patch management capabilities to detect system vulnerabilities and deploy system and a......
[more] PatchLink Year-end Survey Reveals Top Security Threats and Trends for 2007 Organizations saw an increase in targeted attacks in 2006 and a new survey shows the majority of IT professionals (67 percent) expect even more zero-day threats in 2007. PatchLink Corporation, the global leader for security patch and vulnerability management solutions, today announced findings from a comprehensive customer survey addressing network attacks, Microsoft Vista and security plans for 2007. The survey was comp......
[more] Australian Defence Force Academy Selects PatchLink to Protect Student Learning Environment The Australian Defence Force Academy, a unique institution which provides office cadets and midshipmen with military training and undergraduate education, has selected PatchLink’s industry leading solution, PatchLink Update, to secure its student learning environment. Contracted by Defence to provide undergraduate education, the University of New South Wales' Canberra campus, UNSW@ADFA, provides academic r......
[more] Companies told: Guard against new IT security threats or lose millions A failure by companies to adequately defend against IT security threats can cost them millions. And a failure to recognise that these threats are evolving, and the importance of continually upgrading to ensure appropriate security measures are in place, can cost them even more. Viruses, worms and hacking are no longer the only threats that must be tackled."Threats are evolving. We still worry about viruses, but spyware......
[more] PatchLink releases a workaround for VML exploit to protect customers from zero day threats As hackers continue to exploit a security vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer, rated as "extremely critical", PatchLink is releasing a PatchLink authored workaround for customers worldwide to protect their networks from VML zero-day threats. According to PatchLink Vice President of Security Technologies Chris Andrew, the Microsoft IE flaw could be potentially harmful to the IT environme......
[more] Patch management: Hold it together The constant need for patch management is a pain, taking up precious time and resources. Is there a better way? Gary Flood investigates. Patch management is undoubtedly one of the top bugbears of IT and security managers today. Software vendors, patch management suppliers and consultants have all worked to improve patching, but have they succeeded?Ultimately, patch management goes back to the twin IT security pillars of effective asset management - determining......
[more] PatchLink founder launches seed fund PatchLink Corp. founder Sean Moshir now is looking to help fund other startups. The Valley entrepreneur has launched Moshir Venture Partners, a private equity firm that will provide seed-stage capital for technology startups with an initial focus on wireless/mobile, online media and entertainment broadcasting. Funding typically will be between $250,000 to $1 million, a range not served by the traditional venture capital community, Moshir said. The focus will......
[more] Microsoft patch numbers hit record high The number of critical flaws in Microsoft software has hit a record high, offering a prime opportunity for hackers to exploit the backlog of unprotected vulnerabilities, according to security experts. So far this year, the software giant has already addressed more critical vulnerabilities than in 2004 and 2005 combined, according to security specialist McAfee. This news follows Microsoft's latest monthly security patch update, issued yesterday, which high......
[more] Microsoft exposed to second zero-day vulnerability According to media reports a second vulnerability in Microsoft Excel has appeared on the internet. Just last week, Microsoft released a record 12 fixes (eight of which were critical), and it is currently working to resolve a separate bug targeted at Excel. Alan Bentley, Managing Director of PatchLink comments: "This latest vulnerability could result in Excel crashing after a malicious file is opened and has the potential for a hacker to ga......
[more] PatchLink and ForeScout in security partnership US-headquartered security firm PatchLink has partnered with ForeScout Technologies, a provider of clientless network access control (NAC) and intrusion prevention solutions. The partnership will see customers provided with an integrated system for enforcing enterprise security policies at both the network and endpoint level. ForeScout's network security appliance scans for vulnerabilities transparently to the user, without requiring an agent and u......
[more] PatchLink Update wins "Best Patch Management" Award from SC Magazine PatchLink Corporation, a global leader for enterprise security patch and vulnerability management, is proud to announce that its flagship product, PatchLink Update, has won the "Best Patch Management" award at the SC Magazine European Awards show at The Grosvenor House in London.The SC Awards are the leading annual awards program for the information security industry, highlighting the most trusted companies, products......
[more] MS issues Office überpatch Microsoft has patched a variety of vulnerabilities in its ubiquitous Office suite which create a means for hackers to attack vulnerable systems. The critical (cumulative MS06-012) update, along with a security fix (MS06-011) to defend against an "important" privilege escalation flaw in Windows, form a brace of patches issued by Microsoft as part of its regular monthly Patch Tuesday update cycle.The update covers bugs in various versions of Excel including on......
[more] Websense and Crossbeam Systems Combine Web Security and Unified Threat Management Websense, Inc., a global leader in web security and web filtering productivity software, today announced that they have teamed up with Crossbeam Systems®, Inc., a leader in unified threat management (UTM), to offer customers powerful web security capabilities to mitigate today's web-based threats. Websense® Web Security SuiteTM integrated with Crossbeam appliances offer organisations a comprehensive securi......
[more] PatchLink Issues Patch Tuesday Preparation Guide PatchLink Corporation, the global leader for security patch and vulnerability management solutions, today issued comprehensive best practice guidelines to help organizations prepare for what has become a notoriously stressful IT day, Patch Tuesday. While Patch Tuesday is often the cause of many late nights testing and applying patches, organizations face a continuous onslaught of vulnerabilities and patches that can adversely affect IT infrastruc......
[more] Hackers to face decade in jail Hackers in the U.K. could face ten years in jail under stiff new laws passed in parliament. The new laws, proposed by Home Secretary Charles Clarke, would also see foreign hackers being extradited to the U.K. to stand trial. Several types of activity will become illegal under the new laws. Hackers could get up to two years for making or supplying tools to attack systems. The law will also be clarified over what constitutes a denial-of-service attack (DoS). It is ho......
[more] PatchLink receives industry first patent on it's non-evasive Patch Fingerprinting Technology PatchLink Corporation, the leading enterprise security patch and vulnerability management solutions provider, today announced it has been granted US patent 6,990,660 entitled "Non-invasive automatic off-site patch fingerprinting and updating system and method" that is a core component of the company's flagship product, PatchLink Update™ and its Patch Fingerprinting™ Technology. First invented in 2001, t......
[more] PatchLink Makes Third Party Patch Available to Protect Its Customers from WMF Exploit PatchLink Corporation, the global leader in security patch and vulnerability management solutions, today issued a temporary third party patch and Knowledge Base Article 290 as an option for protecting networks against what's being called the worst Microsoft vulnerability in the last 18 months because of the rapidly spreading zero-day threats in the wild exploiting it before an official patch is available.
Mi......
[more] Windows 2000 vulnerability could allow hackers to launch remote denial-of-service Exploit code has been published that could allow an attacker to launch a remote denial-of-service attack on Windows 2000 machines using all service pack versions. Microsoft issued an advisory warning about vulnerability (CAN-2005-3644) in its implementation of the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) protocol.
The following five key steps are recommended to prioritise and implement proper protection against this vulnerab......
[more] Central security management from CyberGuard US security solutions provider CyberGuard’s Bracknell office has announced the release of Global Command Center 3.0, an enterprise-level centralised security-management system for larger organisations.
Addressing the problem of multiple security rules and firewalls in large enterprises, the new product enables users to update policies in real time as threats occur, and ensures that the changes are applied consistently throughout the network.
"As cu......
[more] PatchLink Chairman & CEO Sean Moshir Honored with "Shaping Info Security 2005" Award PatchLink Corporation today announced that the Company's Chairman and CEO Sean Moshir is among 16 senior security industry executives worldwide receiving the first annual "Shaping Info Security 2005 Award" from the editors of the Info Security Products Guide. Moshir's strong background in security software, prominent achievements, successful business track record, and ability to help shape information security......
[more] PatchLink Update Named "Reviewer's Choice" by Government Computer News PatchLink Update from PatchLink Corporation earned top marks in a third-party analysis of patch management software conducted by Government Computer News, a leading media company in the government technology community. In an in-depth, lab-tested comparison with patch management solutions LANDesk Management Suite 8 and Marimba Patch Management from BMC Software, PatchLink's PatchLink Update performed the best in several areas......
[more] Coming Soon: Patch Management for Smartphones With the advent of cell phone viruses and Bluetooth worms, it was bound to happen. PatchLink is readying an upgrade to its eponymous flagship patch management tool aimed at adding patch support for smartphones and wireless PDAs. Beginning in the third quarter, PatchLink Update will provide sophisticated patch management and remediation capabilities for popular wireless platforms, including Microsoft Windows Mobile, Symbian, Research In Motion’s Blac......
[more] Undo your Windows patching mistakes Patch testing is crucial to helping you ensure each patch is effective and compatible with your critical applications when applied. However, some patches are so critical they must be rushed to implementation without going through proper testing. Even worse, your network may already be impacted by some exploit that requires immediate attention -- leaving you with little choice but to deploy an untested patch and risk breaking applications. How can you address......
[more] Microsoft nearing completion of corporate patch server Microsoft Tuesday took two steps towards completing the foundation for its future patch management tools, which will range from free software to full-blown licensed management platforms.
The first step was issuing a “release candidate” for its Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), a new name for what was previously called Windows Update Services (WUS).
A release candidate is the final step in the beta process before shipment of the softw......
[more] DHS cybersecurity official: We're making progress The Department of Homeland Security is making "lots of progress" in boosting the nation's cybersecurity but private industry must help, a DHS official said Friday at the RSA Conference. "We're doing what we can but cybersecurity is not just government's responsibility. We all have to work together," said Hun Kim, deputy director at the National Cyber Security Division in DHS.
Speaking at a session entitled "Preventing a Cyberwinter," Kim said h......
[more] PatchLink Update receives five out of five rating from Windows IT Pro In the February 2005 issue of Windows IT Pro Magazine, PatchLink Update received a "5 out of 5" product review rating from the publication. Receiving only positive comments, the patch and vulnerability management software product from PatchLink Corp. was noted for its large multivendor repository of tested patches and flexible policy-based configuration. The reviewer emphasized the comprehensive product's scalability, recomme......
[more] Microsoft virus clean-up tool sparks controversy Microsoft debuts a malicious software removal tool today. It represents the first tangible fruits of Microsoft's June 2003 acquisition of Romanian anti-virus firm GeCAD Software.
The Microsoft Windows malicious software removal tool consolidates utilities released by Microsoft to remove viruses such as Blaster from infected systems. This clean up tool will be made available through Windows Update or as a separate download and updated on the seco......
[more] SP2 May Spell Trouble for Agentless Patching Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP Service Pack 2 has thrown patch management vendors into a tizzy. IT managers should be interested because, in an ironic twist, SP2 will likely make it harder to keep desktops and laptops up-to-date with the latest patches. The chief cause of the patching dilemma is the new Windows Firewall, which will be installed by default when desktop and laptop systems get SP2 through Microsoft's widely used update mechanisms. eWEEK La......
[more] Can IT keep up with malware authors? Web users and technology professionals alike are both battling a flood of malicious software - and it increasingly looks like the 'bad guys' are winning Are malware authors now too far ahead of information security professionals for the latter to ever recover?
Indications are information security professionals -- and ordinary users of information and communication technology -- are increasingly on the back foot.
A new report from a United States-based rese......
[more] PC survival time down to 20 minutes Virgin PCs connected to the Internet won't even last long enough to download critical patches, says the SANS Institute The time that an unpatched PC can survive connected to the Internet has dropped to an average of 20 minutes, down from 40 minutes in 2003.
According to the latest data from the Internet Storm Center at the US-based SANS Institute, which provides research and education on security issues, the historical trend is continuing its downward journe......
[more] Microsoft to pitch security as 'competitive advantage'
Microsoft will pitch security as a "competitive advantage" at its worldwide partner conference in Toronto next week, but it may be a tough sell to attendees who are still waiting for the software maker to deliver on some of last year's security-related promises.
Microsoft's second annual Worldwide Partner Conference kicks off Sunday. The three-day event is focused on helping its partners to sell more Microsoft products.
Attendee......
[more] Damage control vital to antivirus policy Hackers and viruses here to stay - so focus on your response to attacks, advise experts Businesses cannot expect to avoid hackers and viruses and must be able to respond quickly to threats, according to senior IT executives.
Companies should concentrate on their response to attacks, said Paul Stimpson, global head of technology risk management service delivery at investment back ABN Amro.
Speaking at the Infosecurity 2004 show Stimpson said "At some p......
[more] Should you patch if your security-monitoring processes are good? The big news last week wasn't that Microsoft released a spate of (actually, four) security patches - it was, after all, the first Tuesday of the month, the day designated for patch release. The big news was in the form of a "good news - bad news" situation.
The good news was that more of you than ever downloaded the patches from Windows Update almost as soon as they were released.
The bad news was that Microsoft wasn't prep......
[more] XP fix previews impact of a more secure Windows When Microsoft released the first public beta for Windows XP Service Pack 2 a few weeks ago, it knew the built-in security enhancements could cripple some corporate applications.
Companies testing XP SP2 say they are seeing some of that, but note a more significant development: Corporate users will have to change the way they develop applications and build networks to compensate for the security changes Microsoft is making to its desktop and s......
[more] Worms Hit Home It's early in 2004 and Microsoft is sick with nearly 65,000 viruses, it's crawling with worms, and there are enough packaged trojans sitting around to wreak havoc on almost any virile computer. It would be nice for security professionals to afford a week off from the world of viruses, worms, trojans, and backdoors to enjoy a long overdue vacation, but we all know the malevolent attempts of the next major outbreak are just around the corner. The fact that each of us can only contr......
[more] Windows XP download boosts 802.11 security A majority of leading information technology security experts say the security of Microsoft products remains a top concern, but also credit the vendor for its efforts, according to a report released by Forrester Research.
The report, "Can Microsoft Be Secure?" surveyed 35 IT security professionals at companies with at least $1 billion in annual revenue. Respondents were asked their impressions of Microsoft's products.
Seventy-seven percent of tho......
[more] Tech Managers Wary of Microsoft Security A majority of leading information technology security experts say the security of Microsoft products remains a top concern, but also credit the vendor for its efforts, according to a report released by Forrester Research.
The report, "Can Microsoft Be Secure?" surveyed 35 IT security professionals at companies with at least $1 billion in annual revenue. Respondents were asked their impressions of Microsoft's products.
Seventy-seven percent of those......
[more] Global Secure Systems supplies security tools (including Patch Management) to protect both the corporate gateway (particularly the Internet, or other external network connections), and the individual PC (including the roaming laptop user and the desktop attached to the corporate network).
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