Stories by Ellen Messmer

Palo Alto Networks acquires stealthy start-up with NSA roots

Next-generation firewall maker Palo Alto Networks today announced its first acquisition, an intriguing buyout of a stealthy Mountain View start-up called Morta Security whose founders hail from the NSA. The price of the purchase was not disclosed.

A look at FireEye's Mandiant buy: Game changer or not?

FireEye's acquisition of Mandiant is getting generally positive reviews from industry analysts, though some caution that FireEye faces a big challenge in its goals related to blending the two security firms' products.

NSA critic Bruce Schneier joins security firm Co3 as CTO

The network security industry's legendary free thinker Bruce Schneier Monday said he's taken a job as CTO at Co3 Systems, but that this in no way will curtail his determination to speak and write candidly on important topics such as the National Security Agency's (NSA) practices.

'PGP' encryption has had stay-powering but does it meet today's enterprise demands?

PGP encryption, as industry old-timers know, started out as "Pretty Good Privacy" invented by Phil Zimmermann in 1991, and since then, was sold on to various corporate owners until it ended in the hands of Symantec in 2010. While it is a widely used vintage brands, does PGP public-key encryption still meet today's enterprise demands, given the rise of cloud computing and mobile?

IBM earns patent for 'encrypted blobs'

IBM said it's received a patent for an innovative data-scrambling technique known as "fully homomorphic encryption" that allows processing of encrypted data without having to decrypt it first.

Juniper vs. Palo Alto Networks: Firewall court battle set to begin

Call it the fist fight over firewalls for 2014. Juniper Networks is going for a knock-out against rival Palo Alto Networks in a patent-dispute lawsuit related to next-generation firewalls that's set to go to trial in Delaware in February. And Palo Alto wants to take out Juniper in its own separate patent lawsuit.

Blue Coat acquires anti-malware firm Norman Shark

Blue Coat Systems today announced it has acquired anti-malware firm Norman Shark for an undisclosed price, in order to integrate its technologies, such as sandboxing, into other security products available through Blue Coat.

IT security chiefs can make big bucks but are they happy?

The top IT security chiefs make salaries that can run over $1 million per year, but are they happy? Ponemon Institute, which interviewed about 700 security professionals in the top IT security spot at their companies to find out, learned they make big bucks but the job often feels stressful and isolated.

The worst security SNAFUs of 2013

This year's award for "Biggest Security SNAFU" can only go to the National Security Agency. Since June, NSA officials have winced as former NSA contractor Edward Snowden began dispensing secrets to the media about how NSA carries out massive surveillance around the world using advanced technology.

Advanced persistent threats now hitting mobile devices

Smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices have become the target of malware and are even getting hit by highly targeted attacks known as "advanced persistent threats" that intended to steal sensitive data, according to a survey of 676 IT and security professionals.

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