News (46)

'Horrifying' security lapses are far too common

The UK's privacy watchdog has slammed bosses of large companies for not taking security seriously. Read more »

Disk encryption is no silver bullet, researchers say

Disk encryption, which people rely on for protecting sensitive data on laptops, can fairly easily be foiled, security researchers said in presenting a paper on a so-called "cold-boot attack" at the Usenix security conference on Wednesday. Read more »

The boss's iPhone: Your worst security nightmare

As employee-owned portable devices become more sophisticated they become less secure, according to one analyst -- and the more senior an employee, the less compliant they are when it comes to protecting the information on those devices. Read more »

Sun to unveil security offerings

Sun Microsystems is expected to announce two security initiatives Monday in the United States, one introducing a form of encryption for its next-generation Sun Java System Web Server and another that re-slices the way it delivers security features for Solaris. Read more »

UK Defence enlists ID thieves to place 600,000 recruits

The Ministry of Defence has admitted losing the details of 600,000 people after the theft of a laptop from a Royal Navy officer in Birmingham last week. Read more »

Security bosses want encryption bans overturned

An international security consortium is set to lobby governments around the world to withdraw restrictions on encryption standards. Read more »

PGP creator takes on VoIP security

Phil Zimmermann, who gave free e-mail encryption to the world more than a decade ago in the form of a software called Pretty Good Privacy, is now trying to secure Internet phone calls. Read more »

Massive quantum network unveiled

The world's largest quantum-encrypted network has been unveiled in Vienna, providing a glimpse of how data could be transmitted securely in the future. Read more »

Researchers: Digital encryption standard flawed

An encryption standard widely used in digitally signing documents and programs has a flaw in it that could allow for the creation of forgeries, sources said on Wednesday. Read more »

Beware of ransomware, firm warns

Smaller companies should back up their data if they want to avoid being held to ransom by hackers, a security company has warned. Read more »

Features (80)

.NET demystifies encryption

.NET makes cryptography a little simpler by putting everything into one SDK. Find out how to encrypt and decrypt a text file with the System.Security.Cryptography namespace. Read more »

Learn to use the openssl command-line program

OpenSSL can be used to create, request, sign, and revoke certificates and can also be used to perform other cryptographic operations such as creating hashes for files, testing SSL connections, and more. Read more »

Protect your network traffic using Java's encryption features

The Java Development Kit has strong encryption and security support. One of the nicer features is its built-in support for socket communication. Builder.com shows here it's easy to write a client and a server that talk to each other securely with encrypted streams. Read more »

Tools for securing your XML documents

The W3C offers two specifications for securing your XML documents, XML Signature and XML Encryption. Find out which tools can help create secure XML documents that adhere to these standards. Read more »

Secure collaboration requires document control

An employee who receives confidential information can easily forward the decrypted document to anyone. Collaborative software can help close this security hole. Read more »

Encrypt backups using Oracle 10gR2's RMAN

No IT pros want their company to make headline news because of a data breach. You can make your data less vulnerable to theft by using a new feature in Oracle 10g Release 2 that lets you make encrypted backups via Recovery Manager. Read more »

Six steps to secure sensitive data in MySQL

If you're using MySQL, there are some easy things you can do to secure your systems and significantly reduce the risk of unauthorised access to your sensitive data. Read more »

Protect ASP.NET data with the DPAPI

Although .NET offers tight cryptography classes, a more efficient approach for ASP.NET developers is to implement the Data Protection API (DPAPI). Read more »

Encrypt any file with symmetric cryptography using GPG

Encryption lets you keep your sensitive data, banking information and conversations safely protected by code. Learn how you can use the free GPG utility to protect your data. Read more »

Encrypting .NET configuration files through code

Encryption support for configuration files was added to the .NET Framework beginning with version 2.0. We'll show you examples of controlling encryption and decryption in both VB.NET and C# code. Read more »

Blog (2)

Assumption-based Hacking 101

Chris Duckett [blogs:betaliving] -- High-level thinking leads to assumptions, and assumptions are the mother of all mistakes -- consequently the best place to find a security hole is in a place where the programmer has made an incorrect assumption. Read more »

5 reasons restricting hacking is not like gun control

Nick Gibson [blogs:byteclub] -- Let's get it out of the way: Guns don't kill people, people with guns kill people. People with hacking tools can steal your personal data, shut down your system and deface your web site -- but is that any reason to ban them? Read more »

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