Dmitri Alperovitch talks about reputation-based spam protection

By Dan Blacharski, ITworld.com

What if you could determine ahead of time the intentions of everyone who sends you an email? Wouldn't it be wonderful to know, without a doubt, who the bad guys are? What if there were a central authority that knew the reputations of everyone who has ever sent an email? As it turns out, you don't have to be a mind-reader. Reputation-based security is very similar to what the financial services industry has created with credit agencies. In this interview, Dmitri Alperovitch, Chief Research Scientist at Secure Computing and developer of reputation-based security, talks about the evolution of spam, the next big thing in spam prevention, and how to identify the culprits before they bombard your email server. ...continue reading 'Dmitri Alperovitch talks about reputation-based spam protection'

Book review: Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition

By Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld

An intense, thorough and extremely well written book, Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition can take you from basic hacking concepts to building your own security code in a surprisingly short time. It is probably the best book to read if you want a thorough understanding of various hacking techniques, especially if you know enough about programming to put some of what you learn into practice -- not for hacking, I would hope, but to use the same skills for vulnerability testing and the same knowledge for protecting your network. ...continue reading 'Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition'

Information security is everyone's job

Paula W. Hamm, Symantec Corp

The effectiveness of even the best technology and processes put in place by IT personnel is frequently undermined if employees do not understand both the value of the organization's information assets and their role in securing these assets. With proper education and training, employees can become an organization's strongest line of defense and its most valuable security asset. ...continue reading 'Information security is everyone's job'