Week in Security: Guess FTC Settlement, IDS Debate Continues

Marcia Savage

CRN
San Mateo, Calif.

Here's a rundown of events, announcements and other happenings in information security this week:

%95 Clothing maker Guess agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it exposed consumers' personal information, including credit-card numbers, to common Web attacks. The FTC alleged that Guess--contrary to its claims that it kept customers' personal data secure--failed to take appropriate measures to secure the data on its Web site. The settlement requires that Guess implement a comprehensive information security program for Guess.com and its other Web sites, according to the FTC.

%95 VeriSign unveiled a new set of services to help Web merchants prevent losses from online fraud. VeriSign's Fraud Protection Services feature filters that automatically identify potential fraudulent transactions and allow businesses to take action against them, the company said. The services are compatible with authentication programs such as MasterCard SecureCode. Pricing starts at $19.95 per month.

%95 Debate about intrusion-detection systems continued after last week's controversial report by market-research firm Gartner proclaimed them a costly failure that would become obsolete by 2005. Gartner also said customers should invest in firewalls with integrated capabilities instead of intrusion-detection systems. Michael Rasmussen, analyst at Forrester Research, said intrusion-detection technology is not doomed to fail but is evolving into intrusion prevention, which is converging with firewalls. While intrusion detection has been plagued by false positives, it has been proven "powerful in the hands of the right security staff," he said.

Separately, in an interview with CRN, Sandeep Kumar, director of product management at Symantec, said intrusion-detection technology is evolving to meet customer needs. "The idea that we can put all security in a firewall and be able to secure our desktops as well as the core network, in my opinion, is very simplistic and not reflective of reality," Kumar said.

%95 Internet Security Systems' X-Force research team said it has been tracking reports of suspicious Internet traffic worldwide and traced it to a new stealth distributed port-scanning system. X-Force named the program Stumbler and said it appears to be a client capable of scanning and receiving network mapping data from distributed similar clients. The number of infected hosts appears small, limiting Stumbler's effectiveness, but if it were to grow in size, it could be used as a platform for denial-of-service and other attacks, the researchers said.

%95 Symantec said Hewlett-Packard joined its Technology Partner Program with OpenView management software. The companies will jointly market integration of Symantec Enterprise Security Architecture with OpenView, which they said will allow OpenView customers to view security incident alerts via their network management console.

%95 Network Associates, the subject of two federal investigations into its past accounting practices, said it extended the time for filing its restated financial statements for 1998, 1999 and 2000 to Sept. 30. In March, the company said it would restate the years-old financial reports as a result of information obtained in connection with the probes by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice. The vendor is restating the financial statements to reflect revenue on sales to distributors on a sell-through basis and also said it is requesting records from third parties to reconcile its accounts. The volume of the work involved in the restatements is more than it expected, the company said.

%95 Saflink announced the availability of SAFmodule 3.0 for NMAS, a new version of the vendor's biometrics solution for Novell Director Service networks. The software allows Novell eDirectory users to biometrically authenticate over a remote connection such as a Citrix session or Windows Terminal Services.

%95 Fortinet released FortiOS 2.5, a new version of its firmware for its ASIC-based antivirus-firewall appliances that adds new intrusion-prevention capabilities and enhances the firewall, VPN, antivirus and content-filtering capabilities of the devices.

%95 Sybari Software said its shipping Antigen 7.0 for Lotus Domino. The e-mail security software has new central management, attachment and content-filtering options. The product supports Domino 6, R5 and R4 servers with Notes 6 and R5 clients.

%95 NetSec, a provider of managed security services based in Herndon, Va., said it acquired Defcom Information Security, a U.K.-based security services firm.

%95 The Information Technology Association of America and Brainbench, a provider of online skills testing, unveiled the Information Security Awareness Certification education program, which they said is designed to help businesses secure their IT resources by addressing the human factor in cybersecurity. The program covers eight topics for computer users, including computer and Internet best practices, ethics and passwords.

%95 MX Logic said security services firm TruSecure will co-brand MX Logic's e-mail security solution.