Stories by Ellen Messmer

With all of the recent <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/052911-lockheed-martin-acknowledges-significant.html">security problems</a> around <a href="http://www.rsa.com/node.aspx?id=3891">RSA's SecurID</a> two-factor authentication technology as a backdrop, Cisco today made it clear that it's still a major supporter of SecurID by including the two-factor authentication token as a main security component in what Cisco calls its "PCI 2.0 Architecture" of assembled <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/subnets/cisco/">Cisco</a>, EMC, RSA, VMware and HyTrust products.

ORLANDO -- If speedy IT services are important, businesses should be shifting from traditional computing into virtualization in order to build a private cloud that, whether operated by their IT department or with help from a private cloud provider, will give them that edge.

Adapting security and management for the new generation of <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/041811-smartphone-malware-history.html">mobile devices</a> -- everything from the <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/slideshows/2009/060309-apple-quiz.html">Apple</a> <a href="https://www.networkworld.com/slideshows/2010/120101-iphone-quiz.html">iPhone</a> and <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/111910-apple-ipad-resources.html">iPad</a> to Google <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/110910-google-android-useful-resources-smartphones.html">Android</a> devices to name a few -- is turning out to be a huge <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2011/053111-andreas.html">corporate challenge</a>.

Too often, organizations aren't getting as much out of virtualization and hybrid cloud computing as they first thought they would, according to a Symantec survey of 3,700 information technology managers in 35 countries that was published today.

IBM executives said this week that the company is looking to many of its existing tools, from the Tivoli management system to Cognos business intelligence software, to secure private and IBM-hosted hybrid clouds as customers migrate to these new computing setups.

ORLANDO -- IBM kicks off its annual Innovate Conference today with a slew of updated software life-cycle management tools to support software-development teams on a large scale.

Oklahoma City is using technology that not only watches for signs of any hacker activity on its municipal government network, but monitors employee online behavior to assure no one's going out of bounds.

Macintosh users are finding out the hard way what Microsoft Windows users have known for a long time: Criminals want to sell them fake anti-virus software by scaring them with lies that their computer is infected.

Siemens said it intends to fix a vulnerability discovered in its industrial control system products, but the NSS Labs researcher who found the bug says the company seems to be downplaying the seriousness of the problem to save face.

Symantec today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire privately held Clearwell Systems for about $390 million, a move that will put Symantec in the e-discovery market.

With the popularity of its virtual-machine software soaring, VMware has been focusing on optimizing security for its vSphere platform both through cooperation with third-party security vendors and encouraging a shift to its own software-based security architecture known as vShield.

Skype voice and video has tended to trigger IT security angst, and now that Microsoft has bought Skype, some observers are voicing hope that the service will be improved to help it be better managed in an enterprise setting.

Security firm HackLabs is expected to demonstrate at AusCERT 2011 how hackers perform VoIP attacks and identify weaknesses in Cisco and other manufacturers VoIP phones.

Symbian and Microsoft Windows Mobile platforms have been the proving ground for mobile malware over the past five years, but a new Juniper Networks report states that Google Android now takes "the crown" as the platform getting the most attention from malware developers.

Can a chief information security officer (CISO) help prevent the kind of massive data breach that occurred in the Sony PlayStation network breach last month in which attackers grabbed personal information on an estimated 77 million customers of the PlayStation and Qriocity online games?