Access control and authentication - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Extreme takes aim at secure mobile networking

  Extreme Networks is going mobile. The company today wheeled out a roadmap that will steer the company's product line toward mobile device and application access, availability and management support.

• Google boosts log-in protection for its users

  Google will offer its hundreds of millions of users the option of adding a second verification step when signing into their accounts, to complement the existing password-only authentication mechanism.

• ShmooCon: Eavesdropping easy on Evite

  Web service Evite offers more than a convenient way to send out e-mail invitations to events. For those with even a modest amount of malicious gumption, the site can also provide a treasure trove of personal information, at least according to one security researcher.

• IBM DeveloperWorks site defaced

  An IBM site for developers was defaced over the weekend, with attackers replacing some of the Web pages on the site with ones containing their own messages, IBM confirmed Monday.

• Hacked iTunes accounts continue to sell in China

  The sale of iTunes accounts that have reportedly been hacked has yet to be stopped by Apple or the Chinese e-commerce site hosting the sellers.

• Cloud Security Alliance updates controls matrix

  The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) has launched a revision of the Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM). The new matrix (version 1.1), available for free download, is designed to provide fundamental security principles to guide cloud vendors and help prospective cloud customers assess the overall security risk of a cloud provider.

• How secure is Windows Phone 7 app code?

  A recent glitch on Microsoft's download servers for brand new Windows Phone 7 applications has sparked widespread Internet chatter among developers and focused new attention on the best ways to protect smartphone apps from being hacked.

• Attachmate to feast on Novell technologies

  With its pending US$2.2 billion purchase of Novell, Attachmate is acquiring a rich portfolio of technologies. The next step will be actually putting these riches to work, analysts said Monday.

• VMware aims to give IT more control over SaaS apps

  VMware is working on products that will give enterprises more control over Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, including how users are authenticated, company CTO Steve Herrod, said in an interview on Tuesday.

• Google adds OAuth support to Google Apps

  Joining a growing number of enterprise and consumer-facing Web services, Google has added support in Google Apps for the OAuth authorization profile, the company announced Monday.

• OAuth 2.0 security used by Facebook, others called weak

  The emerging OAuth 2.0 Web API authorization protocol, already deployed by Facebook, Salesforce.com and others, is coming under increased criticism for being too easy to use, and therefore to spoof by malicious hackers.

• Twitter API has new third party sign-on method

  Users of obscure third-party Twitter applications may be surprised to find that their apps no longer work, if the app creators of those apps haven't been keeping up with changes in the Twitter API (application programming interface).

• Security blunders 'dumber than dog snot'

  Voltaire is famous for noting that the main problem with common sense is that it's not all that common. Proof of that abounds in the security industry, where people who should know better do idiotic things daily, according to Roger G. Johnston, a member of the vulnerability assessment team at Argonne National Laboratory.

• Elcomsoft releases iPhone 4 password cracker

  Russian password-cracking company Elcomsoft has released new software that can in some instances figure out the password used to encrypt backed-up iPhone data.

• Terry Childs is denied motion for retrial

  The former San Francisco network administrator who refused to hand over passwords for one of the city's networks was denied a new trial on Friday and is expected to be sentenced Aug. 6, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said.