Security

by Paul F Roberts

I'm an experienced writer with a decade of work as a reporter and industry analyst covering IT security, cyber security and hacking. Prior to donning the reporter's cap, I spent close to a decade in the technology field, providing technical communications, product training and marketing and communications services to firms including Cisco Systems, Logica and SteelPoint Technologies (now part of Autonomy Corp. PLC). More recently, I served as editor of the computer security blog Threatpost.com. My writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, Salon.com, Fortune Small Business, as well as ZDNet, Computerworld, InfoWorld, eWeek, CIO , CSO , ITworld as well as long format analysis for The 451 Group. I have provided expert commentary on cyber security and emerging threats for leading news outlets including NPR's Marketplace TechReport. Finally 'yes,' I was a guest on The Oprah Show — but it’s a long story.

Mr. Mitnick, I presume? Africa's coming cyber crime epidemic

Posted Dec 27, 2012 - 12:49 pm

For much of the past quarter century, computer crime has been a decidedly First World problem. But that's about to change, security experts say.
Snowden's big truth: We are all less free

Posted Jun 12, 2013 - 08:00 am

Has Mr. Snowden, in his youthful naiveté, helped expose our own passivity, and complicity with a massive surrender of our Constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties? If it prompts much needed changes to privacy protections, then we all owe Mr. Snowden a debt of gratitude.
privacy
Black Hat: Ad networks lay path to million-strong browser botnet

Posted Jul 29, 2013 - 05:01 am

Long ago, we surrendered our privacy to the web. But research presented at this week’s Black Hat Briefings in Las Vegas suggests that structural problems in the way the web works means we may have also surrendered our security, as well.
ad networks, Black Hat
IPMI: The most dangerous protocol you've never heard of

Posted Aug 19, 2013 - 07:00 am

Another week, another terrifying presentation about security holes in IPMI – a widely used technology for remote management of servers. But will IT administrators heed the warning?
data security, IPMI
Antivirus's star fades, letting new technologies shine

Posted Feb 25, 2013 - 02:54 pm

As if you didn't know it already: antivirus software isn't doing its job, even though it sucks up around 30% of IT security budgets. But where can companies turn next? Two firms think they have an answer.
Secure email is dead

Posted Aug 28, 2013 - 07:00 am

Recent revelations about wide ranging and warrantless government surveillance don’t mean that email is dead – just that you can’t ever trust it again!
email, government
Five reasons Liberty Reserve is the cyber crime story of the year

Posted May 29, 2013 - 01:20 pm

The takedown of Liberty Reserve and the arrest of its founder, Arthur Budovsky, didn't eliminate a spam-spewing botnet or dismantle a shadowy cyber crime group. But its impact on the cyber crime world may be far more profound.
Next up: The Jamming wars

Posted Aug 14, 2013 - 07:00 am

Personal privacy is going to turn from a "right" to a "fight" in the next decade, as individuals take up (digital) arms against government- and private sector snooping on their personal lives.
internet security, privacy
PC cleanup scammer calls Microsoft Malware Protection Center expert. Hilarity ensues.

Posted Mar 11, 2013 - 02:28 pm

What's a bad day for a scammer selling bogus Windows PC clean up services? How about accidentally dialing a guy who works in Microsoft's Malware Protection Center!
3 security things to watch: A Turkish twist, IE's quick fix, Anonymous takes action in high school assault case

Posted Jan 07, 2013 - 03:40 pm

Look for continued fallout from the security lapse at Turkish Certificate Authority TurkTrust this week in security. Also: pressure on Microsoft over IE flaw, and hacktivists take action in high profile high school rape case.

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October is...
Unified Communications Month

BY THE NUMBERS: UC&C

HOW-TO: Look alive and professional in Web meetings

TIP: Use your cell phone as a WiFi VOIP phone

TOOLBOX: Six alternative tools for small business collaboration

CASE STUDY: Enterprise social network moves ad agency into the future

Microsoft's Security Essentials isn't the best antivirus program, according to Microsoft

2 comments
AMD pushes forward with new video cards and a few surprises

2 comments
Change Microsoft Office 2013's default search engine from Bing to Google

2 comments
See - and hear - what it was like to surf the web 20 years ago

1 comment
Valve completes its trifecta of announcements with the Steam Controller

1 comment

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