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.

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
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
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
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
Breaking Bad(ware): Micro-targeting hits the spam world

Posted Sep 23, 2013 - 02:15 pm

A new spam run targeting fans of the cult show Breaking Bad proves that for spammers (and other business folk) we are the sum of the niche groups we align ourselves with.
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
Cyber's Strangelovian moment?

Posted Feb 25, 2013 - 10:03 pm

A steady drumbeat of news about sophisticated cyber attacks against our government and leading institutions has attendees at this year's RSA conference in a fever. And that may be bad for security.
apt, cybersecurity
Security stories to watch: Security firm Bit9 hacked. Also: Microsoft megapatch and identity management

Posted Feb 11, 2013 - 04:20 pm

The hack of security firm Bit9 reminds us that application whitelists work great at stopping malware ... until they don't. And: Microsoft prepares a mystery 'double patch' of the Internet Explorer web browser, fueling speculation.
Holes in common component could leave office printers open to attack

Posted Jan 21, 2013 - 12:55 pm

Forget "PC LOAD LETTER," a vulnerability in a standard component of modern office printers may make hardware from a wide range of vendors vulnerable to denial of service attacks and data theft, according to a researcher for security firm ViaForensics.
Mobile vendors go their own way on security at FTC event

Posted Jun 04, 2013 - 04:12 pm

Mobile phone makers were in agreement that the security and privacy of their customer was their top concern. But that was about all they could agree on

Join us:

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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