Articles by Jack M. Germain

Renewed interest in biometric security is heating up the cell phone industry in Asia. Industry watchers report that advanced security devices using biometrics are already popular in technology hungry countries in Asia and Europe However, new biometric products already available to businesses and consumers are lagging behind in the U.S. marketplace....

Move over all you unsolicited ads for Vicodin and Viagra. Make way senders of ads for phony Rolex watches and new mortgages. You are about to share in-box space with something much more ethereal. Spiritual spam is on the rise Managed e-mail and Internet security firm MessageLabs has spotted an emerging trend for unsolicited e-mail containing religi...

As attention focuses on the increasing spyware threats to enterprise networks, vendors are beginning to view the enterprise landscape as fertile ground for anti-spyware protection Webroot Software, a developer of Internet privacy and protection software, recently completed the first audit of spyware in the enterprise. The audit found more than 20 s...

A new generation of anti-spam artillery is helping Internet Service Providers fight more successful battles in the war against spammers IronPort Systems is arming some of the largest ISPs with a new type of Reputation Filter powered by the SenderBase E-mail Traffic Monitoring Network. This filtering system gives the computer industry a new tool in ...

In the not-too-distant past, search toolbars were risky specialty add-ons offered by Internet marketing mavens. Users who installed search toolbars often were granting permission without knowing it to intruders harvesting data on addresses and surfing habits and opening the backdoor to their computers Spyware typically went hand-in-hand with toolba...

For years there existed a fuzzy distinction between good and bad computer hackers. Black Hat hackers were known to crack into computer systems for the challenge and the bragging rights. These miscreants took great pleasure from wreaking havoc once they gained entry. White Hat hackers, on the other side of the ethical line, broke into systems to alert company officials to their ineffective security measures. As concerns about network security grew, computer security companies sprung up and often recruited their experts from the ranks of the White Hatters...

Spyware and its intimate partner, adware, are among the fastest growing threats to computer users. Many Internet security experts now view spyware and adware as variations of the same thing -- intrusion Industry analysts say spyware and adware together infect at least 90 percent of all Internet-connected PCs. The number of malcreants doing the spyi...

Today is the federally mandated deadline for investment companies and other publicly owned firms to be in compliance with internal auditing controls stipulated by the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act of 2004. However, it appears many companies might miss the deadline Under terms of the SOX law, otherwise known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and In...

Some Internet security experts don't place much hope for pending antiphishing legislation to do much to prevent ID theft and related scams. They view the prospect of new laws as being too little, too late to stop an out-of-control problem Phishing scams trick e-mail recipients into clicking a link in the message to reach a vendor's Web site, where ...

An industrywide survey shows that corporate networks are being bombarded with spyware infiltration in record numbers, but relatively few corporations are deploying adequate solutions to combat the threat The survey, conducted by Equation Research for Internet security firm Webroot Software, canvassed more than 275 IT managers and executives nationw...

Dell has declared war on spyware with its announcement on October 20 that all of its computers will ship with a free security software package. Dell will begin bundling the security package in its computers as soon as the spyware component is ready, something company officials expect will occur between early November and the holidays Dell's decisio...

Biometric technology has been around for more than a decade with little fanfare. However, interest is heating up for biometric security devices in communications. Iris scanners, voice recognition modules and fingerprint readers promise to raise the bar on locking down access to computers, networks, Web sites and even cell phones One of the hottest ...

Antivirus software is a required component for safe computing. Security experts warn that an unprotected computer straight out of the box and connected to the Internet will catch multiple virus infections in its first 20 minutes online Antivirus software programs, however, are only reliable if they are regularly updated with the latest detection si...

Biometric security, at least in theory, has been around for a decade. But the use of biometrics for computer security and user authentication has failed to attract much practical interest to date because the clunky devices were costly, inconvenient, and intrusive All that could change this week when IBM introduces a fingerprint reader built into it...

Spyware and its intimate partner, adware, are among the fastest growing threats to computer users. Many Internet security experts now view spyware and adware as variations of the same thing -- intrusion Industry analysts say spyware and adware together infect at least 90 percent of all Internet-connected PCs. The number of malcreants doing the spyi...

One year ago, the prospects for developing biometrics as a reliable security device for computers were viewed by many industry watchers as a nice idea with little applicable potential. After all, biometric security devices have been available in one form or another for 30 years. But the use of biometrics for computer security and user authentication lacked much enthusiasm because of ill-placed perceptions that the procedures were costly, inconvenient and intrusive...

In the financial workplace, e-mail and instant messaging (IM) are becoming essential enterprise tools. Once the province of teens chatting with their friends, instant messaging is now relied on by brokerage firms and other financial companies to maintain contact with clients. An ever-increasing number of government regulations and industry-specific rules make compliance with secure-messaging criteria mandatory...

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is continuing to wage its war against peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks. On August 25, the RIAA filed new copyright infringement lawsuits against 744 individuals on a variety of peer-to-peer platforms, including eDonkey, Limewire, Grokster and Kazaa Meanwhile, the U.S. Court of Appeals in ...

The Internet has brought dramatic changes to the way companies communicate and people conduct their business relationships. One of the hottest marketing trends for businesses across all industry lines involves using the power of the Internet to provide virtual meeting spaces. Web conferencing and Web-based seminars are quickly replacing traditional business travel and telephone conference-call strategies...

Computer users, faced with never-ending security attacks from surfing the Internet and opening e-mail, are showing increased interest in switching Web browsers. Downloads of popular non-Microsoft Web browsers have doubled this summer, software makers say The trend toward considering alternative browsers comes on the heals of a warning in June by th...