Stories about: Good Guys

Version 3.0 of BackTrack has been released. BackTrack is a Linux-based distribution dedicated to penetration testing or hacking (depending on how you look at it). It contains more than 300 of the world's most popular open source or freely distributable hacking tools.

In January, Kevin Kelly wrote an essay entitled "Better Than Free" that explained which concepts held value on the Internet. This generated a lot of interest, mostly around the question of how best to make money out of these concepts. As a career security guy, I found myself wondering how on earth my field will respond -- how does security need to adapt to support business models based on these values? When we're used to locking everything down, how do we respond when people start calling for openness?

The next time you relinquish your personal identity to simply enter a venue or purchase something, spare a thought for how the information might be stored, transmitted and used in the future. Such an overload of identity information may lead to a dramatic escalation in fraud, claims one legal eye.

Those who commit cybercrime know they need to stay on the cutting edge of technology to come up with new and different ways to swindle people. Luckily, the good guys are also spending time in research labs developing ways to thwart the latest tricks employed by spammers, phishers and other criminals.

Enterprise security decision makers have long been more likely to be swayed by flashy new technologies than by the notion of comprehensive IT restructuring to protect data and other corporate assets, but the situation is evolving rapidly, according to experts participating in Forrester Research's ongoing Security Forum.

It's a good time to be a malicious hacker. That's because even though it's not a time of revolutionary new techniques in hacking for profit, business is booming for the established methods. Despite increased investment in information security defenses, the good guys continue to lag badly behind. According to one report by Sophos, which called the recent uptick in ­malware a "deluge," by April 2007, more than 250,000 websites were hosting malicious code and more than 8,000 were being added to that total every day.

There are battles and there are wars.

Whether you're charged with preventing hacks, protecting assets, stopping fraud or defending trademarks, Google and other search engines present a new mix of risks for everybody in the security game

Criminals use online auctions as a place to unload stolen, diverted and counterfeit products. EBay does little to stop them, creating more work for CSOs. Here's what smart companies do.

Internet Security Systems Chairman, CEO and President Tom Noonan says customers increasingly are looking for security platforms that do two basic things: Let the good guys in and keep the bad guys out. He spoke with Network World's Editor in Chief John Dix and News Editor Bob Brown. Here is an edited transcript of Noonan's thoughts on a host of topics.