Stories about: BMC Software

A unique demonstration showed user-centric identity software from major vendors, start-ups, one-woman projects and open source hackers all working in concert to replace passwords with validated identity-card access to Web-based resources.

As information security professionals, we tend to throw around certain terms when we talk about how information security should be implemented. Lately, when I've gone to meetings or written an e-mail that gives me a chance to evangelize about our security needs, my terms of preference have been "rule of least privilege" and "separation of duties."

Open source has encompassed all areas of software applications and services, so there was little doubt that authentication would, sooner or later, be part of this fast growing movement. OpenLDAP, the open source directory project, has been with us for quite some time. But there's a new movement to create an authentication protocol, to standardize how authentication data is exchanged.

Symantec will buy Veritas Software in an all-stock transaction, the companies announced Thursday. Based on Wednesday's closing stock prices, the deal values Veritas at around US$13.5 billion, they said.

Lend Lease had antivirus software running on all of the gateways, e-mail servers and desktops that serve its 10,000 workers worldwide, but that wasn't enough to prevent a Blaster attack on Aug. 3, 2003. That incident prompted the global real estate management and financing company to begin a process that resulted in a sweeping revamp of its IT infrastructure.