Sean Michael Kerner

IBM is expanding its Linux solution set today with a new initiative together with Red Hat, Novell and Ubuntu for Microsoft-free PCs. After 10 years of supporting Linux, IBM (NYSE: IBM) continues to challenge Microsoft on multiple fronts and aims to push Linux even further into the enterprise. While IBM has competed and partnered with […]

From the “you can run but you can’t hide” files: LAS VEGAS. There is a lot of chatter out  today about Apple canceling out on a pair of presentations at Black Hat. One of the sessions was supposed to be run by Apple staffers who were going to give an insiders look at how Apple […]

Microsoft is gearing up to expand its Trustworthy Computing initiative by sharing more information with end users and with other security vendors. The Microsoft Exploitability Index and the Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) will provide new visibility into security vulnerabilities that affect Microsoft products. The new initiatives come as Microsoft makes its third appearance at […]

From the “and the secret ingredient is…” files: One of the most interesting sessions at Black Hat 2007 was the Iron Chef session  where researchers battled the clock and each other to find security exploits in applications. This year Iron Chef is back and supersized! I spoke with Fortify’s Jacob West and Brian Chess about […]

Network access control, commonly referred to as NAC, has been one of the most hyped networking technologies in recent years. But that’s changing, according to Juniper Networks. The networking vendor says that NAC — as embodied in a new version of its Unified Access Control (UAC) framework and new hardware — is well beyond the […]

From the “aren’t the 2010 Winter games there?” files: There are a lot of interesting bugs on Mozilla’s bugzilla site. One of the most interesting I’ve ever seen is bug 446804 titled – “Can’t get out of Whistler” It turns out Mozilla has a developer sumitt this week up in Whistler BC. The main road […]

Open source has proven itself in recent years to be a successful mechanism for software vendors — but what about hardware? In the case of open source hardware maker Opengear, open source is working but it’s not working out in the way it had initially expected. Opengear makes hardware management devices for keyboard, video, mouse, […]

From the “better late than never” files: For some unknown reason, Apple did not have a patch available for the DNS flaw that Dan Kaminsky first announced more than two weeks ago, despite the fact that one was available for BIND (which is what Apple uses). Apple has finally gotten off its iPhone rich tail […]

Not all Linux distributions are made with the same components, which can make it difficult for software developers to write applications for multiple Linux distributions. That’s where the Linux Standards Base (LSB) comes into play. For years the LSB has not quite lived up to its full potential. That could all change with the upcoming […]

From the “tomato, tom-ah-to” files: Mozilla Firefox 3 is at risk from a new flaw that is currently unpatched. Whether the flaw is high or low risk depends on who you ask (or read). This AM Radware issued a press release calling the vulnerability – critical. I contacted Mozilla and a few hours later they […]

Oracle has had an interesting record for the past three and a half years when it comes to security. Since January 2005, Oracle has not had to release an out-of-cycle security alert for its products. That record ended this week with the public report of a serious vulnerability in Oracle’s BEA WebLogic Web server, which […]

From the “half truths that journo’s tell” file: I’ve been following the Kaminsky DNS cache exploit issue closely since it was first announced – and no doubt so has everyone else in the security business. As such I was surprised to read a headline this morning that said that Metasploit founder H D Moore (and […]