Bob Francis

As security personnel met at this week's Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas, there was easy money to be made at the security vulnerability table. TippingPoint, 3Com's security division, announced it plans to reward security researchers and hackers who reveal information on newly discovered vulnerabilities as part of its Zero Day Initiative. TippingPoint will pay as much as US$2,000 for a verified vulnerability. iDefense, a security intelligence firm recently acquired by VeriSign, has raised the stakes, saying it will increase its payments for information on vulnerabilities.

A few weeks back I told you about a "friend" of mine who got hit with an IM bug. It was quick, painful, and pretty much fit the definition of "as much fun as a sharp stick in the eye." Apparently my friend is not alone. The IMlogic Threat Center, a global consortium that provides threat detection and protection for IM and peer-to-peer (p-to-p) applications, recently issued its second quarter 2005 report on the rise of IM security threats.

Cisco is embarking on a new direction as it announced details of its first move into the messaging middleware business with its Application-Oriented Network (AON) business unit. With AON, Cisco is adding more intelligence to the network, enabling the network to better understand business application communications to support more effective and efficient business decisions, according to company officials.

IBM and EMC updated their storage products with several new announcements.

Hewlett-Packard opened its StorageWorks conference in Las Vegas with the company's largest release of new storage products and services in its history. Ann Livermore, executive vice president for the technology sales group, said the new storage products and services are responding to three major shifts in the information technology industry.

IT managers have phoned home with their interest in Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP). According to Infonetics Research, North American VOIP service revenue rang up US$1.3 billion in 2004. Sales are expected to continue ringing up to $19.9 billion in 2009, according to the report.

Computer Associates International Inc. recently announced a new architecture for processing identity and access management that will become the backbone for its next-generation eTrust security product, while Symantec Corp. revealed plans for a new version of LiveState Recovery Manager that targets the enterprise.

Visual Networks Inc., a provider of network and application performance management solutions, announced the immediate availability of a suite of on-site Voice over IP...