Jaikumar Vijayan

For the proof-of-concept hack, the researchers opened up one of the supposedly tamper-proof terminals, replaced its internal hardware with their own, put it back together without any external evidence of tampering

A U.S. government plan to use radio frequency identification (RFID) chips in a proposed passport card program for U.S. citizens is drawing fire from some quarters. The identification cards would be needed by residents who don't have passports for verifying their identity at land and sea border crossings.

Regulatory requirements and increasing consumer concerns about information security breaches are making data-level security controls a top priority for 2007, according to IT managers at the Computer Security Institute (CSI) trade show in Orlando this week.

IBM's System i computers -- formerly known as the AS/400 and iSeries servers -- have long enjoyed a reputation for rock-solid reliability. But poor security practices by those who manage these systems are making them dangerously vulnerable to compromise, according to a recent study.

Several federal agencies said they will meet an Oct. 27 deadline for starting to issue smart ID cards to workers, but some of the initial rollouts will involve only a small number of cards.

In a full-page advertisement in London's Financial Times, McAfee charged that Microsoft's decision to "shut-off access" to the kernel amounts to anticompetitive behavior. In this interview, Stephen Toulouse, senior product manager with Microsoft's security technology unit, explained his company's position.

Since Microsoft Corp. launched its Trustworthy Computing initiative in January 2002, the company has substantially improved the security of its products, its security chief said this month.

The nearly year-long wait for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to appoint an assistant secretary for cybersecurity and telecommunications is over.