S3 Group

In a rare patent infringement cases involving Web application security, F5 Networks is suing Imperva for allegedly using its patented application security technology in Imperva’s Web application firewall and other security products.

F5’s patent suit, which the networking and security company filed on May 4, calls for both a preliminary and permanent injunction barring Imperva and others from developing, selling — and using — its Secure Sphere and other products that infringe on F5’s so-called “Method and System for Extracting Application Protocol Characteristics” patent, which was awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2001. The patent, number 6,311,278, is also referred to as the “‘278 patent” in F5’s filing. (full article)

Antispam technologies have become commoditized with most vendors using a mixed cocktail of techniques to filter out unwanted email and identify and block incoming messages containing malicious code.

“It’s difficult to tell one vendor from another,” said Chenxi Wang, principal analyst at Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc. “Every one of them has a 96% to 98% detection rate and there really isn’t new technology anymore.” (full article)

According to the recent Symantec 2010 State of Enterprise Security Survey, 75 per cent of Asia Pacific organizations experienced cyber attacks in the past 12 months, costing enterprise businesses an average of US$763,000 per year.  33 per cent of Singapore enterprises rated the attacks somewhat or highly effective.

The study revealed that 91 percent of Singapore companies regard IT security as an important issue, with 1 in 4 Singapore firms already deploying hosted security services, believed to provide more robust protection backed by experts and research.  Most respondents believe that security expertise is the top benefit of a hosted security service, as compared to having in-house IT personnel who may not have the necessary expertise or resources to keep the system updated and effectively protected against constantly evolving cyber threats. (full article)

An interesting article posted on Banks & Systems Technology by Penny Crossman. This would surely be excellent news for the security vendors.

Banks and BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer, in other words, letting employees use their own computers to work from home and abroad) are two concepts that appear on the surface to be as compatible as oil and water or Obama and the iPad. Security, policy, and compliance issues make the idea seem absurd. But according to Dale Fuller, CEO of MokaFive, who stopped by this evening after having taken a red-eye flight to New York City from California last night and met with bankers all day (we’ve never seen a CEO seem so genuinely grateful for a cup of coffee), many large banks have already adopted a type of desktop virtualization whereby the organization sends a mostly locked-down desktop image to any device, even an iPad or smart phone. (more)

As part of a Data Privacy Day report, Microsoft commissioned a study of over 1,200 hiring and recruitment managers. In one segment, they asked what kinds of sites they considered in researching applicants online. The short answer: almost everything. (more)

The Asia-Pacific managed security services (MSS) market is set to grow steadily over the next five years, crossing the US$4 billion mark by end-2015, according to new predictions from Frost & Sullivan.

The region’s MSS market, including Japan, is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 19.7 percent between 2010 and 2015, boosted by an anticipated increase in demand from small and midsize businesses (SMBs), the market analyst said in a statement Thursday. (more)

Verizon Business has long maintained one of the most ambitious global network roll out strategies in the industry. For starters, the operator has said repeatedly that it wants multiple – seven seems to be the most quoted number – optical routes between any region that it operates in. (more)

Symantec is looking to get partners on-board software-as-a-service by revamping its global Hosted Services channel program.

The software vendor’s vice-president of Symantec Hosted Services for Asia-Pacific, Bjorn Engelhardt, said it was part of a strategy to formalise and further invest into its partner community. Symantec Hosted Services is the former MessageLabs unit, which the security vendor acquired in 2008 for $US695 million.

(more)

Symantec is hoping to improve its position in the data encryption market with the $370 million acquisition of two privately held security firms.

Symantec on Thursday said it planned to buy PGP for $300 million in cash and GuardianEdge for $70 million in cash. The agreements, which are subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, are expected to close in the current quarter.(more)

Here are 10 ways SAP’s new leaders have reinvigorated the company, redefined its strategy, and reestablished the primacy of its customer. (more)