Online social networking sites are skyrocketing in popularity, but now experts say those sites have become a major target for so-called "phishers," who are using these sites to lure users into their scams.

WALTHAM, Mass. & LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today at Mercury World 2006, Watchfire, the worldwide market-leading provider of web application vulnerability assessment software and services announced integration and support for Mercury Quality Center? 9.0. AppScan? offers solutions for all types of security testing ?outsourced, desktop-user and enterprise-wide analysis. Now, Watchfire?s web application security testing solutions, AppScan, and AppScan? Enterprise both integrate with the most recent version of Mercury TestDirector?, part of Mercury Quality Center?. Watchfire will also exhibit and demonstrate the integrations within the Mercury World 2006 Partner Showcase.

Symantec is expanding its focus from securing devices to protecting information, the company said at an event in New York.

Dubbed 'Security 2.0', the new initiative will seek to restore consumer confidence in online transactions while allowing enterprises to further expand their online commerce initiatives without compromising their security.

The majority of higher education managers experienced at least one information technology security incident last year and one-third reported a data loss or theft.

Microsoft on Monday released a new beta for its Windows Live OneCare security service, marking the first time that the anti-virus software runs on Windows Vista.

Windows Live OneCare Beta 1.5, which can be downloaded and used free of charge, is available in 17 localised editions for countries that include the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK Earlier editions were for US customers only.

A senior Microsoft executive has promised that its new operating system will be more secure than ever.

Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International, said that beefing-up security was one reason behind delays to Windows Vista.

Microsoft has been criticised for flaws in previous systems that left users vulnerable to attacks by hackers.

Celestix Networks Inc., developer of enterprise class security appliances, today announced the launch of seven different models of security appliances based on Microsoft Internet Security&Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006. These purpose-built appliances are designed to meet the rigorous reliability, performance and management standards of businesses of all sizes.

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Internet Initiative Japan Inc. (?IIJ?, NASDAQ: IIJI, TSE Mothers: 3774), one of Japan's leading Internet access and comprehensive network solutions providers, today announced the November 1 release of the IIJ Managed Firewall Service, a new managed security service that uses an anomaly detection(1) system and comes with a Service Level Agreement (SLA)(2).

During the past year, the Passive Vulnerability Scanner's rules were modified to detect network proxies and firewalls. This process also involved the reduction of reporting multiple browser types for different hosts running behind a NAT device or proxy.

As an example, what happens if PVS (or any sniffer, IDS, etc.) see's the following string in a packet leaving the network?

Ounce Labs, the leader in software security assurance, today announced product integration that combines its product's source code security assessment results with findings from Cenzic? Hailstorm?, SPI Dynamics? WebInspect?, and Watchfire? AppScan?. Advancements in Ounce's open architecture enable customers now to import results directly from their existing penetration testing tools to achieve a higher level of insight into the security of their software.