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Wildman shareholders CANNOT lose sight of this-
This is a document put forth by Wave, studied to make sure all the I's are dotted and T's are crossed. They had to prepare and present- write,rewrite and edit and then have the lawyers check it over before it is sent to the shareholders and the SEC. You cannot even compare this as a slip up, as if some sort of error in a letter to the shareholders. This is the most damn important document a shareholder to a company can receive. This is unadulterated BS for sure. This is an ultimate disrespect to every long time share holder of this company. This isn't an NDA or best guess or even missed guidance. This is OUR nuts and bolts manual to the financial guts of the company we own. I cannot buy for one second this wasn't intentional.
Dave
Don't buy the take over garbage either.
It will only happen if they want it to.
The company has 150M shares at it's disposal- not all issued. This discusses the number of shares in the treasury going up as the reverse pulled them out of the market. Follow the lower part of the message down for the Anti-Takeover passage.
from last years proxy+
Upon effectiveness of the reverse stock split, the
number of authorized shares of our Class A common stock that are not
issued and outstanding would increase from approximately 41,194,000 shares to
approximately 95,597,000, 113,731,000 or 122,798,000 shares, depending on
whether the split ratio determined by the board of directors is 1:2, 1:3 or
1:4, respectively. Upon effectiveness of the reverse stock split, the number of
authorized shares of our Class B common stock that are not issued and
outstanding would increase from approximately 12,824,000 shares to
approximately 12,912,000, 12,941,000 or 12,956,000 shares, depending on whether
the split ratio determined by the board of directors is 1:2, 1:3 or 1:4,
respectively. We will continue to have a total of 150 million authorized shares
of Class A Common Stock, 13 million authorized shares of Class B
Common Stock and 2 million authorized but unissued shares of preferred stock.
The reverse stock split is not proposed as part of any plan, proposal or
arrangement with respect to any acquisition or financing by the Company.
However, we note that there are currently two effective shelf registration
statements filed on Form S-3 (and declared effective by the SEC on
May 10, 2004 and January 13, 2006, respectively) pursuant to which
shares of the Company’s common stock could be issued.
"Potential
Anti-Takeover Effects
If the Proposed Amendments are approved by our
stockholders and the reverse stock split is implemented, the increased
proportion of unissued authorized shares to issued shares could, under certain
circumstances, have an anti-takeover effect. These authorized but unissued
shares could be used by the Company to oppose a hostile takeover attempt or to
delay or prevent a change of control or changes in or removal of our board of
directors, including a transaction that may be favored by a majority of our
stockholders or in which our stockholders might receive a premium for their
shares over then-current market prices or benefit in some other manner. For
example, without further stockholder approval, our board of directors could
issue and sell shares thereby diluting the stock ownership of a person seeking
to effect a change in the composition of our board of directors or to propose
or complete a tender offer or business combination
involving us and potentially strategically placing shares with purchasers who
would oppose such a change in our board or such a transaction. Although the
increased proportion of unissued authorized shares to issued shares could,
under certain circumstances, have an anti-takeover effect, the reverse stock
split is not being proposed in response to any effort of which we are aware to
accumulate the shares of our common stock or obtain control of us, nor is it
part of a plan by our management to recommend a series of similar amendments to
our board of directors and stockholders.
Our board of directors
does not intend to use the reverse stock split as a part of or first step in a “going
private” transaction pursuant to Rule 13e-3 under the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
Dave
That's about as piss poor as it gets.
They knew the options were running low and for them to have pushed this out the door and then claim ignorance is inexcusable. I am sorry that this is going to cost the company an extra 40K. This 40K is peanuts compared to some of the other money that has been flushed over the years. Guess what, since this is THEIR mistake it should be taken from someone's guarenteed bonus this year. Anyone that buys this line is a rube. The annual meeting comes once a year and the proxy material should not be put together overnight. There is no excuse-no excuse for this oversight. None. That even pisses me off more than the prior reasoning as to why they needed this. I don't buy this one second. I hope this sort of sloppy follow through hasn't been in evidence when they have been trying to close a deal. That just sealed a NO from me.
Dave
Slate the clarification is a huge point
They did not need this incentive to bring Thomas Hojdono(sp) in recently. True the 500K could be for heavy hitters. It could also be a way to replace shares already owned, putting that money in one's pocket when sold and getting a year end tax loss write off. Will either of these happen-hard to say. All I know is they have had new hires come on board and it is still the same names year aftert year holding the options. Berger has come on board-no options that I can see, and there are probably others. There is nothing in the past history that guarentees thes will be used for new hires only and not a way for the head honchos to make themselves whole after the RS as it seems these numbers triple the old option plan across the board. there is nothing in the past history that suggest they will use this for what we hope and there is nothing in the proxy that will hold them to it either.
Dave
I would imagine that the plan would have to be change by a vote, so I assume that it is still in effect as written , unless someone can provide otherwise.
Dave
Rachel
What else flies in the face, on the surface anyhow, is why now? They were able to bring in Hardono(sp?) and fill a few other positions in the wake of the RS last year and into this year with no significant Dell rev- remeber SKS giving the salesmen the business- and Seagate not officially a done deal. These were all knowns to those in Lee months ago, yet there was no urgency to updating the option plan. The yearly maximum wanted in this proxy is more than was probably on hand at this time last year. The seven year window and the triannual PP don't jive at all with me either.
Dave
Exactly 1260
We were told for years about why they could not/WOULD NOT purchase on the open market. I don't see how this is any different, especially when it seems to eliminate the RS penalty on their option plan. At this juncture there is no need to change from what was sufficent in years prior.
Dave
Scorpio
from the proxy:
"If and to the extent that options granted under the Directors Plan expire or terminate without having been exercised, new options may be granted thereunder with respect to the shares covered by such expired or terminated option, provided that the grant and the terms of such new options shall in all
respects comply with the provisions of the Directors Plan."
Unless I misunderstand here, it's seems they can just replace the number of expired option with new option without shareholder approaval as long as it it same in as out.
With this language already active they could lure new talent by reissuing shares to cover those expired if that number was adequate. If we are to believe that Seagate rev will be amassing and shouldn't Dell start ramping up as well?- Wave should then have more than enough rev coming in later this year to bring in new talent. This scenario also allows the shareholders to see traction and puts this whole scenario to rest.
Dave
Regardless of where you come out on this issue.........
At this juncture to hear so many supportive voices that have been behind nearly everything this company has done for so many years cast a critical eye speaks volumes. For better or worse the company's actions have brought this on. I will make this prediction: should this measure pass and be exploited by those in power the blanket passing of anything will cease. My worst fear would be to see this pass, an exercising of these options which would be read as a bullish thing by the wave community sending the price upwards only to be followed by selling of older shares by these same folks. The number of options is just to large at this point for me.
Dave
This isn't about getting fleeced, it's about what is right.
The reason this decision is being so passionately discussed-and deservedly so- rests squarely on those in Lee. Many suggest the past should not dictate the future. The shareholder base that has been here for years have endured many things. We could read off a laundry list of bad and good. Despite that, there has been a lot of good that hasn't been reflected in the shareprice that has led this core group of shareholders to give some of these things that have rubbed others the wrong way a pass. I have taken the time to review the annual reports over the years and there is one thing that is a sticking point for me here- unrelated as it may be to this issue per se, but still very very bothersome. The only numbers that have historically been significant and tangible throughout the history of this company has been those that are tied into the men at the top. Salary, options, and partial bonus money are there in black and white. The shareholders haven't had that luxury, nervously awaiting revenues, contract announcements, guidance from these same men only to see these numbers missing the mark or not showing up at all. For better or worse the action and past history in Lee has directed the tone of this very important conversation. Words from SKS and others are just that-words. Kev is right it does not change a thing about what is in this proxy. If the company has heard these valid concerns from the shareholder base- and it is about the number of options granted not about the need of this revamping- a letter should be sent to the shareholders explaining why this needs to be done. As a show of good faith to these same sharholders, they should also recommend this issue be voted down in the proxy with a special vote being taken on this issue only with a more acceptable level of yearly options. Should this measure pass as written today and anything that remotely looks like a grab by those in Lee, it could damage the need for something at a future date. The shareholders deserve far better than this proposal, given the free reign they have given Lee to operate under with no return for years. Limiting this request to a few million shares this year isn't to much to ask from this shareholders point of view.
Dave
I am in the "excessive" camp.
While I understand the need to want to up the option ante, this looks like nothing more than a grab to me. It is the number of potential options available and the potential to abuse that which the shareholders have granted the company. If this company is going to have the wild success that many have expected for years there are other ways to secure talent. The braintrust is guarenteed bonuses per the proxy materials. Nothing mandates they take it. With success on the cusp there is nearly a few hundred K at their disposal to bring in new talent. They have found a way to pay very large six figures in combined bonus monies that they could well reward themselves in the future when real revenues have started coming in. I read earlier about concern with losing control of the company and these shares would ensure that not happening. Lest we forget there are option on the table today with some not expiring until the next decade. These are out of the money for sure, but that cost would be a minimum if the control of the company was at stake.
The belief in the space and technology is what keeps many heavy invested here. The shareholders have given this company and it's directors a pass on many things. I just think this should not be one of them. There have been many examples of special shareholder votes taken outside of the annual meetings of other companies-CVM being one that I owned. Ask for a more reasonable amount and then come back later should the other options be needed/warranted. Unless the proxy is revised, my shares and the other longs I know that do not post at all will be voting no. FYI I went back through the Wave annual reports from 96 on and could not find anything about SKS getting 1M dollar bonus.
Dave
Democracy as we know it here will never be instituted in Iraq, this is a pipe dream and being presented in a false manner to the American people. Take a look around the region and see how many of those nations participate in a democracy as we know it. The only thing I recognize is the the trade. There is far too much history intertwined between the peoples and the religous factions for the US to just impose a new way of being governed and life. If they believed that idealism then we have the wrong people running the show, and that has become more evident as the days pass. There have beeen many instances of civil unrest in that are that have never been able to play themselves out because of the intervention of forces from outside that region. At some point these need to be resolved among those in that area. I worked with a woman, older woman forced out of Serbia many decades ago. The atrocities that those people faced, be it Serbian and Croatian are something I don't think we as American can understand. She told me of a tower near one of the Serbian towns made of Serbian skulls stacked upon one another by the Croats who ran the town over and slaughtered those who did not escape as a reminder. This is the horror that many of these people in areas of great unrest carry down from generation to generation that no promise of democracy or intervention can erase. I don't suspect this part of the world is any different.
As unbelievable as it is-yes it is.
I can't imagine I am in the minority here.
Dave
Awk
I pictured the offices in a more formal setting. This looks like an industrial parkway wherehouse I worked in once. Certainly far from what I expected.
Dave
Any truth to this?
http://cygnuscap.blogspot.com/
Dave
Nobody knows for sure, it seem like it changes from quarter to quarter
That would be $18 today Dory.eom
a "get out of jail free" card"
Seagate ships first TPM hard drives
Wolfgang Gruener
March 12, 2007 07:00
Scotts Valley (CA) - Seagate today said it has begun shipping its first hard drives equipped with a trusted platform module (TPM) and DriveTrust technology. The drives aim to increase data security, making it much more difficult for unauthorized users to access data on computers.
Seagate's first customer to offer notebooks with the Momentus 5400.2 FDE drive is ASI, which will be offering the hard drives in its notebook models C8015 and C8015+. According to Seagate, the Momentus drive encrypts data automatically with AES 128-bit keys and allows access to stored content only through pre-boot authentication.
In a related announcement, Wave Systems said it has begun offering DriveTrust software for the new Seagate hard drive. The "Embassy Trust Suite" is marketed as "comprehensive security suite" and includes trusted client applications as well as remote IT management; The "Embassy Security Center" provides TPM-based password vaults and key and password management; the "Embassy Drive Manager" enables IT managers to manage FDE drives and enables "advanced DriveTrust" features. For example there are user level passwords that will unlock only the contents of the drive, while administrator level passwords enable access to features such as to securely wipe the data from the FDE drive in a single step.
Wave representatives said that the features of the FDE drive and the DriveTrust software can serve as a "get out of jail free" card, as critical data is kept secure, even if a notebook gets lost or is stolen.
Looks like NAC is stuck in the mud
http://www.itweek.co.uk/itweek/news/2185181/weak-networks-nac-bypass
Weak networks need NAC bypass
Confusion reigns due to lack of clear definitions
Martin Courtney, IT Week, 09 Mar 2007
The majority of current network access control (NAC) solutions fail to address basic security problems, and the proprietary approach adopted by Cisco, Microsoft and the Trusted Computing Group is blocking the development of a certified, interoperable NAC standard.
Ofir Arkin, chief technology officer (CTO) at network security specialist Insightix, says that the lack of a clear definition of what NAC is and does is confusing potential customers, and allowing vendors to tag the NAC label onto a broad range of products that do not merit the description.
Host admission control schemes are designed to protect enterprise networks by allowing or denying network access to PCs, laptops and other devices based on the health and security status of those machines.
The best-known examples are Cisco’s Network Access Control (NAC), Microsoft’s Network Access Protection (NAP), and the TCG’s Trusted Network Connect (TNC), but a host of other software vendors are jumping on the NAC bandwagon, including Symantec and Sygate.
‘Each of the Cisco, Microsoft and TCG initiatives are trying to put more and more companies onto their approach, rather than thinking about how to work out a mutual standard or work together,’ said Arkin.
‘Cisco concluded in 2003 about how NAC should work, but you can call anything a NAC solution – the problem is what it is doing and whether it has the type of components that a NAC solution should have.’
Arkin says most NAC solutions fall at the first hurdle through their inability to keep real time conceptual information about the network, which means that any element is allowed to operate without intervention.
Another problem is that the 802.1x security measures only enforce usernames and passwords for computers, and not printers, IP telephone handsets, cameras or wireless access points, leaving them open to have their MAC addresses discovered and re-used by hackers.
‘Many companies are looking for a silver bullet that does everything in terms of network security and management, but this does not exist. NAC is one important piece of an internal network security infrastructure, but you need to understand its capabilities and its limits, and what it actually provides,’ added Arkin.
Seagate top executives to visit Dubai, Egypt this week
Posted onSunday, 4 March 2007
Industry SectorIT
CountryUnited Arab Emirates
Client(s)Seagate Technology
Press Release Content
Seagate Technologies, the worldwide leader in hard drive and digital storage solutions, is sending a delegation of senior executives to Dubai and Egypt this week to boost its presence and investment in the region and expand the market for dynamic storage solutions and digital content.
The five-member delegation, led by Don Kennedy and Marc Jourlait, Seagate's Vice President Global Channel Sales and Marketing and its Vice President Global B2B Marketing respectively, will meet with distributors, clients and potential business partners in the region from March 4.
Seagate currently accounts for more than 30 per cent of the regional market for digital storage, estimated to reach four million units annually. The rising popularity of shareable and portable digital content, including music, video, photos and games, and Seagate's recent acquisition of digital storage specialist Maxtor could drive those numbers much higher.
"Seagate is committed to serving the Middle East market to the best of its ability, and the upcoming visit is only one example of our sincerity and dedication," Kennedy said. "Seagate has a track record of moving quickly when it decides to focus on new markets. 2007 is going to be a big year of investments for Seagate in the Middle East."
In November 2006, Seagate identified the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt as the three major growth markets in the MENA region. It has since established the Cairo Service Centre as part of its focus on improving customer care in the region.
Seagate's DAVE devices have also grabbed the region's attention. The Digital Audio Video Experience technology is designed to store, play and share digital files on mobile phones, personal computers, wireless consumer electronics devices and large enterprise networks.
The company also recently announced partnerships with Quantum SPA and STMicroelectronics to produce hard drive-based mobile devices that will allow consumers to receive, record and play back digital television signals. Seagate has also partnered with Microsoft to promote and raise awareness for data backup.
The delegation to the Middle East also includes Gulfem Cakmakci, Channel Sales Manager EMEA; and Ziad Abou Rahal, MEA Channel Manager.
With more than a quarter century of industry expertise, Seagate continues to be the driver of innovative solutions for the storage industry. Today no other hard drive manufacturer matches Seagate's breadth of solutions. With more than 40 products covering home computing to enterprise data centers, Seagate delivers advanced solutions for every industry that requires digital storage.
The company leads the industry in research and development, with a focus on bringing to market new technologies that will meet the needs of future generations. It has been first to market with technologies that power digital life, from the home to the hand to the car and the office, such as perpendicular recording, hardware-enabled full disk encryption and hybrid drives, and continues to invest in the development of new technologies to increase performance, speed and area density (the ability to store more data in less space).
Notes and contacts
About Seagate
Seagate is the worldwide leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of hard disc drives, providing products for a wide-range of applications, including Enterprise, Desktop, Mobile Computing, Consumer Electronics and Branded Solutions. Seagate's business model leverages technology leadership and world-class manufacturing to deliver industry-leading innovation and quality to its global customers, and to be the low cost producer in all markets in which it participates. The company is committed to providing award-winning products, customer support and reliability to meet the world's growing demand for information storage.
You can learn more about this press release by visiting - www.seagate.com
Contact Details
NameMazen El Dirany
Job TitleSenior Executive Media Relations
CompanyAsda'a
Telephone971 4 3344550
Emailm.dirany@asdaa.com
The article was fair and accurate
Given the space alloted for such an article, Danny did a nice job covering some of the history, warts, bruises, hope and promise that this company has shown. About as fair and balanced as one could have hoped for and expected.
Dave
Right on Awk
Still holding on here but a little distressed at what could be coming the next few quarters, given where we thought we would be. Have not be following the day to day action, just waiting for the signs that this is ready to roll. Haven't seen it yet. As far as the Hakim article goes, the story is in the stockholders, not the stock at this point. The company has put themselves in great positions many times but has failed to follow through- in a purely business and investing metric sense. The story of the core base of shareholders and boards and research that has been done by this said group holds far more interest than a company that has sputtered along for so many years on the cusp and brink of failure. I think this story is far more interesting and is what would draw more attention, the unearthing of items that keeps these investors in the game-the many connections of companies, dissecting of the many technical papers and the peeling back of many companes that are using Wave's tech that we have found here.
Remember this is a daily and not a technical publication. If it focused soley on the company you would get a overview of the company- early promise, delisting, relisting, Wavemeter that went nowhere, a fortunate 123M or thereabouts of financing before the shareprice bottom, non start with Finread, trust keyboard that went nowhere, a deal with Intel, SEC lawsuit, DELL, Gateway, DOD consulting, a relationship with Seagate that has yet to generate revs, 4 or thereabouts PP per year the last 3 or 4 years and a reverse split that after a run up hs the stock trading near the pre split levels. The investors have a better story, and can TELL the story far better than the company can at this point. The investors are the Wave story.
Coviello: In 3 years, no more stand-alone security
By Bill Brenner, Senior News Writer
06 Feb 2007 | SearchSecurity.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- Art Coviello made a bold declaration during his RSA Conference 2007 keynote address Tuesday: In three years, the security industry as it is today will cease to exist. And, he said, that's a good thing.
Coviello, president of EMC Corp.'s RSA Security division, said the vast array of standalone security devices on the market today will go the way of the dinosaur.
He said security will be increasingly integrated into the larger IT infrastructure produced by tech giants like Microsoft, IBM and Cisco Systems Inc. That integration is necessary because companies can no longer protect critical information with the patchwork of security software and hardware now in use.
"We're victims of too much of a good thing -- too much information," Coviello said. "Ninety-six percent of the world's data is created digitally today. With that torrent, is there any doubt about the immense challenge before us? You can't secure what you can't manage."
He said it's hard to manage information security when many antivirus programs are constantly two months behind the latest threats, and the typical IDS appliance is only catching 70% of intrusions. Such security products will be a waste of money going forward, headed, unless they're built into infrastructure.
"We've built stronger walls around the data, but that data is fluid and won't stay behind the wall in the first place," he said. "We need to secure the king instead of the castle. Information is king and it likes to move around."
He said acquisitions made by big IT infrastructure companies in recent months -- including EMC's $2.1 billion acquisition of RSA last July and IBM's $1.3 billion purchase of Internet Security Systems Inc. (ISS) last August -- shows that the industry's largest vendors understand what's at stake.
EMC took another step toward integrating security into its storage and data management portfolio Tuesday when RSA announced a definitive agreement to acquire Hyderabad, India-based Valyd Software Private Ltd. for an undisclosed sum. RSA also announced it has established strategic partnerships with CipherOptics Inc., Decru Inc., NeoScale Systems Inc. and Epicor|CRS, a division of Epicor Software Corp.
The acquisition of Valyd is expected to close late in the first quarter of 2007. "Upon completion, it will immediately provide RSA's customers with solutions for effective enterprise-wide data protection for a variety of database management systems and protection of sensitive data maintained in files against internal and external attacks," the company said in a statement.
The combination of RSA Database Security Manager and RSA File Security Manager with encryption solutions from the company's strategic partners will enable stronger integration between endpoint security products and RSA Key Manager's capabilities, the company added.
RSA Key Manager technology will be integrated into Epicor|CRS's retail point-of-sale product to help protect sensitive information, such as credit card magnetic stripe data and consumer point-of-entry data to meet PCI and other data security requirements, RSA said in its statement.
Coviello said information-centric security must be based on three things: the understanding that security can't be perfected and it's best to devote the most time toward protecting the biggest assets; the need to adapt to changing circumstances in the development of technology; and defense in depth. Companies, he said, have been too slow in implementing the latter.
"We need to remember that understanding and assessing risk is always first, and we need to share intelligence so we can stop the criminals together," he added. The further integration of security into IT infrastructure will help companies address that challenge as well, he said.
EMC Chairman and CEO Joe Tucci appeared onstage with Coviello and explained his decision to go on a security company buying spree.
"This is driven by our customers," Tucci said. "They want us to secure digital information and they want us to help them with identity management and access control."
The company has more acquisitions planned for the future, he said.
Keynoters speak volumes
By Dennis Fisher, Executive Editor
05 Feb 2007 | SearchSecurity.com
Speeches at the RSA Conference used to be reserved for folks like Martin Hellman, Whitfield Diffie and others with serious cryptography--or at the very least, security--backgrounds. But as security has evolved from the backwater of IT into one of the top concerns of CEOs and CIOs, the content at the conference has morphed to reflect this new reality.
Now, cryptographers are relegated to a single panel discussion on Tuesday morning, and tech industry heavyweights such as Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Tom Noonan highlight a crowded keynote schedule. Gates, Microsoft's chairman, is returning to the RSA Conference for the fourth consecutive year, while Oracle CEO Ellison is making his debut. Noonan, the longtime CEO of Internet Security Systems, is now the president of the ISS unit of IBM, which acquired his company last year--yet another indicator of how much things have changed in recent years.
"This isn't a technologist's conference anymore. It's much broader than that, which shows how important security has become overall," said Pete Lindstrom, senior analyst at the Burton Group.
Industry observers expect many of the keynote speeches to focus on the growing need for better application-level security. Instead of writing big network worms that do a lot of damage and make a lot of noise, attackers recently have been focusing much of their efforts on exploiting weaknesses in databases, browsers, and the emerging class of AJAX-based applications in order to steal confidential data or plant rootkits and Trojans in strategic locations.
"I like to call targeted attacks and spyware the center of the market. I think what we're seeing is market segmentation by hackers," said Gene Hodges, CEO of Websense, who will be delivering a keynote speech for the first time this year. "This is standard commercial behavior visible in hacker elements: segmenting businesses and customers of a business."
Just a few years ago, the notion of Gates--or any Microsoft executive-- giving a speech at the conference would have been laughable. All that changed when Gates sent his now-famous Trustworthy Computing memo in January 2002. In the intervening five years, Microsoft has instituted secure software development practices that have become the industry standard, completely overhauled its security response process, and generally made good on Gates' promise to build products that emphasize security over everything, including functionality. And now it is Oracle's turn as the security punching bag. Ellison, the man behind the company's infamous "Unbreakable" ad campaign, will be addressing an audience of researchers and security specialists who have been pressuring Oracle to improve the security of its products.
Also taking the stage this year are a number of other newcomers, including noted technologist and artificial intelligence pioneer Ray Kurzweil; former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell; Deborah Platt Majoras, chairman of the FTC; and John Swainson, CEO of CA.
Wachovia uses RSA for new security suite
Charlotte Business Journal - 2:28 PM EST Monday
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As part of its new Security Plus suite of services designed to thwart online theft and fraud, Wachovia Corp. is using a service provided by RSA.
The RSA Adaptive Authentication product provides behind-the-scenes protection for online banking customers and is part of the new security features the bank announced last month.
Wachovia Security Plus is a package of security measures designed to deter fraud. It is available for retail, small-business, brokerage and other online banking customers. The bank is developing comprehensive online security services for clients across all lines of business that will be introduced later this year.
Wachovia has also become part of the RSA eFraudNetwork community, an online anti-fraud network that includes more than 50 large financial institutions.
RSA, a division of Massachusetts-based EMC Corp. (NYSE:EMC), provides security products in identity assurance and access control, encryption and key management, compliance and security information management and fraud protection.
Charlotte-based Wachovia (NYSE:WB) operates 3,400 retail-banking offices from Connecticut to Florida and west to Texas and California. As of Sept. 30, the bank had assets of $559.9 billion and market capitalization of $88.2 billion.
I've seen Enderle numerous times on Bloomberg and CNBC over the past few years.
Dave
NAC Vendors Vie Over Architecture, Product Direction
Courtesy of Network Computing
JANUARY 26, 2007 | The network access control (NAC) market has finally matured enough that vendors and users can at least agree on the baseline features and functionalities required to make up a NAC solution. On deck for 2007: the battle of NAC architectures, an expected standards shake-out; and plenty of vendor posturing, positioning and - more than likely - consolidation.
That was the story at Network Computing's NAC Forum event, held Thursday in San Jose, Calif. The event brought together NWC real-world IT analysts, leading NAC vendors and users that have both deployed NAC and those still in the evaluation phase. Even though NAC feature sets and technology approaches remain in flux, several users detailed early successes in rolling out NAC in their enterprises.
Key business drivers included improving remote and guest access to corporate networks; avoiding catastrophic attacks and vulnerabilities; and locking down security policies and practices for regulatory compliance.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has completed a NAC deployment using NAC gear from Vernier Networks to manage how a wide variety of devices access its corporate network, including not only computers, laptops and handhelds but net-enabled medical instruments such as heart monitors and even task-specific robots. "In looking for a NAC solution, it's important to keep things in perspective. NAC isn't a magic pill," said Mazen Abu-Hijley, director-networking for Cedars-Sinai. "From an operational perspective, we were looking for something that was easy to put in and allowed us to apply and monitor the policies we needed."
The hospital is largely a Cisco shop, but turned to Vernier for a best-of-breed NAC appliance that it could deploy today without having to make massive changes across its installed base of routers and switches, Abu-Hijley said.
Medical device manufacturer Beckman Coulter is planning its own NAC deployment, with implementation planned to be rolled out on a site by site basis in the next 12 to 18 months, said Steve Campbell, the company's director of network services. "Our goal is fairly simple-keep visitors, contractors and interns off the network. We need to be able to control what they do," Campbell said, adding that the biggest surprise in planning the NAC deployment was that while IT had locked down remote access very tightly, "the thing that wasn't secure (from an access perspective) was the LAN."
Working with vendor Nortel, Campbell's team is taking a measured approach to its NAC roll-out, testing NAC piece-parts and overall interoperability in the lab before rolling out live deployments, beginning with its corporate headquarters. Campbell recommends that enterprises deploying NAC "spend a lot of time in the lab and test everything and look for unexpected effects."
Users have plenty of options when evaluating NAC solutions, including platforms and enabling technologies from infrastructure vendors such as Cisco, Microsoft and Nortel, which aim to make NAC essentials a core part of the network environment. Meanwhile point solutions have emerged in two main flavors, including "in-band" approaches that sit in between access and distribution switches (or act as a replacement switch themselves) and examine incoming traffic and "out-of-band" solutions that monitor link ports and control host access.
As NAC grows to become an almost all-encompassing framework for enterprise wide access control and intrusion detection, many enterprises will end up using combinations of these approaches, said NWC analyst Mike Fratto. "These are not exclusive technologies," he said. "Many of the products I've seen that hold the most promise for large enterprises support multiple NAC methods."
Indeed, even as NAC architectures continue to evolve, 2007 is expected to see some important NAC milestones, including progress on a standards-based NAC architecture and approach from the Trusted Computing Group/Trusted Network Connect. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Cisco will walk the line between cooperation and competition as elements of Microsoft's Network Access Protection (NAP) framework arrives on Vista desktops and Longhorn servers and Cisco's Network Admission Control architecture continues to evolve. The two vendors have pledged to cooperate on NAC interoperability, but with so much at stake there will undoubtedly be areas where they will set down stakes as well.
Look for Microsoft to demonstrate plenty of NAP interoperability with a variety of NAC partners at the upcoming RSA show, while the standards-driven TNC approach is driving toward interoperability demos at the Interop show later this year.
Meanwhile, NAC solutions continue to mature. In 2007, look for advances in how enforcement devices understand the state of the client, an area ripe for standardization, said Michelle McLean, senior director of product marketing for ConSentry Networks. Also on deck should be improved integration of NAC devices with standalone policy servers, McLean said. And don't be surprised if additional security functionality gets sucked into the NAC universe, in particular the integration of intrusion detection systems with NAC, enabling NAC platforms "to learn from or inform" IDS/IPSs, said Sanjay Uppal, president and CEO of Caymas Systems.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NWC Analyst Take
Network access control (NAC) processes boil down to a repeating series of steps:
Monitor host
Define/deploy policy
Gather host posture
Compare posture to policy
Make access decision
Enforce access decision
(Repeat)
As for deploying NAC, the costs can be high both on the product side ($50 per desktop and up) as well as the operational side, including the need to not only create but administer new security policies, according to Fratto. As for product interoperability, Fratto said: "There's little interoperability today and no clear indication of interoperability in the future."
In the end, NAC offers tighter and more fine-grained access control, but stops short of application-level control. "It makes the attack surface somewhat smaller, but fundamentally the question remains 'what can a user access on the network?'"
Mike Fratto
Senior Technology Editor
Oracle Licenses CIC's Suite of eSignature Technology
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070109/sftu018.html?.v=87
Oracle Licenses CIC's Suite of eSignature Technology
for Siebel Handheld for Pharma and Siebel Handheld for Service
Tuesday January 9, 8:30 am ET
REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., Jan. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Communication Intelligence Corporation ("CIC") (OTC BB: CICI - News), a leading supplier of electronic signature solutions for the Financial Industry and the recognized leader in biometric signature verification announced today that it has completed a licensing agreement with Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq: ORCL - News) for CIC's complete SignatureOne(TM) suite of biometric and electronic signature products for Oracle's Siebel Handheld for Pharma and Siebel Handheld for Service products.
ADVERTISEMENT
CIC's products provide financial institutions and their solution providers the ability to streamline signature based business processes and to meet legal, compliance and non-repudiation challenges. The products include a great deal of flexibility in providing biometric handwritten signatures and the ability to deliver CIC's best practice eSignature process with alternative signature types such as: click-wrap, passwords, voice, fingerprint and PKI, through a common architecture and methodology.
"We are pleased with the enhanced functionality and value that we have already passed on to our customers by utilizing CIC's eSignature technology within our Mobile CRM platform," said Guy Waterman, Senior Director of Mobile CRM Products for Oracle. "With these products, we look forward to enhancing our offerings that require electronic signatures and additional forms of authentication, thereby expanding our capabilities for truly paperless processing within Oracle's enterprise solutions."
"With the growing demand for eSignatures in the modern enterprise, we are focused on establishing and expanding our relationships with industry leading partners with the expertise and resources to provide complete vertical market solutions that can leverage our technology," commented Joe DePaola, Vice President World Wide Sales for CIC. "We look forward to the opportunity to work with the world's largest enterprise software company to determine where greater use of our technology can help provide the value added capabilities of biometric and electronic signatures for its clients."
CIC's SignatureOne suite includes its SignatureOne Server, Sign-it®, and iSign® software. CIC's SignatureOne Server provides user authentication, profile administration and transaction receipts. Sign-it and iSign provide shrink-wrapped application plug-in as well as developer tools for the integration of signatures into complex enterprise architectures and custom applications. CIC's technology supports a common process and methodology to provide a uniform program interface for multiple signature methods and multiple signature capture devices, simplifying enterprise-wide integration of business process automation tasks requiring eSignatures, and virtually eliminating the need for paper copies and ink signatures.
About CIC
Communication Intelligence Corporation ("CIC") is a leading supplier of electronic signature solutions for business process automation in the Financial Industry and the recognized leader in biometric signature verification. CIC's products enable companies to achieve truly paperless work flow in their eBusiness processes by enabling them with "The Power to Sign Online®" with multiple signature technologies across virtually all applications. Industry leaders such as AIG, Charles Schwab, Prudential, Nationwide (UK) and Wells Fargo chose CIC's products to meet their needs. CIC sells directly to enterprises and through system integrators, channel partners and OEMs. CIC is headquartered in Redwood Shores, California and has a joint venture, CICC, in Nanjing, China. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.cic.com .
Forward Looking Statement
Certain statements contained in this press release, including without limitation, statements containing the words "believes", "anticipates", "hopes", "intends", "expects", and other words of similar import, constitute "forward looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual events to differ materially from expectations. Such factors include the following (1) technological, engineering, quality control or other circumstances which could delay the sale or shipment of products containing the Company's technology; (2) economic, business, market and competitive conditions in the software industry and technological innovations which could affect the Company's business; (3) the Company's inability to protect its trade secrets or other proprietary rights, operate without infringing upon the proprietary rights of others or prevent others from infringing on the proprietary rights of the Company; and (4) general economic and business conditions and the availability of sufficient financing.
NOTE: CIC, its logo and the Power to Sign Online are registered trademarks. Oracle, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and Siebel are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
Contact: Investor Relations Inquiries, Chantal Eshghipour of CIC, +1-650-802-7740, or investorrelations@cic.com.
Broadcom Debuts Industry's First Digital Cable Set-Top Box System-On-A-Chip
Fri, 5th, Jan 2007,
Broadcom Corporation has announced the industry's first advanced digital cable set-top box chip that includes support for DOCSIS/EuroDOCSIS 2.0 cable modem specifications, as well as downstream channel bonding compatible with the upcoming DOCSIS 3.0 specification.
The new Broadcom single-chip silicon solution supports the latest video compression technologies, including advanced video coding (AVC) , which is the ITU and ISO joint standard, MPEG-4, part 10) and VC-1 (the SMPTE standard), and combines the features of channel bonding with powerful security enabling multiple system operators (MSOs) to provide new Internet-based IP and more secure video services to consumers.
Broadcom's new cable set-top box chip enables MSOs to utilize DOCSIS 2.0 for high-speed, two-way set-top communications, including Internet protocol (IP) video services. To support high-speed cable set-top box communications, the new Broadcom chip includes downstream channel bonding, which combines several DOCSIS channels together to significantly increase data rates when compared to today's cable modem solutions.
Broadcom's BCM7118 advanced set-top box chip incorporates downstream channel bonding, enabling cable set-top boxes to support present and future MSO requirements, as defined by the industry developed Next Generation Network Architecture (NGNA) guidelines. By moving to a DOCSIS-based platform for voice, video and data, MSOs operating costs can be decreased while enabling their networks to support richer interactive services, switched or broadcasted IP video delivery, as well as other IP voice and data services. At the same time, the Broadcom BCM7118 will enable the development of cost-effective, low cost cable set-top boxes that provide superior performance and consumer-friendly features, while featuring embedded security with unprecedented levels of content protection.
The BCM7118 also features an integrated Broadcom secure processor (BSP), which provides very sophisticated security features to protect high-value content and to prevent set-top box tampering. Using distinctive multi-layered security, the BCM7118 integrates hardware and software that performs content security functions in a highly protected environment on-chip, effectively providing a tamper proof barrier for video and audio content. Moreover, each chip is programmed by Broadcom with a permanent unique identification and configuration that forms the foundation for specific conditional access systems, decryption key processing, key management and system protection that includes the forthcoming downloadable security system.
"We have integrated a tremendous amount of state-of-the art technology into the new BCM7118 cable set-top box chip based on cable operator and customer feedback regarding what they need to compete in their end markets," said Daniel Marotta, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Broadband Communications Group. "Our new cable TV set-top box chip sets a new benchmark for the industry with respect to speed, performance, integration, and security, plus it supports IP video services."
Based on NGNA developments to date, the BCM7118 provides support for all of today's cable network operating requirements, and also integrates features required to support the transition to CableLabs-based open industry standards (i.e. OpenCable™ Applications Platform (OCAP), DOCSIS 2.0 with DOCSIS Set-Top Gateway (DSG) and Downloadable Conditional Access System (DCAS)).
The new BCM7118 single-chip digital cable set-top box chip, with DOCSIS 2.0 and channel bonding features, includes, The latest generations of video compression technologies, such as advanced video coding (AVC-MPEG-4), VC-1 and MPEG-2, Decoding formats for both high-definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) television programming, Advanced Dolby® Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, MP3 and MPEG AAC audio decoders that provide better audio quality, at lower bit rates, Certifiable DOCSIS/EuroDOCSIS 2.0 and DSG advanced mode software, Flexible host digital set-top box software supporting the OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP) and popular middleware solutions, Downstream channel bonding compatible with DOCSIS 3.0, A high-performance 2D graphics engine that provides up to 32-bit color to support OCAP applications, The ability to operate with current cable broadcast, video on demand (VOD) and switched video channels (and in channel bonding modes) and Over 1000 DMIPS of processing power supporting OCAP, OCAP applications, channel bonding, DOCSIS 2.0 and DOCSIS DSG advanced mode.
Sophisticated security hardware that provides enhanced security for present conditional access (CA) systems and supports requirements for emerging Polycipher Downloadable Conditional Access Security (DCAS). Downloadable security eliminates the need for a CableCARD® and supports multiple conditional access systems, retail products, and multiple cable operators.
Integrated PVR capability that enables the simultaneous recording of multiple channels, allowing the user to store and playback the content throughout the home.
Support for secure multi-room content distribution over home networking interfaces.
The BCM7118 is designed to be used in a wide range of set-top box applications. These products can range from a very low-cost, entry-level digital set-top box that supports OCAP, DSG, and DCAS, to higher-end HD/SD DVR products and multi-room HD/SD DVR client products. As a result, Broadcom is developing two reference designs, including the BCM97118RNG, a very low cost, entry-level digital set-top box reference platform to address applications for basic all-digital video customers, and the BCM97118, a full-featured reference platform that includes a SATA hard disk drive and interfaces to support multi-room DVR communications.
The BCM7118 is sampling to early access customers. The chip is packaged in an 841 PBGA. Pricing is available upon request.
New Set-Top Box Chip from STMicroelectronics Cuts Costs and Supports Latest Security Specifications
By PR Newswire
GENEVA, Jan. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), the world's largest supplier of silicon chips for set-top boxes (STB)*, has announced the STi5107, a new MPEG decoder for standard definition TV, within the Company's OMEGA family of STB solutions. Using the new device, manufacturers will be able to cut their total component cost and simplify board design and assembly, while offering enhanced security features.
The STi5107 is designed to address the requirements of the mainstream STB market, where it provides a unified, single-device platform for set-top boxes ranging from basic low-cost products up to MHP (Multimedia Home Platform) applications, for satellite, cable, and terrestrial services and plug-in TV modules.
ST currently supports the high-volume advanced-security STB market with the STi5517 and STi5100, which have been designed into a very high proportion of advanced security set-top boxes worldwide. The new chip offers a smooth migration path from designs based on these and other earlier-generation OMEGA devices, thanks to ST's proprietary STAPI driver support and full reference software; STAPI is ST's fully supported and documented programming interface, developed as a stable base on which to build applications, which allows software to be ported easily across product families. New designs are strongly supported by ST's industry-leading development toolkit and by a broad range of third-party products.
The decoder supports the advanced security features required by all major conditional access (CA) suppliers. The 200MHz clock speed of the embedded ST20 32-bit RISC CPU core -- the most widely used CPU in the STB market -- provides increased power for advanced applications and is fully compatible with all mainstream set-top box middleware.
"The STi5107 sets a new industry standard for advanced security, mass- market set-top boxes, reinforcing the outstanding success of the OMEGA family of MPEG2 decoders," said Monica De Virgiliis, General Manager for ST's Home Video Division. "It will bring further cost reductions for manufacturers while giving viewers the advanced features they now expect as standard, even in lower cost boxes."
Overall performance is further increased by an integrated 2D graphics engine, which relieves the CPU of on-screen display (OSD) overhead and provides an enhanced experience for the TV viewer. This graphics sub-system is supported by an advanced 'blitter' -based display, which quickly implements bit-mapped graphics in hardware. Additional features provide the opportunity to extend the use of the chip to both alternative and more advanced platforms; features include DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) descramblers, a low cost DVB-CI (Common Interface) to link it to a removable security module, and support for a single tuner DVR (Digital Video Recorder) for high quality time- shifting.
Like the other OMEGA devices, the STi5107 integrates a transport de- multiplex block, the ST20 32-bit CPU, an audio/video MPEG-2 decoder, a digital video encoder, advanced security features and the enhanced display and graphics features. DVB descramblers in the transport de-multiplex block and Macrovision copy protection allow it to be used in cost effective pay-TV services.
The STi5107 is built using ST's low power, state-of-the-art technology and is offered in LQFP216 and PBGA324 packages. Samples are available now, with volume production starting early in Q1 2007. Pricing is $6 in 100k quantities.
This press release is also available at www.st.com/stonline/stappl/press/news/year2007/p2111.htm ... with links to further information on the STi5107 About STMicroelectronics
STMicroelectronics is a global leader in developing and delivering semiconductor solutions across the spectrum of microelectronics applications. An unrivalled combination of silicon and system expertise, manufacturing strength, Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio and strategic partners positions the Company at the forefront of System-on-Chip (SoC) technology and its products play a key role in enabling today's convergence markets. The Company's shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, on Euronext Paris and on the Milan Stock Exchange. In 2005, the Company's net revenues were $8.88 billion and net earnings were $266 million. Further information on ST can be found at www.st.com.
* inStat MPEG report "MPEG Video ICs: Transitioning to H.264" - July 2006
SOURCE STMicroelectronics
Copyright 2006 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved
Data Storage Gets Image Makeover
By MAY WONG Sunday, January 07, 2007
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2007/01/07/ap/hitech/d8mfctn80.txt
Amid the sea of sleek new cell phones and eye-catching high-definition televisions, a typically hidden and humbler technology is preparing to make its biggest splash yet at the world's largest annual consumer technology show.
In fact, the bold new marketing will begin right at the Las Vegas airport. A giant sculpture built from thousands of photographs will greet visitors arriving for next week's International Consumer Electronics Show: "When you lose your files, you lose a part of yourself."
It's part of a larger plan by Seagate Technology LLC, the world's top maker of hard disk drives, to convince consumers that safekeeping digital data is now an important aspect of their everyday lives.
Hard drives and their growing storage capacities are gaining importance as vaults for digital media as people increasingly stuff digital video recorders with favorite TV programs, audio players with digital music and computers with photo memories.
Other companies are also trying to convey the same message, selling storage products and services to cater to the mushrooming personal digital collections.
Hitachi will debut the industry's first terabyte hard drive, selling it for $400 by March as an add-on for computers. It will also produce a version that could be built into digital video recorders such as those from TiVo Inc. and rivals.
A terabyte can hold the text of roughly 1 million books; 1,000 hours of standard-definition video; 250 hours of high-definition video; or a quarter million songs _ that's two year's of music without hearing the same song twice, according to Hitachi.
It would be the largest-capacity drive today.
"The ease with which we're creating data today, whether it's e-books, music, video or text, means there will be a digital home ... and storage will be at the center of it," said Doug Pickford, a director of market and product strategy for Hitachi's storage division.
Hitachi will also demonstrate a storage system that has sophisticated searching capabilities and can function as a standalone data appliance without the strappings of an entire computer operating system. Hitachi and the product's co-developer, server technology company Blue Peach, hope to sell it to traditional electronics makers to incorporate into home products.
If built into an audio jukebox, for example, users would be able to design their own browsing genres, say "mellow" or "party mix," based on an initial sample song chosen by the listener.
The advanced algorithms would then automatically assign similar songs to the category, creating an easy way for users to develop playlists, said Steven King, vice president of sales and marketing at Hitachi's Embedded Business Group.
Seagate, Hewlett-Packard Co., D-Link Corp. and others will display media servers designed as personal repositories for managing vast amounts of digital files. The home servers provide automatic data backups and allow family and friends to access some files remotely over the Internet. Hoping to expand their customer base beyond technophiles, vendors say the latest products will be easier to set up.
The reason Seagate's consumer push could be considered audacious is that hard drives normally aren't very sexy. After all, they are simply magnetic spinning platters that users don't notice until they fail _ personal memories still on them.
Seagate has hired TBWA/Chiat/Day _ the advertising agency that has been behind ads for Sony Corp., Apple Computer Inc. and other top brands _ to help spark interest.
It has also revamped its consumer storage products with sleeker designs, using brushed aluminum casings instead of painted plastic, for instance. Ads and product packaging will tout how hard drives are used rather than promoting simply their capacities.
"People don't care about the hardware," said Jim Druckrey, the head of Seagate's consumer products, "but they have a lot of emotional attachment to their content."
A service of the Associated Press(AP)
'First' embedded hardware security module rolls
Posted : 03 Jan 2007
nCipher plc has announced the immediate availability of miniHSMTM, said to be the first embedded hardware security module (HSM). Designed to provide OEMs with a simple, secure, drop-in solution for data encryption, digital signing and strong authentication, the module allows customers to integrate pre-validated cryptographic security into a diverse range of product areas, the company said, including digital cinema projectors, electronic voting terminals, retail POS infrastructure, immigration border control and document processing machinery.
miniHSM is about the size of a pack of chewing gum, but within this small form factor it provides embedded HSM functionality to enable a simplified and cost-effective means to enable tamper-resistant hardware protection of encryption keys with a pre-validated FIPS 140-2 level 3 security rating. The small footprint and ease of integration of the miniHSM allows manufacturers to embed HSM functionality into devices where space and power are at a premium, according to the company.
miniHSM supports a wide range of cryptographic algorithms, including all common symmetric- and asymmetric-key cryptographic algorithms (including 3DES, AES, RSA and DH) as well as more specialist algorithms such as Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) . Incorporating a true random number generator, miniHSM offers secure cryptographic key provisioning and storage, and a built-in real-time clock enables value-added functionality such as time-stamping in addition to the standard cryptographic functions of encryption, digital signing and authentication.
miniHSM also supports nCipher's suite of developer toolkits including CodeSafe, its unique Secure Execution Engine (SEE) capability for executing high assurance trusted custom applications within the device's security boundary.
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Microsoft Releases Vista Kernel APIs To Rival Security Firms
The APIs are meant to give security software makers access to information heading into the Vista kernel so that they can create software similar to what they now write for earlier versions of Windows.
By Gregg Keizer
InformationWeek
Dec 20, 2006 02:04 PM
Microsoft has released draft APIs designed to mollify third-party security software developers that are angry over the company's decision to wall off the kernel in the 64-bit edition of Windows Vista.
The application programming interfaces are meant to give security software makers access to information heading into the Vista kernel so that they can create software similar to what they now write for Windows XP and Vista 32-bit. That software often "hooks" into the kernel to monitor behavior that could indicate that malicious code is trying to hijack the computer.
"We are delivering the first draft set of these new APIs for Windows Vista [which] have been designed to help security and non-security ISVs [independent software vendors] develop software that extends the functionality of the Windows kernel on 64-bit systems, in a documented and supported manner, and without disabling or weakening the protection offered by Kernel Patch Protection," said Ben Fathi, Microsoft's Windows security chief, in a statement.
Kernel Patch Protection is the name Microsoft has given to a set of technologies first implemented in Windows XP 64-bit, and extended in the 64-bit version of Vista. Also known as PatchGuard, it locks out all access to the operating system kernel, and is meant to stop both malicious code and third-party software from making changes at the kernel level. Microsoft has repeatedly touted PatchGuard as an important defense against rootkits and other advanced malware.
But several prominent security vendors, notably Symantec and McAfee, objected to PatchGuard this fall, called Microsoft's decision wrong-headed, and rebuffed its claim that APIs would solve their problems.
Wednesday, Symantec refused to comment on the draft APIs. "Symantec has received the draft APIs regarding PatchGuard and is currently evaluating the information and awaiting additional information from Microsoft," Symantec spokesman Mike Bradshaw wrote in an e-mail. "Until that process is complete, we have nothing to add to the story." McAfee did not reply to a similar request for comment.
Under pressure from the European Union's antitrust watchdog, Microsoft in mid-October promised to design and deliver APIs that would let others access data going to the kernel. Although some analysts praised the move as an "acceptable compromise" between Microsoft and its security partners, vendors soon scoffed at the idea.
"It's not enough," Rowan Trollope, Symantec's VP of consumer engineering, said at the time.
Fathi said Microsoft recognizes that the job isn't over. "I want to emphasize that [these APIs] are not final," he said. "In the next several weeks, we'll continue gathering input about the draft specifications from ISVs and other security experts."
He also confirmed earlier reports that Microsoft plans to release the first set of these APIs in Vista Service Pack 1, the future update that has been pegged with several possible release dates, ranging from mid-2007 to late next year. "Early test versions [of the APIs] will be made available to ISVs so they can update and test their software in time for release along with Service Pack 1," Fathi added.
The draft APIs include ones that govern whether applications are allowed to launch or be manipulated, and others that will prevent tampering with running security processes.
Microsoft has also posted a Word document that outlines the criteria it uses to evaluate and prioritize the kinds of APIs it will develop.
Utimaco Unveils Support for Elliptic Curve Cryptography Algorithms in Hardware Security Module
SafeGuard CryptoServer Under Test for Renewed FIPS-Certification, Achieves RoHS Compliance
FOXBORO, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Utimaco, The Data Security Company, today unveiled support for Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) algorithms. Utimaco’s support for ECC follows the unveiling of cryptographic guidelines from the U.S. government and the European Union in independent security compliance initiatives. New features in the SafeGuard CryptoServer include ECC with 8000 plus signatures.
SafeGuard CryptoServer is a tamperproof hardware security module (HSM). ECC support in SafeGuard CryptoServer provides enterprises as well as government agencies with a certified, efficient and high-performing HSM in accordance with Suite B, the National Security Administration’s (NSA) cryptographic recommendations for protecting the U.S. Government's classified and unclassified communications. SafeGuard CryptoServer also meets Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) compliance requirements as outlined in the directive of the European Parliament which restricts the use of hazardous substances for electrical and electronic equipment within the European Union.
CryptoServer ensures the secure and reliable introduction of electronic processes in business processes, payments and government solutions because of its high security standard and certification according to FIPS Level 3/4 criteria, and the support of ECC-based public key protocols, coupled with end-to-end key management. CryptoServer with ECC-based public key protocols is available with the new cost efficient SafeGuard CryptoServer S-Platform and in the FIPS Level 4 certified SafeGuard CryptoServer CS-Platform.
“Information technology is the backbone of every business process,” said Craig F. Bumpus, General Manager, Utimaco Americas. “With upcoming compliance requirements and privacy initiatives, the use of hardware-based security in electronic business processes is mandatory. It is vital that companies use security products to be in line with international security regulations and to make sure their data processes are not interrupted by using poor and unstable security implementations.”
Hardware security modules ensure secure generation, storage and application of cryptographic keys and certificates in encryption and signature processes. From electronic payment and banking processes to processing digital certificates, the highly flexible CryptoServer products protect applications and keys across a broad range of business and administrative processes. These include transaction security, secure PKI environments, document management and archiving, database security and authentication, secure toll-collection systems, electronic billing, and more.
About Utimaco U.S.A. — Based in Foxboro, Mass., Utimaco U.S.A. is a business unit of Utimaco Safeware, AG. The company provides technical, sales and marketing services throughout North America and Canada for Utimaco’s extensive line of platform-independent, mobile, desktop, and network security solutions. Utimaco has technology partnerships with market leaders such as IBM Lenovo, Microsoft, Card Systems, and Siemens. A full list of technology partners as well as reseller partners can be found at www.utimaco.com.
Utimaco Safeware – The Data Security Company
Utimaco is the leading provider for data security solutions. The Data Security Company enables mid-sized to large organizations to safeguard their data assets against attacks and to comply with privacy laws by protecting their confidentiality and integrity. In response to twenty-first century threats – the new world of Data Security 2.0 – Utimaco’s complete range of solutions provide full 360O protection unlike free, end-point or built into encryption solutions which only cover specific security needs. Its advanced SafeGuard Solutions help to manage and secure data in what ever conditions: during storage (data at rest), during transmission (data in motion) and during processing (data in use). Utimaco offers its customers comprehensive on site support via a worldwide network of partners and subsidiaries in Europe, the USA and Asia. Utimaco Safeware AG, with headquarters in Oberursel, near Frankfurt, Germany, is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ISIN DE0007572406). For more information, visit our website at www.utimaco.com.
Snackman follow the thread. Not once did I bemoan the fact there was no news released. What I did was show that many companies continued to release very important news through the holiday and into today and that alone would or should not have detered Wave from releasing anything should they have had anything ready to go.
Dave
Go Kite I agree with almost everything you said here. As my post to Wavxmaster prior, it might be nice to pick and choose but it shouldn't always be the rule. The company has to believe that the shareholders are expecting something this year, wether it can be achieved or not is to be seen, but everything they have led us to believe, the little guidance that has been given the shareholders has pointed in this direction. It would be nice to get a little assurance from the company in the form of some sort of correspondence as to the progress and where the company stands- even if it was only a rehash of the time line and a " we are on track as laid out in Q3 Q4 " whatever. The company has done virtually nothing to reach out and assure the shareholders between CC's. Some can point to the PR releases that the company has had with the gorillas, but these fruits haven't begun to ripen yet. Something like that would be nice to see, a recognition of those who have been in the trenches for so long with this company.
Dave
Wavxmaster from 1/1/07
January 1, 2007 1:08 PM ETYP Corp. Announces Fiscal 2006 Results and Issues Guidance for Fiscal 2007advertisement
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?Feed=MW&Date=20070101&ID=6308...
YP Corp. (YPNT) Stock Quote, Chart, News
All Market Wire NewsYP Corp. (OTCBB: YPNT), a leading provider of nationwide Internet Yellow Pages and related services, today announced that revenue for the twelve months ended September 30, 2006 was $36.9 million vs. $25.0 million in fiscal 2005, an increase of 47%. The increase in revenue was primarily due to increased customer count and expansion of the fulfillment segment of our marketing program.
I'd consider this a positive release
a quick view on MSN
showsMarketwire with 15 stories today
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/provider.asp?Feed=MW
Business Wire with 73 stories today and 10 from 12/31 and 1/1
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/provider.asp?Feed=BW
PR Newswire has 76 new news stories today as well
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/provider.asp?Feed=PR
I realize that all stories posted here are not all company specific. There are plenty of buy backs financings acquisition, product announcements financial results, product releases that are company specific and by companies of all sizes and PR'ing things that anyone here would love to see released by Wave, regardless of what day it gets put out. This company should not be considered a start up company anymore or treated as such if it's products are what we are led to believe. The stock price will not be propped up on a news release soley anymore. That the timing of a news release should even be a point of contention anymore astounds me.
Dave
Ispro why then would anyone release news when the market is closed? Businesses release news all the time regardless of wether the markets are opened or closed. Take a look at news released yesterday and today by both large and small, known and unknown companies. Markets are now and almost 7 day a week non-stop entity. I don't think Wave would hold any news back if it was ready to go regardless of the markets being open or not. If and when they have news it will be released. To believe the company or the markets dictate that is bogus. Here is an example from today. Never heard of this company and it is offering a secure mobile payment service with claims of ubiquitous application in the near future. Not knowing anything about this company, I stumbled upon this release today much the same way someone might stumble upon a release that Wave might have. I have to tell you it dosen't read much different than what we might see from Wave either.
Online Resources Launches Mobile Banking and Bill Payment Solution
ORCC, a leading provider of Web-based financial services, today announced the launch of its mobile banking and bill payment service, a hosted application that enables financial institutions to provide their consumers with a full range of online services via mobile phones and other wireless devices.
Available through a partnership with Access Softek, Inc., a global developer of technology software, the mobile banking and payment service is an OFX-based software application that works with all major U.S. wireless networks. The service provides immediate access to approximately 70 percent of today's mobile phone devices, with near-ubiquitous access expected in the next several years as consumer mobile devices are upgraded. The service is fully integrated with Online Resources payments and security technology, providing consumers the ability to view their accounts, pay bills, transfer funds and receive messages from their financial institutions.
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In pilot with select financial institution clients since July 2006, the service is now available to Online Resources' OFX-enabled clients. Each client launch of the mobile service is supported with the company's ICM Marketing services, including targeted in-session messaging, demos and other instructional information embedded in the application. After registering online, consumers simply download the software application via their wireless device.
"The integrated mobile service is yet another way Online Resources is helping us to retain and deepen our customer relationships. In addition to potential fee income, we are pleased to be able to offer our customers a service that even some of the largest institutions are not providing today," said Michael L. Woolfolk, chief operating officer and executive vice president for Heritage Bank, a pilot participant.
"Consumer delivery of the Web channel has become more complicated with increased security requirements and growing demand for wireless access. By leveraging our integration capabilities, we are providing our clients a mobile banking and payment application that is secure, seamless and highly user-friendly," stated Matthew P. Lawlor, Online Resources' chairman and chief executive officer. "We believe that by widening distribution of the Web channel via mobile devices, our clients can increase adoption of their channels and in many cases benefit from offering another premium service."
About Online Resources
Online Resources powers web-based financial services for 2600 financial institutions, billers and credit service providers. Its proprietary suite of account presentation and payment services are branded to its clients, and augmented by marketing services to drive consumer and business end-user adoption. The Company serves over 8 million end-users and processes $100 billion in bill payments annually. Founded in 1989, Online Resources (Nasdaq:ORCC; www.orcc.com) is recognized as one of the nation's fastest growing companies.
About Access Softek
Access Softek, Inc. is a global software development company that for the past twenty years has earned a solid reputation for satisfying the most demanding technical needs of companies in America, Europe, and Asia. Clients include Microsoft, Apple, Adobe Systems, ITI, Symbol Technologies, H&R Block, Motorola and NEC. For more information, visit www.accesssoftek.com.
This news release contains statements about future events and expectations, which are "forward-looking statements." Any statement in this release that is not a statement of historical fact may be deemed to be a forward-looking statement. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Specifically, factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to the Company's: history of losses; dependence on the marketing efforts of third parties; potential fluctuations in operating results; ability to make and successfully integrate acquisitions of new businesses; potential need for additional capital; potential inability to prevent systems failures and security breaches; potential inability to expand services and related products in the event of substantial increases in demand; competition; ability to attract and retain skilled personnel; reliance on patents and other intellectual property; exposure to the early stage of market adoption of the services it offers; exposure to the consolidation of the banking and financial services industry; and additional risks and uncertainties discussed in filings made by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those risks and uncertainties contained under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's Form 10-K, latest 10-Q, and S-3 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These factors should be considered in evaluating the forward-looking statements, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. Contact Information: Online Resources Corp. Beth Halloran, 703-653-2248 bhalloran@orcc.com
Wavxmaster great point. What should be the response if nothing comes from it? To me it seems like a no-brainer. Very disappointing should it come and go with nary a mention.
Dave
Don't be so sure Dutch. We may see more of these "aberrations" over the next few days. More than likely this was a tax selling dump. We are staring into a 4 day trading period next week with plenty of folks probably not having PC access if they aqre going away or just wanting to take care of it before they go. I have some friends who bought shares this year and planned to sell off older more expensive shares if the stock did not make a move the last few weeks- I think we will see more of that as well. I think there are plenty of folks that scooped up shares earlier this year on the cheap, even though they had plenty of shares already, hoping that something would break in a nice way late in 2006, and that did not happen. I expect more of the same wheel spinning through the end of this year.
Dave