Larry Seltzer

One-time password tokens of the type made famous by RSA have been securing enterprise networks for many years. In the consumer space they have been a complete dud, but because of work under development for some time, there’s a decent chance that could change. The point of these tokens is to provide two-factor authentication. In […]

Some time ago I wrote somewhere about Geoff Huston and his projections for the depletion of what remains in the IPv4 address pool. I was intrigued by his work and suggested to him that there were a lot of wasteful class A addresses out there, and perhaps they could be reallocated to better purpose. A […]

The declining practicality of the anti-malware business is an old story; one day it’s got to collapse under the weight of its technical model. Can it be saved in time? During the week of Feb. 4, several vendors and testing organizations announced the formation of the AMTSO (Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization), which is dedicated to […]

I’ve long been a fan of software as a service, and specifically of hosted e-mail security, and even more specifically of Postini. It’s just the right way to do this sort of thing. Now Postini, acquired about six months ago by Google, is offering a new set of security services bundles. They’re good stuff, just […]

The latest in security compliance regulation is the FDCC, or Federal Desktop Core Configuration. As of Feb. 1, all federal agencies were required to provide to the Office of Management and Budget a list of assets running Windows XP and Windows Vista, and which are compliant with FDCC requirements. By March 31, they will have […]

I take it all back, sort of. ICANN has a way of studying matters, and then studying them some more, and then assigning them to a committee and then putting a preliminary report out for comment – you get the idea. Only after years does the group take action. It seems members have taken action […]

The story of the dismissal of 9 District of Columbia workers for surfing pornography on the Web from their work computers is both a social story and a technical one. My first thought, when I see a story like this, is how stupid some people can be. But it’s even worse than it looks. “Each […]

Everyone believes in privacy (except Scott McNealy); we just differ on how much is the right amount. It is possible to go too far in advocating for privacy. That way lies uncertainty. This seems to be the fate of the European Union, whose Data Privacy Commission leader recently said that IP addresses are personal data […]

I had a moment of clarity today (believe me, I need them). In the wake of the Network Solutions scandal over the company’s employment of front-running and domain tasting, I’ve been talking to a lot of vendors and other interested parties. Front-running is a tricky problem that defies resolution. I’ve been inclined to blame ICANN, […]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The security market is always looking for new ways to sell you the same thing they already sold you. The new phony category is anti-bot tools. When this happened with spyware it somehow happened backwards. In the face of an established market for anti-malware products, known […]