Sean Michael Kerner

Port scanning, the act of sweeping computer ports to discover which port is open, has long been assumed to be a principal first step of any hacker. But that may not necessarily be the case, according to a new report from researchers at the University of Maryland (UM). In UM’s test environment, port scans preceded […]

Backup software is supposed to be a safety net, a form of digital data insurance for when things go wrong, but this year, the technology has become a favorite target of hackers. The SANS 2005 Institute’s top 20 list of the most critical internet security vulnerabilities has placed backup software in the number one spot […]

Optical storage is in the midst of a major technological revolution, as next-generation formats begin to emerge. The new optical formats are perhaps most promising for meeting WORM (write once, read many) archival storage requirements, a growing need as more regulations mandate that data be protected and unaltered. The next generation of DVD, Blu-ray and […]

The end of the year is typically the time for predictions about the future. What technology or trend will be the winner next year or the year after? But research firm Gartner, has jumped into the prediction fray with an early entry, proclaiming that it has identified, “six IT industry trends that it expects will […]

Lockheed Martin Space Systems is going open source for simulation testing. The defense contractor will use Concurrent’s real-time RedHawk Linux operating system for the U.S. Army’s Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program, a strategic missile defense subsystem simulation testing program. Financial terms of the deal were not publicly disclosed. Lockheed Martin will use RedHawk […]

Since the dawn of the Internet era, e-mail has been the killer app. E-mail is still the most used Internet app, but search engine usage is rapidly gaining, according to new data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project and comScore Media Metrix. According to Pew Internet & American Life data, 41 percent of […]

Knowing the difference between a legitimate e-mail and a scammed phishing e-mail is not always as easy as one would think. According to data from e-mail security firm MailFrontier, only 4 percent of users can spot a phished e-mail 100 percent of the time. That’s a very sobering thought as the holiday season is upon […]

storage startup hopes to make a name for itself by basing its solutions almost entirely on open source technologies. The company even chose a not-so-subtle name to get the point across: Open Source Storage, complete with the domain name opensourcestorage.com. Linux and other open source technologies are found in a broad range of enterprise storage […]

A pair of recently published IDC Vertical Market forecasts project continued growth for VoIP and WLAN equipment in the U.S. from 2005 through 2009. IDC has forecast WLAN equipment spending to show a five year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of almost 20 percent within each sector. Retail industry spending on IP PBX equipment is […]

Sun Microsystems’ pay-per-use grid initiative is in use commercially and has ”thousands of customers” waiting in the wings for a public launch. A recent media report alleged that Sun’s pay-per-use $1 per CPU hour initiative, which will launch during the next few weeks according to a company spokeswoman, had yet to log a single customer. […]