Location, Location, Location ...

Computerworld - ...is more than just a weak punch line to a stale real estate joke. It's the critical element missing from most wireless security tools, says Brian Wangerien, director of product management at Boston-based Newbury Networks Inc. His company's WiFi Watchdog technology fixes on the location of wireless users to help determine their access rights. "Authentication and encryption alone are like a steel door on a grass hut," Wangerien quips. By adding location information, he says, IT will know whether someone trying to reach an application server is a worker popping onto the corporate LAN from the cafeteria or a "war chalker" sneaking on from outside the building. WiFi Watchdog can also be used to track down the location of uninvited network visitors, which Wangerien says the U.S. Air Force has done on more than one occasion at an undisclosed air base. Version 5.0 of the tool is expected to be ready in September, he says. New features include a graphical view of threat conditions and prebuilt reports for regulatory-compliance audits. In addition, WiFi Watchdog 5.0 can automatically stop more than 100 threat signatures. Pricing starts at $14,995.
Business continuity for e-mail option...
...available with messaging security service. Electric Mail Co. in Burnaby, British Columbia, offers a fallback plan for users of its PerimeterProtect service in case your Exchange server keels over or (heaven forbid) your whole building keels over in one of this summer's hurricanes. Users with Electric Mail accounts can rely on the antivirus and antispam service as a backup e-mail tool. According to Ian McDonald, the company's general manager, users can access Electric Mail's service via a browser during an Exchange outage, but their messages are sent using their company's own domain address. He says that's better than contacting business partners and customers with unrelated Hotmail or Yahoo accounts, as many users now do in emergencies. McDonald says that by year's end, Electric Mail plans to add full capabilities for searching the messages it stores. Monthly pricing for the service can be as low as $3 per user.
Snooping on yourrivals? Looking to...
...acquire an unsuspecting company? Well, your end users might consider disguising who they are as they mouse around the Web, says Lee Itzhaki, director of product management at Anonymizer Inc. The San Diego-based company offers a service that protects the identity of Web surfers. While some may use the sly service to visit porn sites anonymously, businesses employ it to protect their corporate identities while doing everyday competitive analysis. Itzhaki says your browser is chock-full of information