VeriSign

Hackers stole data from VeriSign in 2010

Attackers repeatedly hacked VeriSign's network and stole information in 2010, the company revealed in a quarterly regulatory filing.

The Internet infrastructure provider did not disclose what information was stolen or other details of the attacks in its 10-Q report filed in October with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that was reported on by Reuters today.

"In 2010, the Company faced several successful attacks against its corporate network in which access was gained to information on a small portion of our computers and servers," the company wrote. "Information stored on the compromised corporate systems was … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1479: At Area 51, Tupac is still alive (Podcast)

Hackers are targeting everything from defense contractors (for obvious reasons) to PBS (for slightly less obvious reasons related to their journalistic integrity), and frankly, we were sad to hear that Tupac actually isn't alive somewhere in New Zealand. Also, my report from Area 51, what Apple will deliver at WWDC, and the best Lady Gaga/KFC chicken Photoshop we've ever seen. --Molly

VeriSign adds malware scanning to SSL services

VeriSign is adding malware scanning to its authentication services for Web site operators, the company announced on Monday.

The "VeriSign Trusted" check mark seal indicates to Web surfers that VeriSign has verified that the site represents the organization or company that it purports to be and that it is using encryption to protect communications between the site and its visitors. Now, existing and new VeriSign SSL customers will have their sites scanned daily to check for malware as well, at no extra cost, said Tim Callan, vice president of product marketing at VeriSign.

The company also is adding … Read more

VeriSign: Net bandwidth must grow 1,000 times

To deal with the flow of information over the next 10 years, the capacity of the Internet will need to increase by a factor of a thousand, according to VeriSign.

The U.S. security company, which administers one of the root servers of the Internet, has started a project to deal with the expected increase in bandwidth demand.

Project Apollo was announced by VeriSign in March, with the aim of strengthening the .com and .net domains. The company's chief technology officer, Ken Silva, talked to CNET sister site ZDNet UK to give details of how VeriSign plans to increase … Read more

Sex.com seeking a new hookup

Anyone interested in Sex.com will find an eager seller for the right price.

The domain name, considered to be the Internet's most valuable, is now on the market, domain broker Sedo announced Thursday. Sedo is peddling the hot domain name on behalf of its client and current owner, Escom, which scooped it up in 2006 for an estimated $14 million. Along with the domain name, two related trademark registrations are also included.

Escom CEO Del Anthony said he chose to sell the domain through Sedo because of its experience brokering high-value domain names and its global network of … Read more

Botnet services for hire: $8.94 an hour

Botnets are available for hire for as little as $8.94 an hour, underscoring how little financial muscle or technical expertise is needed to carry out attacks, according to VeriSign's cybersecurity intelligence arm.

VeriSign said Monday that it carried out an online investigation into 25 botnet operators in February, targeting botnet services advertised on three Web forums. The study found that hourly botnet rental pricing started at $8.94, while the average price for a 24-hour rental was $67.20.

The services advertised a number of attack vectors, including ICMP, SYN, UDP, HTTP, HTTPS, and Data. The botnet operators … Read more

Can VeriSign deal make Symantec the Web's identity broker?

With its acquisition of VeriSign's authentication business, Symantec is making a big play for a piece of the market for services that validate the identity of users and content on the Web.

The $1.28 billion cash deal--the third encryption-related purchase for Symantec in three weeks--would seem to be a natural extension of its desktop and server security offerings, several analysts said. But other observers question how well suited one of the leading antivirus providers really is to become the identity broker for the Internet.

"Where's the synergy?" wondered Avivah Litan, an analyst at Gartner, … Read more

Symantec to buy VeriSign's security business

Symantec on Wednesday said it will buy VeriSign's security business and take a majority stake in VeriSign Japan for about $1.28 billion in cash, in the hopes of becoming a leader in the growing market for authenticating people and servers on the Internet.

Under the agreement, Symantec will acquire VeriSign's identity and authentication business, including the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), and VeriSign Trust and VeriSign Identity Protection Authentication services.

"The acquisition creates the most trusted brand for protecting information and identities online," Enrique Salem, president and chief executive at Symantec, … Read more

Report: Symantec closes in on VeriSign buy

Symantec is finalizing a deal in which it will buy the security unit of VeriSign to the tune of about $1.3 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

If it goes through, the deal would give Symantec ownership of VeriSign's authentication business, the Journal's sources say.

The acquisition would further expand Symantec's reach into the encryption business. The news comes just a few weeks after the security giant announced it planned to buy PGP and GuardianEdge, two encryption companies, for $300 million and $70 million respectively.

At the end of April, VeriSign reported revenue of $264 … Read more

VeriSign expects major security update by 2011

VeriSign, which runs the master database for such domains as .com and .net, says a significant Internet security vulnerability will be closed by 2011, after delays caused by technical aspects of the implementation.

The problem is that DNS, the Domain Name System that translates Internet addresses into numerical values, can be seeded with false values and used to misdirect users. VeriSign told ZDNet on Friday that it will put in place DNSSEC, a protocol that will guarantee the origin and integrity of DNS data for the .com and .net domains, by the first quarter of 2011.