The firewall is still at the center of most network security strategies, but it needs to evolve as cloud technology, software defined networks and next generation firewalls take hold.

This is among the conclusions of the latest State of the Firewall Report from network security specialist FireMon, which finds that 91 percent of IT security professionals believe firewalls are still as critical or more critical than ever to their security architecture.

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The Pentagon is to run its own big bounty program, inviting white-hat hackers to test the security of its systems. It is not intended to be a free-for-all, and would-be hackers will be vetted before being given the go-ahead -- although of course there is nothing to stop anyone from trying to breach the defenses if they feel so inclined

The 'Hack the Pentagon' initiative was launched today by Defense Secretary Ash Carter. He said "I am confident that this innovative initiative will strengthen our digital defenses and ultimately enhance our national security". It is to be a carefully managed program which will only be open to US citizens, and networks relating to particularly sensitive material and weapons will be off-limits.

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Picture a standard subway ride during rush hour. The car, of course, is crammed full. Some of those subway riders are pleasant commuters, and some are subway villains like pickpockets and purse-snatchers. Now imagine someone has invented a private subway that quickly and efficiently connects you and other pleasant commuters to the subway station in your neighborhood. You don’t have to deal with slowdowns, unexpected stops, or any of the risks associated with being lumped in with the aforementioned subway villains.

Now stop imagining, because someone has invented such a blissful sort of system. It’s just that instead of being a form of transportation it’s a method of directing legitimate human traffic to a website while it’s being protected from a DDoS attack. Not the best news for your commute, but great news for your website.

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Cisco has released a new firewall solution which aims to completely change how security services tackle cyber-threats.

The new product, Cisco Firepower Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW), is built to detect threats on a system, and not keep the system on a lockdown. Here’s how Cisco explains the new product

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When friends or family ask me to help with their Wi-Fi woes, I often discover the same thing -- low-cost and aging routers. Understandably, people are always looking to save a buck, but a router is not the place to do so. A quality router is worth the money -- dropped connections and necessary reboots are a scourge.

Today, Linksys announces that its EA7500 MAX-STREAM AC1900 MU-MIMO 802.11ac gigabit router is available for pre-order. Not only is it fast and chock-full of features, but it is reasonably priced too.

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Traditional endpoint security often ends up generating lots of false alerts which take up valuable support time to investigate and resolve.

Anti-malware specialist Malwarebytes is aiming to make things easier for businesses with the launch of its latest Breach Remediation product, a platform that improves organizations' ability to remove advanced threats from their endpoint systems.

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The growth of distributed enterprise networks and changes in traffic patterns as data moves to the cloud has presented companies with problems in ensuring that all of their information and endpoints are properly protected.

To address this, Israeli company Cato Networks is launching its new network security as a service (NSaaS) platform. Cato Cloud is aimed at making network security simple and cost-effective for the distributed, cloud-centric and mobile-first enterprise.

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This year has been another brutal one for breaches and data loss, with 400 new threats emerging every minute by some reports. Most security administrators and architects have been shoring up defenses inside networks in order to better detect places of compromise and attacker movement. Many organizations recognize that one of the fastest ways to beef up detection capabilities is to add context-based network analytics like those provided by Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems and NetFlow security analyzers.

Adoption has been brisk, the SIEM market is one of the strongest with a forecasted growth of 12 percent annually reaching $4.54 billion by 2019. And recently, Cisco further highlighted the importance of network telemetry to security with the acquisition of NetFlow analysis veteran Lancope for $453 million.

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While Wi-Fi is ubiquitous nowadays, it is still a miraculous technology. If you grew up with it, you may take it for granted. Me? My early computing involved chatting on IRC using unreliable dial-up connections. Connecting to the Internet without wires is magic as far as I am concerned.

The technologies behind Wi-Fi and networking has improved dramatically throughout the years -- faster, longer range and, more reliable. If you just bought an 802.11ac router, please know that it is no longer cutting-edge. Why? Well, today, TP-LINK announces the Talon AD7200 -- the world's first 802.11ad Multi-band Wi-Fi Router, and with eight antennas, it looks absolutely wild. It offers a mind-boggling 4.6Gbps using 60GHz bands!

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Networking manufacturer Juniper has discovered backdoors built into its firewalls. The company says that a number of its devices running the ScreenOS operating system include serious vulnerabilities that could be used to take remote control of networked devices, or to decrypt VPN traffic.

The company says that the security issues were unearthed during an internal code review and has issued an out-of-cycle fix to address the vulnerabilities. Network admins are advised to treat the threats seriously, and to make use of the available patches immediately.

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ISIS has been in the news for some time now, and events like the recent terror attacks in Paris keep pushing the group into the public consciousness. Governments may be waging war on ISIS on the ground, but on the web it is the likes of Anonymous and vigilante hackers who have taken it upon themselves to curtail terrorist propaganda.

In the latest twist in the tail, hacker group VandaSec traced the IP addresses relating to some ISIS Twitter accounts to the UK government -- the Department of Work and Pensions specifically. Given that the accounts have been used not only to spread ISIS propaganda, but also to recruit members, does the UK government have a dirty little secret? As you might expect, it's not quite that simple.

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IT teams are able to collect more real-time data than ever before, but there's a difference between gathering information and being able to do something useful with it.

Wire data analytics specialist ExtraHop is launching the fifth generation of its big data analytics platform, complete with a new search appliance aimed at giving businesses fast, reliable insights into their operations.

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DNS is the backbone of the internet, but the growth in cloud usage and the Internet of Things is putting traditional approaches to traffic management under pressure.

Intelligent DNS and traffic management company NS1, today announced the launch of Pulsar, a cloud-based Real User Monitoring (RUM) solution that brings the power of user level data to a company’s advanced data feed and traffic management capabilities.

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Network data is an increasingly important resource for IT teams, particularly when it comes to analyzing and resolving security threats. But unlocking the potential of that data can be difficult.

Dublin-based analytics specialist Corvil is launching a new platform that unlocks the power of network data, with an intuitive and customizable user interface and a new data automation engine that dramatically reduces the time, expense, and complexity of working with network data.

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When it comes to home networking, nothing is more iconic than the classic blue Linksys router. When I worked at CompUSA, I sold a ton of them, and for good reason -- they worked well. Over the years, some of the models proved popular for open-source firmware replacements, making them attractive to tinkerers.

Fast forward to today, and Linksys announces a new open source-friendly router, which builds upon the existing WRT1900AC. With a faster processor and double the RAM, the new model gets an "S" moniker -- reminiscent of Apple's iPhone naming -- as WRT1900ACS. Are you excited for this Linux-powered home router?

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