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Private equity firm Thoma Bravo continued its investment in the security space today, announcing that it has agreed to acquire Blue Coat Systems, a provider of Web security and WAN optimization solutions, for approximately $1.3 billion in cash.

China based telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei Technologies said today that it would voluntarily curb its business efforts in Iran, citing an increasingly complex situation in the country.In a statement, the company said it would no longer seek new customers, and that it would limit its business activities with existing customers.

In October 2010, Version 2.0 of the Payment Card Industry – Data Security Standard (affectionately called PCI-DSS) was released by the Security Standards Council and went into effect January 1, 2011. Most of the changes were focused on clarification of existing guidelines but could have an impact on the steps required to get PCI compliant.

Yet another certificate authority (CA) has added its name to the list of CAs hacked this year.

Romanian Nationals Charged with Participating in Multimillion Dollar Scheme to Hack into and Steal Credit Card Data from U.S. MerchantsThe Department of Justice announced today that four Romanian nationals have been charged for their alleged participation in a multimillion dollar scheme to hack into and steal payment card data from merchants’ point of sale (POS) systems in the U.S.

Security researchers have uncovered more details about the recent Adobe Reader and Acrobat exploit that is being used in attacks targeting U.S. defense firms. According to Symantec, the attackers are leveraging a zero-day flaw in 9.x versions of Reader to infect Windows computers with the Sykipot Trojan, which opens up a backdoor on compromised systems.

ENSIA Identifies 16 Areas Where CERTS Fail on Proactive Detection of Network Security Incidents In a report detailing the findings of a study on proactive detection of network security incidents, the European Network and information Security Agency (ENISA) has identified 16 areas where Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) are being hindered by process gaps that are impacting their job performance and overall effectiveness.

Yahoo! today said that it has been awarded a $610 million default judgment, handed down by a federal judge in New York, against spammers responsible for a fake Yahoo! lottery email scheme. In the scheme, spammers sent emails to users, trying to trick them into believing they had won a lottery prize from Yahoo!.Court documents show that Yahoo! estimated the defendants had sent at least 11,660,790 hoax emails from December 2006 through May 2009.

A story about hackers utilizing complicated exploits to infiltrate a computer network is sure to generate headlines. But sometimes it’s the devil you know that can do the most damage.

ENISA and OWASP Issue Smartphone Secure Development GuidelinesThe European Network and information Security Agency (ENISA) and OWASP have published a report for secure development guidelines on mobile devices. Written for smartphone application developers, the report lists ten critical areas to consider when creating the next Angry Birds, or the ultra-portable office solution.

OpenDNS has released a tool along with its source code, that enables encrypted DNS traffic, much in the same way SSL enables encrypted HTTP traffic.According to OpenDNS, and any researcher or vendor who has ever worked in the field, some of the underlying foundations of the DNS protocol are inherently weak, especially what they call the “last mile” - or the part of the internet connection between the client and the ISP. To address this, OpenDNS released a preview of...

What Happens When Data is Separated from the Systems and Applications that the Data Owners control?Cloud computing, virtualization, mobile devices, and social networking are consistently listed in the top concerns for CISOs in 2011. And rightly so: the primary line of defense for our information assets had been the Internet perimeter and conclaves. As a consequence, our main security strategies have focused on the network and hosts rather than the data.

Federal Government Releases "Trustworthy Cyberspace: Strategic Plan for the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Program"The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released a report detailing the roadmap of priorities for government agencies that sponsor research and development in cyber-security.

Updated Story: Researchers Confirm Attackers Targeted Defense Firms with Adobe Reader Zero-day

Open source giant Red Hat, today announced the availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2, the latest version of its enterprise operating system that brings significant improvements in resource management, high availability, and new features aimed at storage and file system performance and identity management.