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Reports developments related to computer security in the U.S. as of August 9, 2004. Availability of the book "Network Security Hacks," by Andrew Lockhart; Topics discussed in the book; Release of a database security software by Guardium Inc.

The article provides an update on computer security measures as of April 2004. The book Designing Network Security, second edition, by Merike Kaeo, may appear to focus on Cisco products. But the first eight chapters offer very useful and non-vendor-specific security best practices. The other chapters are Cisco-centric, however and focus on vendor-specific device configurations and implementation examples. This edition also covers public-key infrastructure and wireless. It even has information on 802.1X switch-port authetication. Meanwhile, the organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards has ratified the Web Services Security standard. WSS 1.0 specifies a series of Simple Object Access Protocol extensions designed to secure the confidentiality and integrity of Web services messages. IT vendors should improve default security settings in their products, a committee of the National Cyber Security Partnership Task Force said in a report on technical standards. The group has asked vendors to provide stronger out-of-the-box security configurations and to support at least one configuration profile that provides a baseline security level.

Presents new information resources and tools for computer security, as of November 2003. "Stealing the Network: How to Own the Box," a book by Ryan Russell; XML Firewall 2300 series from Reactivity Inc.; Enterprise Security Manager 6.0 software from Symantec Corp.