Shocking the encryption market is not easy to do, but officials at Voltage Security must hope their new approach to encryption will do exactly that.

The company’s flagship SecureData product uses a cryptographic technique Voltage Security calls Format-Preserving Encryption. SecureData was first released to the public in fall of 2007, though the company waited until now to speak about it publicly.

When the economy slides into a recession, layoffs are inevitable. Whether it’s three or four people laid off, a massive downsizing or a company that has been forced to shut its doors, the layoff experience is nothing short of a nightmare for most workers.

Years and even decades of valued work, input and influence on a company comes to a screeching halt in a surprisingly formal and succinct process. Rarely are the pink-slipped given time to download personal documents from their computers or say goodbye to peers. If severance is involved, there will be papers to sign. HR might want an exit interview. And that’s all there is. The process happens so quickly, most are too stunned and shaken to consider what rights or entitlements they do or do not have.

Security vendor F-Secure has warned of multiple critical vulnerabilities in its own and other vendors’ products. The vulnerabilities exist in the way the products respond to malformed archive files, and were discovered by researchers at the University of Oulu in Finland.

F-Secure products affected include F-Secure Internet Security 2008, F-Secure Anti-Virus 2008, F-Secure Mobile Anti-Virus for Windows Mobile 2003/5.0/6, and F-Secure Anti-Virus for Linux 4.65 and earlier versions, according to an F-Secure security bulletin. Successful exploitation of the vulnerabilities could result in remote code execution.

Just how do you protect your database? Here are eight tips to consider when you are looking to lock down the structured data in your enterprise.

Avian, a brokerage firm whose research covers the high-tech and aerospace industries, said that an unnamed large manufacturer is seeing return rates of 20 to 30 percent on SSD-based notebooks, thanks to failures and performance issues.

Laptops with flash memory-based solid state drives (SSDs) are being returned at an alarming rate because of technical failures and performance shortcomings, according to a study released this week by Avian Securities.

Returns due to technical failure ran at 10 to 20 percent, 10 times higher than failure rates for conventional drives, the report said.

Ever meet an enterprise software salesperson you could trust? While such paragons of virtue exist, they seem the exception rather than the rule. Here are 7 common lies used by way too many enterprise solution providers during the sales process.

The Internet has profoundly changed journalism, but not necessarily in ways that were predicted even a few years ago, a study on the industry released Sunday found.

It was believed at one point that the Net would democratize the media, offering many new voices, stories and perspectives. Yet the news agenda actually seems to be narrowing, with many Web sites primarily packaging news that is produced elsewhere, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s annual State of the News Media report.

A man once described as one of the world’s top email spammers pleaded guilty Friday to federal charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, and failure to file a tax return. Robert Alan Soloway, 29, was dubbed "the spam king" by prosecutors who said he used networks of compromised computers to send out millions upon millions of junk emails since 2003.

He was arrested last summer and charged in a 40-count indictment. He agreed to plead guilty to the three charges and the rest were dropped, including email fraud, aggravated identity theft and numerous other counts of mail and wire fraud.

India is not considering banning Research In Motion’s BlackBerry services at this point, the top official in the telecommunications ministry said Friday. Security agencies have raised concerns that the service posed a risk, as emails sent using it could not be traced or intercepted.

In the past few months several U.S airlines–Alaska Air, American Airlines, Continental, JetBlue, Southwest, and Virgin America–have announced plans to offer Internet access on some routes. Why now? The equipment is cheaper and easier to install, business and leisure travelers are asking for it, and the Open Skies rules, which are about to go into effect, will suddenly give U.S. airlines more competition. Each airline is taking a different approach to the technology, features and pricing.

American Airlines and Virgin America will both offer Aircell’s gogo service, a cellular system that uses a version of EV-DO Rev A to deliver broadband speeds of 2Mbps on flights over North America. Aircell says the basic pricing will be about $12.95 for cross-country trips and $9.95 for flights lasting three hours or less. Starting this spring, American will outfit 15 of its Boeing 767s for gogo. It plans to target business travelers with laptops on popular routes between New York and San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Miami. Virgin America is taking a different approach. It hopes to offer gogo on all flights and for all passengers via the entertainment system in the seatbacks. No laptop required.