Security takes a run for the border

A fellow journalist I knew used to say something to the city hall officials he covered: "A good day for you is a bad day for me."

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It's both funny and mostly accurate. We journalists are generally -- with exceptions such as Jeff Gannon -- out looking to report bad news.

And we've been pretty busy lately. We've seen instances of identity theft at Bank of America and other financial institutions. Other organizations aren't immune, either. Hackers recently attacked computer servers at California State University and may have gained access to the personal information of 59,000 people affiliated with the school.

So what's the good news? Aside from the fact that the Justice Department has put a few hackers in the clink (where we can only hope their Internet access will be limited), there are some promising new ideas out there regarding computer security.

One is a new product called GreenBorder that -- no surprise -- puts a green border around Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Outlook, two widely used products with porous security. 

GreenBorder Professional Edition is designed to protect against malicious content arriving in IE and Outlook by forcing untrusted content to execute in a virtualized, protected "time-out" environment where it's kept isolated from the local host or trusted network.

GreenBorder differs from most security software in that most untrusted content, malicious or not, is allowed to execute and reside in the seamless virtual environment, but any subsequent host modifications can be discarded. In other words, viruses, worms, and other bad apples can land on your computer all day, but you can discard them at the end of your IT or Outlook session.

Anyone who has had to modify the Registry after some unwanted content made a home there knows what a pain it is to change things after a worm or virus has done its damage. Aside from the fact that it's time-consuming and annoying, there's that moment before you make the change when you think, "Am I about to send my entire system to oblivion?"

Of course, Microsoft officials promise -- really, really promise -- to beef up security in the next version of IE, but GreenBorder officials say their product will still offer better protection and that the company is working with Microsoft to offer additional security features.

The PC-based software, which runs on Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 Professional, doesn't provide the same "time-out" features when used on the corporate intranet. This approach differs from the spyware and anti-virus software on the market today, and it doesn't require constant updating as does most spyware and anti-virus software.

When the user logs off, the GreenBorder software automatically flushes any code, files, and cookies picked up in browsing the Net. It goes without saying that I wish I'd had GreenBorder in the past.

I spoke to one GreenBorder beta customer, The Epstein School, a private elementary and middle school in Atlanta. According to Anthony Shields, system administrator at the school, GreenBorder has prevented spyware infestations and blocked worms.

"It's not that we're not using anti-virus software, but GreenBorder provides us some additional security," Shields said. He added that there have been some glitches, but those have been resolved quickly, usually by changing the software's configuration.

"Overall we're pleased. Our system gets a lot of use, sometimes by students who are not that familiar with our system, so it's great to have some additional security," Shields said. "This creates a kind of 'virtual environment' on the Internet for us and helps us against spyware."

GreenBorder got some good marks in InfoWorld's review, though there were a few problems. Some minor spyware modifications, such as desktop shortcuts and new menus, did make it to the underlying host. (I guess I just can't stop being a reporter.)

GreenBorder Professional Edition starts at $59.95 per seat, plus $4,995 for the centralized configuration and reporting software. You can download a free copy for personal use at greenborder.com.

In other good news, IBM and Symantec are embracing a method to "spam the spammers." IBM has unveiled a technology called FairUCE (Fair Use of Unsolicited Commercial E-mail) that uses a database to identify computers sending spam and then directs the e-mail back to the spammers. Earlier this year Symantec introduced a similar system that sent mail from suspected spammers into a queue. This would ultimately slow down the spammer's servers.

With these methods, you end up spamming the spammers. That's what I call good news.