By KAREN RODRIGUEZ
c.1995 Interactive Age
Open Market Inc. said Friday it will begin offering a diagnostics
service called Security Watch this week on its home page, at
http://www.openmarket.com , that will help users determine whether the
security built into their Internet browser is the most secure
implementation.
``The theme of this security center is to keep consumers and content
providers informed of the various issues of security and provide the
tools to manage the security problems that come up,'' Open Market
president Shikar Ghosh told Interactive Age Daily. ``Unless the
industry has a resource to go to get their questions answered, business
on the Internet will be unsuccessful.''
With at least six different encryption schemes -- from Netscape's
Secure Sockets Layer to Microsoft's new Secure Transaction Technology
tools -- being implemented differently in different browsers, there is
a greater chance of incompatibility between clients and servers.
Open Market's SecurityWatch provides a free service to anyone who wants
to perform a security diagnostic on their browser. By clicking on the
Security Watch icon at the company's Web site, users can find out if
their software has any security holes. Users can download software,
such as upgrades and patches, from the site, which is linked to the
various Internet browser and server vendors.
``One reason why we think we can do this effectively is because we
don't sell a browser,'' Ghosh said. ``And our position on browsers is
to have as many work with our server as possible. Our infobases
maintain tables about each browser and its features.
``We're focused on specific Web security for clients and servers,''
Ghosh said. ``Security problems with SMTP and sendmail we're leaving to
CERT (Certified Emergency Response Team).
``It's security on which the entire industry rests. We strongly argue
that security should be in the public domain. And to the extent that we
have six to seven implementations of security that cause problems far
too complex for even sophisticated banks and publishers to keep track
of, we are providing a resource center for the industry to let people
come to see where they stand.''
NYT-10-10-95 0949EDT
[LINK] Next Article
__________________________________________________________________
[LINK] [LINK] [LINK]