New specs for cyber security

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the US is working with defence and intelligence agencies to develop cyber security specifications that could be applied across government, says InformationWeek.

The NIST's recommendations for cyber security are the first step in a plan to create a common security framework for civilian, military, and intelligence agencies.

NIST information security researcher, Ron Ross, says: “In pursuing common standards, the government can create standard ways to share information and partner on IT projects, including cyber security.”

The Open Group, a consortium focused on enterprise standards and interoperability, has revealed industry standards for the adoption of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and cloud computing, states Computerworld.

The standards include the Open Group Service Integration Maturity Model (OSIMM) and SOA Governance Framework.

The SOA Governance Framework, developed by The Open Group SOA Work Group, is a free guide for organisations to apply governance standards to accelerate the success rates of SOA. IBM is endorsing both SOA Governance Framework and OSIMM.

Governance, risk and compliance specialist Modulo has formalised a partnership agreement with Qualys, reports SC Magazine.

This will enable the integration of the QualysGuard vulnerability management and policy compliance solution and Modulo's Risk Manager, to deliver security risk and compliance management capabilities.

Philippe Courtot, chairman and CEO of Qualys, says: “We are pleased to have Modulo as a partner and offer customers a more comprehensive solution to collect security and compliance data from global assets and assess the IT risk within their networks.”