Antivirus pioneer turned self-described "eccentric millionaire" John McAfee still has some fight left-- so much so he is ready to take on the NSA with a gadget promising miniature darknets for everyone.

Dubbed "D-Central" by the alleged fraudster/murder suspect/bath salt enthusiast, the as-yet-unbuilt device will supposedly cost less than $100 and, in a few words, provides public or private localised dynamic networks (or "floating" networks) through which users can anonymously communicate and share files.

While not designed to replace the internet, the D-Central will have a range of around 3 city blocks and be compatible with iPhones and Android devices.

"There will be no way (for the government) to tell who you are or where you are," McAfee announced at the inaugural C2SV conference, before claiming he will sell the D-Central anywhere else in the world should the US government decide to ban its sale. "This is coming and cannot be stopped."

F5 Networks makes a move towards the security market and acquires Versafe, an Israel-based developer of online fraud, phishing and malware solutions, for an unspecified sum.

Versafe solutions are combined into the Security Operations Centre (SOC), a subscription-based security offering. 

“The acquisition supports F5’s vision and commitment to provide our customers with secure access to data and applications from any location; from any device,” F5 Networks says. “Web applications are under increasing attack, which can lead to the theft of intellectual property, money, sensitive data and identity. Versafe provides comprehensive, real-time detection and protection for every user, every device and every browser.”  Read more...

HP launches a number of enterprise security services and tools, claiming it will help organisations spot security breaches in 12 minutes and solve 92% of incidents within 2 hours. 

“Enterprises today aren't facing a single attacker-- they are fighting a well-organized, well-funded adversary marketplace,” the company says. “To succeed in thwarting attacks, you need a trusted partner that can provide end-to-end security with enhanced threat intelligence to disrupt the adversary. Only HP can deliver this.”

Launches include Managed Security Services (MSS) offerings such as the Supplier Security Compliance Solution, (a means of protecting information flow across a supplier network) and DDoS Protection Services (a DDoS and web-application attack detection application based on Akamai technologies). Read more...

Nature publishes a Toshiba research paper detailing means of inching quantum cryptography commercialisation-- a quantum access networking able to handle up to 64 users. 

Quantum networking relies on the theory stating that the observation of a quantum object (such as a photon) changes the object in question, making potential hackers detectable and any cryptographic keys unusable. Commercial quantum crytpography systems are already available from firms including ID Quantique and MagiQ, but such systems can only send messages from A to B over a single cable. 

The Toshiba technology uses of an improved hub photon detector able to count up to 1 billion photons per second. It allows the adding of more users to the network via the connection of (relatively) basic quantum transmitters, thus reducing overall costs.  Read more...