New Rugged Standalone Cameras
StarDot Technologies (www.stardot-tech.com) has introduced its NetCam XL line of network cameras. These are rugged IP-addressable cameras with image and video resolutions up to 3 megapixel. The NetCam XL is the next generation of StarDot’s popular NetCam cameras, which can be seen in some of the most high profile websites in the world, including Yellowstone National Park, Niagara Falls, the North Pole, the Pyramids of Giza and the Eiffel Tower.
The NetCam XL is a standalone product — no computer is required. Designed to plug into nearly all communication equipment, the cameras can be placed virtually anywhere. NetCam XL cameras can be powered via solar panels and can upload live video and images through satellite modem, cellular networks or wireless mesh networks as well as traditional wired networks. NetCam XL cameras address the advanced imaging needs of many sectors, including high definition security, construction management, remote visual verification, weather monitoring, and tourism.
The original NetCam is known for its rugged design, sharp image quality and the ability to run in virtually all temperatures without the need for a heater or blower. The NetCam XL continues this tradition while adding full speed video, video motion detection and the ability to work with standard DC auto iris lenses as well as motorized zoom lenses. The NetCam XL streams live video and images to a web page or you can view video directly with a web browser using the camera’s built-in IP address. No hosting computer is needed and no special software is required to view the live video.
Information Security Scholarship Awards
(ISC)2 is accepting applications for the Annual (ISC)2 Security Scholarship Program for 2007. The group is offering $100,000 in financial assistance to post-graduate students around the world who are conducting information security research projects.
One-year scholarships of up to $12,500 each may be awarded to eight qualifying full-time post-graduate students pursuing an advanced degree in information security at any regionally accredited university worldwide. The submission deadline is April 30, 2007. The awards will be announced June 30, 2007. For more information on the scholarship see www.isc2.org/scholarship.
Super-Secure Hard Disk Drive in Market
Two years after first being announced by Seagate, the world’s most secure hard drive is finally to go on sale in a laptop from system vendor ASI Computer Technologies. The 2.5 inch Momentus 5400 FDE.2 (full disk encryption) is part of ASI’s C8015+, retailing at $2,150.
As well as on-the-fly encryption integrated into the drive itself using chip acceleration, the laptop also features a trusted platform module (TPM), and fingerprint reader, security add-ons that have added roughly 20 percent to the cost of what is otherwise a mainstream Intel Core 2 Duo laptop. The drive to ship in the ASI machine will be the 80GB version, but 100GB, 120GB and 160GB versions are waiting in the wings, all based on a 3Gb/sec SATA interface and spinning at 5400 RPM.
The main cleverness of the Momentus FDE.2 lies in the way the drive’s reads and writes have been tightly entwined with 128-bit AES-based encryption right down to DriveTrust firmware level. The user has the power to set a password to access the drive during system boot, but is otherwise unaware that all data at rest is being encrypted and unencrypted transparently. Data is never in clear text except when it is being used by an application.
Putting encryption into a hard drive is no mere security window-dressing. According to Seagate, any US company that loses a laptop using the Seagate drive in conjunction with the launch security management system from Wave Systems, will not have to give public notification of the loss, even if the data is of a highly confidential nature. This alone guarantees that the technology will find a market given the increasingly costly and embarrassing repercussions of laptop thefts.
