RSA Security Monday has developed technology designed to improve the security of wireless networks used within buildings and protect them from so-called "drive-by hacks."
RSA (RSAS) and Hifn have developed a technology patch for the wireless equivalent privacy, or WEP, protocol designed to encrypt communications transferred over standard 802.11 wireless networks.
The current WEP implementation is flawed in that it uses encryption "keys" or codes for hiding data that are too similar to each other, making it relatively easy for someone to figure out the keys.
The new technology, called fast packet keying, "enables you to encrypt each packet of data with a different key," a spokesman said. The technology has been approved by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers standards body as an addendum, or patch, to the 802.11 standard, he said.
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Vivendi's U.S. gambit: Vivendi Universal is buying the entertainment assets of USA Networks in a $10.3 billion deal to improve distribution of the French media giant's music and movies in the United States.
Under the deal announced Monday, Vivendi (V) will combine USA Networks' (USAI) assets such as the USA and Sci-Fi cable channels and the TV production operation responsible for Law and Order and Jerry Springer, with its own Universal Studios.
For $10.3 billion in cash and stock, Vivendi will get a 93 percent stake in a new company that will be called Vivendi Universal Entertainment.
USA Networks' Barry Diller, the entertainment industry veteran who ran the Paramount movie studio in the 1970s and oversaw the launch of the Fox television network in the 1980s, will be chairman and chief executive of Vivendi Universal Entertainment.
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Mating dance continues: Comcast, AOL Time Warner and Cox Communications all submitted revised bids to acquire AT&T Broadband on Sunday, although additional changes were still expected before AT&T's board meets this week to decide the cable company's fate, sources close to the negotiations said.
Exact details of the revisions could not immediately be learned, although sources confirmed that Comcast (CMCSA), Cox (COX) and AOL Time Warner (AOL) all made changes to their initial takeover offers made two weeks ago. The changes were essentially minor, sources said, but in some cases addressed specific points raised by AT&T (T).
AT&T's board is scheduled to meet Wednesday.
Also participating in the process is Microsoft (MSFT), which has agreed to back both Cox and Comcast's bids in addition to offering to infuse an additional $4 billion to $5 billion into the broadband unit if the telecommunications giant decides to keep it independent, sources said.
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News from Europe: NTT DoCoMo, Japan's top mobile operator, said on Monday that its partner in Europe, KPN Mobile NV, will launch a European mobile Internet service similar to DoCoMo's hugely successful i-mode service.
I-mode, used by nearly 30 million subscribers in Japan to browse the Web to get news, entertainment and e-mail, has been seen as a key bridge for fast third-generation wireless services.
KPN had said last month that it plans to launch services similar to i-mode in the Netherlands and Germany by spring, to be followed by its Belgian operation KPN Orange about two months later. There had been reports of a delay from an original launch target by the end of the year.
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Savings through B2B: Companies worldwide could save an aggregate $2.3 trillion a year by using the Internet to purchase resources ranging from office supplies to plane tickets, a study by analysts Aberdeen Group said.
In 2001, 8 to 10 percent of the largest 5,000 companies were using e-procurement software. By 2003, it's estimated that the number will mushroom to 80-90 percent.
Aberdeen said that based on the 25 multi-national corporations it surveyed, corporations could save between eight and 10 percent on these expenditures, or an aggregate of $2.3 trillion for companies worldwide.
AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
