John Penrod, CISO of The Weather Channel, discusses how the IT pro can manage business risk.

This is a very special issue to me and the team at SC Labs because it is based on a year of seeing the good and the not so good. We actually saw almost no bad products, so it was a pretty good year overall. It is special for you because it helps answer the question, "If we are going to buy security tools in the next 12 to 18 months, what should we be looking at?"

We handed out crystal balls to several analysts, consultants, professors and CSOs and asked them to answer questions about next year.

The top cybersecurity events of the year.

The end of yet another year sees in this final 2007 edition of SC Magazine our annual roundup of top thinkers, interesting happenings, business developments and criminal acts.

On the hunt for more innovative solutions to holistically safeguard organizations' growing networks, Peter Stephenson pinpoints the product categories and solutions you might consider next year.

Recent high profile data breaches have underscored the need for robust information security within organizations. But with names like Pfizer, TJX and the Department of Veterans Affairs dominating headlines, smaller organizations might infer that they have nothing to fear. Nevertheless, no company — large or small — is immune to a data breach or network intrusion, and the best form of protection is a holistic and proactive approach.

Here is an update from the IT security industrys boardrooms.

Harry hack A hacker named Gabriel claimed to have breached the networks of the UKs Bloomsbury Publishing, uncovering the ending of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows prior to its release. Experts contended that the claim, posted on hacker websites, was likely a sham, saying that if accurate more evidence would otherwise have been offered.

In this special section, we look at how the IT security industry works to protect banks and financial institutions and keeps up with the rise of online transactions.