For the first time in years, Novell is in the news day after day. Indeed, over the last three months, here in Wonderland we have received more Novell related e-mails than ever before. No news is good news may be an old adage, but no PR person will ever agree with that statement. Besides, from Novell's point of view, the boom in coverage has been much better than no news with much of the coverage of NetWare 6 being extremely favourable. Now, the company is looking to protect its future even more with the latest release of its internal security software.

Novell's iChain Web Security Software is being touted as the Gatekeeper to Network and Application Resources. The software is designed to permit organisations to secure their entire Web environment and control user access to resources. Furthermore the software provides single sign-on to nearly all Web based applications and content. In essence iChain seeks to facilitate the creation of a security infrastructure that encompasses all Internet (and, by definition, Intranet) applications and all systems accessible through the network.

Crucially, in the creation of this tool, Novell has recognised the well known, but sadly neglected, fact that the majority of security breaches and hacks occur from within the organisation not from the outside. Research has demonstrated that most instances of unauthorised accessing of systems and data are the result of the actions of employees. Only in a minority of cases does the intrusion occur from outside the company's firewalls. However, as few organisations have any desire to admit to any form of security breach, it is the external break-ins that secure all of the publicity, as these are the occasions when the truth cannot be covered up and ignored.

For some time, specialist security companies have been working to raise the profile of internal security issues but, to a large degree, they have met with little success. Novell's very public move into the security arena and the emphasis on managing all control points to information, especially those internal to an organisation, may well move the security question forwards, especially given the strong interconnection between the iChain product and Novell's excellent and widely used directory system.

The release of iChain will generate more good publicity for Novell at a time when the company looks to be on the up. With Novell's rock solid reputation for product quality, the move will also benefit the security industry as a whole. Things are looking good for Novell on the product front but the next step is the tricky one. It is time for the company to market its wares effectively and bring in some sales.