From The Editor
By Jeff Caruso, Site Editor
- Rock Phish upgrades its botnet
- Ellen Messmer reports that the "cybergang" Rock Phish is upgrading its botnet, according to RSA.
She notes that the group's Asprox botnet "gained attention earlier this year when it was linked to...
- iPhone list of complaints
- Perhaps - just perhaps - the Apple iPhone's success set the bar too high for its 3G successor. People seemed to complain right from the beginning, with one of our bloggers even famously returning her...
- Watch these open-source companies
- Some really interesting innovations in software continue to come from companies that are part of the open source movement.
Network World's John Fontana this week selects 10 companies that stand...
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Data security spending is up; Father of reengineering Michael Hammer dies at 60 Listen now!
- Beware of UC security threats
- Unified communications opens up your VoIP network new avenues of collaboration, including instant messaging, video, business applications and e-mail. And that opens up your network to new avenues of attack.
- McAfee touts "cloud-based" malware defense system
- McAfee Monday is announcing a change in how it delivers malware-signature software updates that it says should result in much speedier fixes.
- Software watchdog working on enterprise security metrics
- The Center for Information Security is working to come up with metrics that companies can use to evaluate their information security status.
- Fortinet turns up speed on security
- Fortinet is introducing cards for its FortiGate 5000 unified-threat-management chassis that let it support 10Gbps Ethernet connections designed to protect large corporate data centers. (Learn more about UTM products.)
- Start-up ParaScale launches cloud storage beta trial
- Storage start-up ParaScale is opening a beta trial for software that will let IT shops build internal storage “clouds” and give service providers the ability to build cloud storage services similar to Amazon’s S3.
- GeoEye imaging satellite launched
- The highest resolution commercial Earth imaging satellite to date, the GeoEye-1, was launched over the weekend on a Delta-II rocket that carried the Google logo alongside the GeoEye logo on its side.
- Intel releases more Quad-Core Xeons, goes halogen-free
- Intel announced four new quad-core Xeon models on Monday that use a halogen-free packaging technology that is easier on the environment.
- WiMax far ahead of LTE at Japan's NEC
- The future of broadband networking at Japan's NEC is clear. The company's WiMax operations far outpace its work in the telecommunications industry's mobile broadband standard, LTE (long term evolution).
- Nokia adds address, calendar sync to Ovi
- Nokia is expanding the capabilities of its online content-sharing site, Ovi, as it steps up competition with other providers of services that link mobile phones to online services.
- At 10, Google reiterates commitment to CIOs
- Google, which celebrates 10 years of its incorporation this month, remains strongly committed to its Enterprise unit and to the customers it serves, including IT and business managers and CIOs, although most of the company's revenue comes from online advertising.
- Analysts: Google spreading itself too thin
- As Google enters its second decade of existence with no apparent rivals for the search-king throne, industry observers warn that the company's biggest enemy may be itself.
- Six common complaints about Apple's iPhone 3G
- Six common complaints about Apple's iPhone 3G, from dropped calls to slow data and MobileMe follies.
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- Sun to craft software stack into NAS appliances
- Sun Microsystems will introduce a storage appliance based on its FISHworks software package by the end of this year and later extend the technology to other types of products through partnerships.
- Report: Dell in talks to sell PC factories
- Computer-maker Dell is attempting to off-load its computer manufacturing plants around the world, The Wall Street Journal reported in its Friday edition.
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- Patent holders cut some DVD licensing rates
- The nine member consortium that holds most of the important patents covering DVD technology is cutting some of its license rates.
- Keeping score in the thin TV battle
- A stroll rounds the halls of last week's IFA electronics show in Berlin, or this week's CEDIA show in Denver or, well, just about any consumer electronics show in the last year makes it clear that thinness is the latest battleground in the competitive flat-panel TV business.
- Vodafone to resell Dell's netbook
- Dell's new netbook, the Inspiron Mini 9, will be sold with built-in mobile broadband by Vodafone, the companies announced on Thursday.
- Samsung eyes possible acquisition of SanDisk
- Samsung is eyeing a possible acquisition of memory chip-maker SanDisk.
- Samsung's X360: Lighter than air -- but not thinner
- When Samsung Electronics unveiled its new X360 laptop at the IFA electronics show in Berlin last week it made a big deal of the machine being lighter than Apple's Macbook Air.
- OLPC seeks ITU's help to promote laptops
- The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) association is changing strategy: It has joined forces with the United Nations' lead agency for information technology to further spread its green low-cost laptops to school kids in developing nations around the world.
- Researchers build malicious Facebook application
- A team of researchers have built a malicious Facebook program an experiment to demonstrate the possible dangers of social networking applications.
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- Kenya Revenue Authority to tax wireless telephone services
- The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has introduced a 10 percent excise duty on wireless telephone services, which local loop operators have criticized as unfair.
- Kenyan mobile phone provider to upgrade network
- Mobile phone operator Zain Kenya has commenced a two-year, 25 billion Kenyan shilling (US$366.3 million) expansion program with an initial investment of 3 billion shillings to upgrade its network.
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- Police arrest Zain Zambia employees
- Police in Zambia have arrested three Zain Zambia employees for stealing US$10,000 belonging to the company.
- Is Rock Phish cybergang set for a comeback?
- RSA warns that the Rock Phish cybergang is upgrading its botnet for nefarious purposes.
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- South African telecoms allowed to build their own networks
- The cost of communication in South Africa is set to fall after Pretoria High Court ruled in favor of Altech last week, giving telecom companies the right to build their own networks.
- African mobile provider moves to new dialing code
- As part of Zain Sierra Leone's expansion strategy, the company's network has moved from its previous 076 code to 078, director of sales and customer care Keith Tukei revealed Thursday.
- Sierra Leone press needs IT training, experts say
- The Sierra Leonean media has fallen behind in the use of IT, said Tonya Musa, a media consultant and lecturer at Fourah Bay College, in an interview after a training program for journalists last week.
- Browser war redux, patch time, iPod news
- Google garnered headlines all week with its new Chrome browser. Rival Microsoft announced it will release just four patches next Tuesday, but that may not be cause to think the day will be an easy one for those responsible for keeping systems patched. Also looking ahead, Apple is expected to announce iPod news. Otherwise, a warning was issued about new trickery from spammers and in case we all weren't aware of it by now, social-networking sites could be ripe for malware.
- 1Password for iPhone
- 1Password for the iPhone is a tool that lets you record user names and passwords for Web sites, along with free-form notes, and store them securely on your iPhone. It shares a name with 1Password for the Mac, a US$35 program that makes it super-simple to not only save Web site login information, but to automatically log in to those sites in your browser of choice. 1Password for the Mac is an excellent program; we covered it briefly in this Mac Gems column from last year. Also, if you own 1Password for the Mac, you can sync your iPhone/iPod touch data with your Mac--and this works in both directions, so records can be added on the iPhone and then synced to your Mac, and vice-versa.
- PCalc 1.0.2 for iPhone and iPod touch
- Back in October of 2005, I enthusiastically reviewed PCalc 3, which has since been my favorite calculator for the Mac. The developer, TLA Systems, recently released the US$10 PCalc for the iPhone and iPod touch, and it's similarly slick. Although Apple updated the iPhone's built-in calculator app considerably with the release of the iPhone 2.0 software--most notably by adding a landscape-mode scientific layout--PCalc is an appealing alternative, offering a compelling combination of advanced functions, useful conversion and constant features, and a great interface.
- BusySync 2.1.6
- Apple's iCal lets you make a calendar available to others by "publishing" it, but subscribers can't edit your published calendars. And although MobileMe members can sync calendars among Macs and make changes on any of them, this only works if each Mac is logged in with the member's MobileMe ID. If you want family members or coworkers to be able to see and edit your iCal calendars, BusyMac's BusySync 2.1.6 may be just the tool you need. It syncs calendars among Macs (with the same or different users), among user accounts on a given Mac, and between your Mac and Google Calendar--in any combination.
- Let Zoho send the bill
- All businesses need to invoice their customers for products and services supplied. Invoicing is, of course, available in accounting packages that also track accounts receivable and handle many other chores such as financial statement preparation. But if you don't want the hassle of installing full-fledged accounting software and keeping your records up to date, you can use an online service that handles just the billing and collection services you require.
- Brenthaven Trek Sleeve
- Back in June 2007, I covered Brenthaven's US$20 MacBook Sleeve, an impressively protective case at an impressively low price. As I explained at the time, the Sleeve was originally designed for some of Apple's "one-student-one-laptop" initiatives:
- AT&T security guru talks DoS attacks, tomorrow’s hackers
- AT&T CSO Edward Amoroso lists his biggest security challenges: protecting sensitive information and defending against denial-of-service attacks.
- MySQL co-founder may resign
- MySQL co-founder Michael "Monty" Widenius is contemplating resigning from his position at Sun Microsystems, which bought the open-source database company earlier this year, according to a blog post Friday by Kaj Arnö, vice president of community relations for MySQL.
- Does a tech manager need to be tech-savvy?
- To work in IT you have to have a tech background, right? Nope. With the right set of management skills, even a nontechnical person can make it as a successful manager. Sure, it helps to understand the bits and-bytes of each employee's area of expertise. If nothing else, it means the manager can appreciate what the staff does right and recognize weaknesses. But how can managers accurately evaluate team performance or assign tasks when they know little or nothing about what the individual does? According to some technical employees, the answer is communication.
- Webroot Secure Backup service
- In a world where 2GB of online backup space costs nothing (at Mozy.com and Fabrik.com, for instance) you'd think it would be hard to compete as a for-a-fee storage service. But many people require more storage space for their vital data than the free services provide. Enter Webroot Secure Backup, which offers various levels of storage to meet your needs.
- Disk storage drove ahead in Q2
- The disk storage industry defied economic gloom in the second quarter with strong increases in both capacity sold and revenue, according to two research companies.
- Oracle said to be making progress on Fusion apps
- Observers say Oracle has finally made substantial progress on its next-generation Fusion Applications suite, more than three-and-a-half years after the project was first announced.
