IT-Code-News: IT News HeadLines (ComputerWorld) 07/01/2009

EU investigates possible smart card chip cartel
The European Commission is investigating a possible cartel among manufacturers of the smart card chips used in payment cards and mobile phones, it said Wednesday.

10 must-have free BlackBerry apps
A handful of free BlackBerry applications -- for browsing the Web, issuing voice commands, creating spreadsheets, reading e-books and more -- can make your trusty smart phone even smarter.

Self-promotion at work: 8 tips for shy people
Self-promotion can be particularly hard for IT professionals because on top of cultural conditioning, they feel their work speaks for them. But you may need it to survive this economic downturn with your job intact. Here are eight tips to get you started.

Asus debuts S121 netbook with Windows 7 and 512GB SSD
Asustek Computer on Tuesday debuted an ultra-thin, light netbook called the S121 with two new technologies, Microsoft's yet-to-be released Windows 7 OS and the world's largest solid state drive (SSD) at 512GB.

CheckFree warns 5 million customers after hack
CheckFree and some of the banks that use its electronic bill payment service are notifying more than 5 million customers after criminals took control of several of the company's Internet domains and redirected customer traffic to a malicious Web site hosted in the Ukraine.

Comcast confirms new network management practices
Comcast, the second largest broadband provider in the U.S., has stopped network-management practices that focus on slowing the BitTorrent peer-to-peer application, the company said.

Digital TV converter program out of money
A federal program providing vouchers for digital television converters to people whose TV sets will stop working on Feb. 17 has run out of money.

Microsoft touts Mac-Windows collaboration at Macworld
Microsoft plans to launch new Mac software later this year that will let Office 2008 for Mac users collaborate with people running the Windows version of the application suite.

Start-up Ctera will offer cloud storage through carriers
Storage start-up Ctera introduced a combined local and cloud storage system for service providers to sell as a service.

Identify and eliminate MD5 attacks in two easy steps

A group of international security researchers recently demonstrated successful attacks against the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) used to issue security certificates to Web sites when the signatures are generated with the MD5 hash function. Happily, the vulnerability is simple to identify and easy to remediate.

IT Service Contracts + SMB Virtual IT = a Stable, Profitable Business

If you own or manage a small business IT company, you may be thinking about using IT service contracts to build better relationships with clients.

Is it Safe to Just Ignore Windows' Service Packs?

Don Dalton installed Vista's SP1 update, encountered "a multitude of problems," and uninstalled it. Can he safely go on indefinitely without it?

Digital Gangster takes credit for Twitter hacks

Members of the online forum Digital Gangster may have been behind Monday's Twitter hack. On Monday, hackers gained access to, and posted messages from, 33 Twitter accounts including those of Bill O'Reilly, Britney Spears and CNN's Rick Sanchez.

Google comes in third on top 10 list of spam enablers

Google hasn't stopped a rising number of spammers from abusing Google Docs, its Web-based collaboration and spreadsheet application, according to Spamhaus.

Tutorial On Telecommunications and Network Security

This Chapter has been extracted from the book CISSP in 21 Days, by Packt Publishing. This book is written to serve as a concise quick revision guide for the CISSP exam preparation that ensures a disciplined study approach a month before exam, giving candidates a complete coverage of the prescribed syllabus.

Expert: Microsoft earned US$1.5B from Vista Capable program

An expert has determined that Microsoft may have earned more than US$1 billion from its controversial Windows Vista Capable sticker program, which is still at the center of a class-action suit being decided in a Washington state court.

Salesforce suffers system wide outage

Salesforce.com was down for under an hour on Tuesday, but users were left in the dark about the outage.

SOA gets an obituary
SOA is dead but services remain alive, according to a prominent analyst who published an obituary for SOA in a blog post on Monday.

CES: Motorola to offer phone made from recycled plastic bottles
Motorola will show off a new cell phone made from recycled plastic water bottles at the Consumer Electronics Show this week.

Macworld: IBM finalizing free Symphony office suite for Macs
Looking to take on Microsoft Office on Macintosh systems, IBM said it will make a Mac version of its Lotus Symphony desktop applications suite generally available later this month.

HP's new lightweight Pavilion laptops light on wallet, too
Hewlett-Packard hopes its new Pavilion DV2 and DV3 computers, set for unveiling today, can help it maintain its top position in the worldwide laptop market.

CES: HP says new netbook can run for up to 8 hours between charges
Hewlett-Packard is introducing a netbook PC, the Mini 2140, with an extra-cost six-cell battery that it said will enable the system to run for up to eight hours before needing a recharge.

Image gallery: 3 videoconferencing services pick up where your travel budget leaves off
Videoconferencing services can ensure that remote colleagues can keep in touch without the expense and hassle of travel. We compare three of them.

Review: 3 videoconferencing services pick up where your travel budget leaves off
Videoconferencing services can ensure that remote colleagues can keep in touch without the expense and hassle of travel. We compare three of them.

Landing interviews in a tough hiring market
Columnist Katherine Spencer Lee offers some strategies for identifying the opportunities that are still out there despite the tough overall hiring market.

Via's dual-core Nano processor on track for late 2009
Taiwanese processor vendor Via Technologies confirmed its plans for a dual-core version of its Nano processor remain on track, but said recent news reports about its product plans confused this chip with another upcoming version of the processor, the Nano 3000.

Microsoft's Official Fix for Failing Zunes

Zune owners now have a fix for their failing devices thanks to Microsoft that has posted instructions on how to start the new year off with a working digital music player.

How to Unlock your iPhone 3G

What better way to start the new year then by jailbreaking and unlocking your iPhone 3g. You'll be able to run as many third-party applications as you want on your device. And more importantly, you'll be able to use your iPhone on any cell phone carrier you want.

New Palm Handset and OS Coming on Thursday?

Palm is set to preview this week its latest incarnation of mobile operating system - Nova - in a bid to re-ignite the company as a smartphone leader.

Twitter Hack: How It Happened and What's Being Done

Twitter is tackling a series of security issues, starting with a hack that hit some well-known celebrity accounts. Someone broke into Twitter accounts belonging to President-elect Barack Obama, CNN anchor Rick Sanchez, and Britney Spears over the weekend. At the same time, a phishing scam is trying to trick regular users into handing over their passwords and compromising their profiles.

Hackers hijack Obama's, Britney's Twitter accounts

Hackers hijacked the Twitter accounts of more than 30 celebrities and organizations, including President-Elect Barack Obama, Britney Spears and Fox News, early on Monday, the company confirmed today.

Maturity Scale for IT Data Management

How does the IT data management -- the market that is an umbrella for log management, security information management, and security event management -- look? What are some of the implications based on the maturity scale? Why do some SIM/SEM projects fail and others don't? Are you ripe for advanced analytics and visualization?

Encryption top IT security initiative in 2009

IT security budgets are increasing in 2009 to consume 12.6% of the entire IT operating budget, up from 11.7% in 2008, according to Forrester Research's survey of 942 IT and security managers in North America and Europe.

The 7 Worst Tech Predictions of All Time

Even the most successful tech prognosticators make their share of foolish predictions. Here are a few favorite forward-looking flubs of the past 65 years.

Stephen Fry hit by Twitter ID hack

Hackers are targeting Twitter users in a bid to steal personal information, says Sophos.

Microsoft made $1.5B on 'Vista Capable' campaign

Microsoft earned more than US$1.5 billion from the sale of PCs marked as "Vista Capable" in the months leading up to the 2007 debut of Windows Vista, according to an expert's estimate.

Beatles music online at last

After years of legal squabbles with digital download services such as Apple's iTunes, the music of The Beatles can now be legally downloaded.

Windows 7 reports already coming in

Tomorrow night, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will give the keynote address at CES, at which time most people believe he will announce the Beta 1 release of Windows 7. Already, reports are starting to come in from bloggers who have had a look at the beta. So how does it compare to XP, or Vista for that matter?

HP's new lightweight Pavilion laptops light on wallet too

HP unveils a pair of consumer laptops sporting multimedia capabilities, sleek metal casings and prices starting at just under $700. The systems are being announced in conjunction with the International CES trade show.

Microsoft layoff rumors continue their swirl

The on-again, off-again rumors of layoffs at Microsoft appear to be off again after CNBC reported that the company would not have layoffs ahead of its January earnings report.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

IT News HeadLines (ComputerWorld) 07/01/2009

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