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Theresa Fowler-Child, Computeract!ve, Saturday 11 October 2008 at 15:41:00

Paul Allen, Computeract!ve, Saturday 11 October 2008 at 10:00:00

Golf: now more exciting than ever

Golf fans have been waiting for this update to the Xbox's best-known gold game with apprehension after the largely disappointing reception given to its predecessor.

The 2008 version failed to build on the success of the 2007 original, but PGA Tour 09 gets the series back to par.

Among the new features is a training mode, in which Tiger's coach highlights aspects of the player's game that could be improved based on shots in previous games and challenges.

In truth, these are little more than extended practice sessions of specific shots but they do provide a skills boost that applies to the next game.

Unlike previous games in the Tiger Woods franchise, the skills gained are not static – your rating in areas such as shot power and accuracy improve as you complete training challenges, compete on the tour and purchase improved kit at the pro store with your winnings. But play badly in the next game – for instance taking more putts to finish than on previous courses – and the rating goes down. This means concentrating on game basics and not just relying on previous achievements.

Another useful new tool is the club tuner, which analyses your natural swing using the analogue stick and suggests tweaks to aspects such as the degree of elevation on the face of specific clubs and a natural bias towards drawing or fading shots. You can then practice shots using the new settings, which we found to be of greater value than the actual training challenges.

The appeal of this title lies in its gameplay and this is an area where EA rules supreme. The analogue swing stick takes some practice but gives a fine degree of control over shot power. The application of draw and fade has been transferred to the bumper buttons, which if anything makes this subtle control a little too easy.

TypePad Blogs, Saturday 11 October 2008 at 08:00:29

Why get a boring old armchair that looks like every other armchair when you can get one created from a 3-D representation...

Why get a boring old armchair that looks like every other armchair when you can get one created from a 3-D representation of audio waves? I realise it's not generally a consideration for many of us when shopping for something comfy to plonk our rears into of an evening but, London-based artist/designer Matthew Plummer-Fernandez, obviously thought what it would be like to create one from sound waves. As you do. And this the the Sound/Chair. He tried out 719 different sounds measuring volume, time and frequency before choosing the one that best conformed to the chair he'd make. The 3-D results were fed into a computer and a water jet cut out this polyethylene foam chair. Plummer

On sale in Selfridges, you can have this wacky chair in 6 different colours for the bargain basement price of.......£3,950. For polyethylene foam?!! I'd at least expect a few prize-winning cows or a couple of hundred penguins to have bravely given up their hides for that money.-Martin Lynch [Cool Hunting via Matthew Plummer-Fernandez]

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, vnunet.com, Saturday 11 October 2008 at 04:55:00

Network under constant attack, claims report

The World Bank's internal networks have been compromisd by outside attackers at least six times in the last year, according to a recent report.

Fox News cited internal memos in reporting that the bank had been attacked at least twice from IP addresses originating in China and that last spring the network was hit with a massive spyware infection.

The published memos also outline an attack from July in which at least five World Bank servers containing sensitive information were compromised. The memo recommended that each of the servers be completely erased and restored to eliminate any malicious code and that security protocols be updated to prevent future attacks.

The report also cites an email from July which describes an "unprecedented crisis" and recommends that 4500 passwords be changed to protect from future attack.

The World Bank, however, fiercely denied the details of the report.

"The Fox News story is wrong and is riddled with falsehoods and errors. The story cites misinformation from unattributed sources and leaked emails that are taken out of context," the bank said.

"Like other public and private institutions, the World Bank has repeatedly experienced hacking attacks on its computer systems and is constantly updating its security to defeat these. But at no point has a hacking attack accessed sensitive information in the World Bank's Treasury, procurement, anti-corruption or human resources departments."

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, vnunet.com, Saturday 11 October 2008 at 04:56:00

Spam contains fake update

A new malware attack is taking advantage of Microsoft's upcoming monthly patch release.

The spam messages attempt to portray the sender as Microsoft security assurance director Steve Lipner and warn the user of a recently-released patch for several versions of Windows that is being distributed as "an experimental private version of an update for all Microsoft Windows OS users."

"Please notice, that present update applies to high-priority updates category," reads the message.

"In order to help protect your computer against security threats and performance problems, we strongly recommend you to install this update."

Attached to the message is an executable file which harbors a Trojan application that infects the user's system withmalware

In addition to its shoddy English, the fake e-mail can be spotted for its listing of several versions of Windows which are no longer supported, including Windows 98 and Windows Millenium Edition.

McAfee security research and communications director David Marcus told vnunet.com that the attacks are nothing new.

"Is it something that's a brand new vector? No. But you have to give them kudos for their timing," said Marcus.

"The chance that it is going to be effective is certainly going to be a lot higher."

Microsoft has yet to release the monthly update, and the company never sends out security updates as e-mail attachments. Users will be able to receive the update on Tuesday through the Microsoft Update and Windows Software Update Services components.

Network administrators can also protect against the attack by setting email servers to filter out .exe attachments.

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, vnunet.com, Saturday 11 October 2008 at 04:57:00

2.0 release likely announcement

Microsoft is planning to make a major announcement surrounding its Silverlight web application tool.

The company sent out a release notifying reporters of a conference call set to take place on Monday morning at 9 AM US Pacific time (17:00 GMT).

In the call, company .Net corporate vice president Scott Guthrie will make what the company calls a "significant announcement related to Microsoft Silverlight."

The release did not provide any further details about the nature of the announcement. However, media reports are citing sources within the company as confirming speculation that Microsoft will be announcing Silverlight 2.0.

The second installment of Microsoft's web app development system has been in public testing throughout the year and a release candidate of the program was said to be completed in September.

Silverlight 2.0 has been touted as a significantly stronger version of the platform. The software will be cross-platform and cross-browser and Microsoft has promised to add a number of new components which will allow to Silverlight to access new data sources and take advantage of Microsoft's Windows Presentation Foundation.

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, vnunet.com, Saturday 11 October 2008 at 04:58:00

Prices for online apps could soon plummet

Customers could soon see much lower prices for common web-based applications, according to one analyst.

Forrester Research analyst Oliver Young said in a recent report that as enterprise web service companies become more numerous and their offerings more similar, pricing will become the next area of competition.

"On the surface, times look good for vendors in the enterprise Web 2.0 productivity and collaboration space; more and more customers are interested in buying solutions, and those that are buying are doing so for larger and larger deployments," Young wrote.

"However, despite this momentum, the market footing is set to shift in fewer than two short years."

The analyst notes that enterprise users are commonly looking towards services that offer the functions of a hosted enterprise software suite, while simpler tools such as blog and wiki services are becoming cheaper and more widespread.

Additionally, larger vendors such as Microsoft and SAP are moving from software-only models into hosted services.

As a result, Young sees Web 2.0 vendors competing in a market that is more cramped with products that are harder to tell apart, driving much of the competition to price.

"Overall, Forrester expects that the price premiums that vendors have been able to command will disappear," said Young.

"Specifically, the amount an average enterprise pays for Web 2.0 tools will fall, despite growing numbers of licenses per customer."

The markets for traditional Web 2.0 products such as podcasting, RSS, blog, wiki, widget and social networking services are all predicted to fall, with only Mashups forecasted for growth.

As a result, Young advises companies to diversify and move beyond the common features into other business services. In the long term, the analyst says not to expect much more money out of Web 2.0.

TypePad Blogs, Friday 10 October 2008 at 18:37:29

On October 14th, Apple is setting up to make a major announcement concerning its notebook line. The buzz is that both the...

On October 14th, Apple is setting up to make a major announcement concerning its notebook line. The buzz is that both the MacBook and MacBook Pro will see the release of new models. In the case of the Pro, the update will be relatively new casing, addition of a mini-DVI port and perhaps a larger battery. All solid, tantalizing improvements that are sure to make the high-end very happy, but not the earth-shattering "boom" moment. That news may come from the MacBook. Rumors (read: the most reliable Apple news you can find outside of Steve Jobs' own mouth) suggest that the company may be gearing up to drop the price on the consumer notebook down to $800. If that happens, the roar you hear from college campuses worldwide will be only slighty louder than the groans you hear from HP and Dell salespeople worldwide. With OS X still running smoothly and Parallels and Boot Camp all but erasing the "no software" argument, price point is the loan advantage PC vendors have over Apple in the market. Quality (and maybe profit margins) has been what has kept Apple at a higher price point thus far. Steve has been on the record as saying more or less that most low-cost machines suck, and Apple doesn't do stuff that sucks. There are, however, ways that the company could bring down the cost. Eliminating the optical drive as with the MacBook air would be one way to shave off the costs. Intel's updates to quad-core chips have made dual-core processors that much more affordable now, and their lower power consumption could allow for the same life with a cheaper battery. Those three things alone could get Apple close to that price point. Of course a cheaper MacBook would be lighter on the features. Apple doesn't want you poo-pooing its more expensive models, but a notebook that has the features of today, with Apple providing the normal updates to the other MacBook lines could keep the current base buying the higher-priced MacBooks and expand the companies reach with the lower-end buyers that just want iTunes, Word and a browser.

Angelica Mari and Bryan Glick, Computing, Friday 10 October 2008 at 17:59:00

Theft that affected BSkyB staff also contained data from Network Rail and British Transport Police

Consultancy firm Deloitte has admitted that the loss of a laptop containing BSkyB staff pension details also included information about pension scheme members from Network Rail and British Transport Police.

The laptop theft – revealed exclusively by Computing yesterday – contained details of more than 100,000 people, including names, national insurance numbers and salaries.

BskyB told Computing that the laptop was protected by a number of security measures, including passwords, user IDs and encryption – a fact now confirmed in a statement from Deloitte.

"We believe that the likelihood of unauthorised access to the data held on this laptop is remote due to the opportunistic nature of the theft and the security controls," said the statement.

Both companies described the incident as being “opportunistic”.

“The thief could not have been aware that the bag – which was not a laptop bag – contained a laptop and therefore the theft was not targeted,” said BSkyB in a letter seen by Computing that was sent to all employees whose data may have been stored in the computer.

In a separate incident, the Ministry of Defence announced earlier today that it was investigating the loss of a computer hard drive that could contain the personal details of 100,000 members of the armed forces.

Ian Williams, vnunet.com, Friday 10 October 2008 at 17:46:00

Millions wasted on searching through clutter, says analyst

Companies are wasting up to £1m per terabyte of data they store because of poor or non-existent data classification.

The organisers of Storage Expo, to be held in London next week, commissioned a survey into data classification which found that the main reasons companies classify data is access control (67 per cent), retention control (21 per cent) and retrieval and discovery (12 per cent).

However, Alan Pelz-Sharpe, principal analyst at CMS Watch, reckons that these priorities are in the wrong order and the resulting data duplication is costing companies dear.

"Typically 80 per cent of mail data consists of duplication," he said. "Yet any search tool has to treat each piece of data equally, thus slowing down the process and pushing discovery costs through the roof."

Pelz-Sharpe estimates that storage currently costs around 10p per gigabyte, but the cost of legal discovery on 1GB of storage would be at least £1,000.

"So storing everything may seem cheap on the one hand, but can become very expensive should something go wrong," he said.

As well as increased costs, unstructured and incorrectly classified data is a headache for many companies and can negatively affect productivity and security and raise a raft of compliance and regulatory issues.

"Increasingly, data classification is determined based on intended use of data, rather than simply its subject matter or source," added Theresa Regali, another principal analyst at CMS Watch.

"Classification is vital to ensure that data does not fall into the wrong hands and security protocols are met and to facilitate enterprise-wide search, retrieval and discovery."

Pelz-Sharpe and Regali will be chairing keynote sessions at next week's event to discuss the issues surrounding this topic.

Phil Muncaster, vnunet.com, Friday 10 October 2008 at 16:44:00

Companies often better off with mid-market content management vendors, says analyst

Market leaders in the enterprise content management (ECM) space could represent a higher risk to IT buyers than their mid-market rivals, according to new research from CMS Watch.

The analyst firm's ECM Suites Report 2009 compared 40 ECM solutions, including a risk assessment of each offering.

The results suggest that top-tier vendors such as IBM, EMC, Microsoft and others represent a higher risk because of their continued rapid development of new features, and because some are having difficulty integrating technology from recent acquisitions.

Mid-market and smaller scale vendors, on the other hand, could be a better bet because they have greater corporate stability, and competent product offerings which focus on carrying out more specific tasks in a better way, the report found.

"You would assume that the [larger vendors] are a safer bet, and it's not that these products are going away. They are just in transition," said report author Alan Pelz-Sharpe.

"The reality for buyers is that this means change, and people do not have much of an appetite for that at the moment."

Pelz-Sharpe also argued that enterprises are going back to basics in their approach to content management, concentrating on key functionality such as workflow automation rather than the new Web 2.0 functionality offered by some of the big name vendors.

"The tried and tested way for firms to watch their costs and reduce overheads is to impose proper automated workflow," he said. "But some vendors have neglected their core audience and rushed off into Web 2.0."

TypePad Blogs, Friday 10 October 2008 at 16:30:07

Now listen here. I've covered the e-commerce space for over three years now and the one perennial topic of conversation, at roundtables,...

Now listen here. I've covered the e-commerce space for over three years now and the one perennial topic of conversation, at roundtables, on conference calls, at tradeshows, is yeah-the industry is doing superbly well, but how much better it would be if they could just get delivery right.

Over in Japan they've solved the problem through a superior service culture - although it'll cost you extra, no one would begrudge paying more to secure a two-hour window for delivery. Over here you're lucky if you get to specify am or pm. And so industry body the IMRG had the great idea last year of launching its Internet Delivery is Safe initiative.

Quite simply it's a kitemark given to retailers who can tick certain boxes in the delivery space - things like offering clear delivery information, guaranteeing delivery within specified times and generally providing a convenient and reliable service. Until now though, I've not shopped online with anyone with the symbol on their site, unfortunately, and suffered the same old waiting around for a delivery which doesn't come in the specified 6 hour time period.

Well, having just purchased a bed from the web site of the Co-operative, it's time to put it to the test, and so far so good. A few days after buying - during which time I was able to specify Saturday delivery at no extra cost - I received a phone call checking all contact details and confirming delivery. An email soon followed to confirm a three hour slot on Saturday. All at no extra cost. Fingers crossed I can actually fit the bed through the door.

Parliamentary reporter, vnunet.com, Friday 10 October 2008 at 17:27:00

MoD admits to losing a hard drive containing up to 100,000 army records

Military Police are conducting an urgent investigation into the loss of a hard drive believed to contain the personal details of up to 100,000 serving armed forces personnel, as MPs demanded a "cultural change" in the way Whitehall treats personal information.

The call followed the disclosure that Ministry of Defence (MoD) subcontractor EDS could not account for the whereabouts of the portable drive, which could contain passport numbers, dates of birth, names of next of kin and driving licence details as well as names and addresses.

A spokesman for prime minister Gordon Brown confirmed the investigation and described what had happened as "regrettable".

There was no comment on any implications for the government's ID card system, which faces increased political challenges following a series of government data handling blunders.

New defence secretary John Hutton is reported to have called for an examination of EDS' contract to see how it covers this type of breach of trust.

Tory shadow defence secretary Liam Fox said that the incident underlined the MoD's poor record in keeping sensitive and classified material secure.

"The loss of so much confidential information shows the reckless approach this government takes with our personal information," he said.

Tory MP Nigel Evans, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Identity Fraud, said it was ironic that the loss was revealed during National Identity Fraud Prevention Week.

The loss of the type of data believed to be missing "will be music to the ears of fraudsters everywhere", he said.

"It is vital there is a cultural change across the public sector with all professionals aware of their responsibility to protect and manage personal data, " added Evans.

SNP defence spokesman Angus Robertson said it was "extraordinary that the MoD could allow this to happen again" on top of the loss of data on more than 500,000 potential recruits and their families, which was stored unencrypted on a laptop in a Royal Naval officer's car.

The MoD said it was informed on Wednesday by EDS that it was unable to account for a portable hard drive used in connection with the administration of armed forces personnel data. The loss was revealed by an audit the company was performing in compliance with the Cabinet Office data handling review.

Other recent data losses include four laptops containing details of more than 100 bankrupt company directors from the Insolvency Service in Manchester, details of nearly 18,000 current and former staff at Whittington NHS hospital by a firm providing payroll services, and a computer containing details of 5,000 prison and offender management staff, also by EDS.

Andrew Donoghue, BusinessGreen, Friday 10 October 2008 at 17:23:00

China-based Suntech Holdings thinks demand will still exceed supply

Solar panel maker Suntech Power Holdings claims the market for solar panels is still seeing demand outstrip supply despite the economic downturn.

"With the financial crisis, the high demand relative to supply has sort of shrunk a bit," the company's chief strategy officer Steven Chan told Reuters this week. "But we still feel like we are in a situation where there is still more demand than supply of modules."

But Chan's comments contrast with news this week from Goldman Sachs, which said price drops on solar panels are likely to be more dramatic than some analysts expected because of the tough economic conditions, with governments in Germany and Spain reducing subsidies for solar projects. According to Reuters, Suntech's shares have dropped in recent months amid concern about demand for the technology in an uncertain economy.

But in a recent statement to the press, Suntech's Chan claimed that his company was bullish about future growth and the US market for solar energy. "We see the US market as on the cusp of enormous growth," he said. "An increasing number of states have adopted initiatives to promote the expansion of solar and other renewable energy technologies, and there is broad public support across the political spectrum for a new direction in national energy policy that will drive demand for clean technologies."

Chan added that his company would meet the demand thanks to the recent acquisition of commercial solar integration company EI Solutions and a strategic alliance with MMA Renewable Ventures.

Other key solar technology companies have made positive noises of late despite the downturn. Solar thermal technology specialist Ausra recently announced that it received $60.6m (£35.6m) in funding from investors.

Sara Yirrell , CRN, Friday 10 October 2008 at 17:01:00

Chief executive set to review entire organisation as it looks to raise its profile

The new chief executive of trade body CompTIA has revealed plans to radically overhaul the organisation to help it focus more on its members.

Todd Thibodeaux took over the running of CompTIA in September, joining from giant trade body the Consumer Electronics Association.

“We are trying to define a new CompTIA,” he said. “This is almost a rebirth. Everything is under review. We are taking things from the ground up and re-evaluating them.”

Thibodeaux said past CompTIA management had an “almost antagonistic” relationship with its members, which he is determined to change.

He said the trade body is looking to increase its reseller members globally over the coming year, and building on its certification business.

He even hinted that the CompTIA brand itself may change in the future, should the need arise.

“We might change the brand and give ourselves an identity to grow and go forwards,” he said.

Mark Evans, commercial director at security VAR Imerja, joined CompTIA this year and was positive about the trade body’s direction.

“I see this relationship with CompTIA as a great opportunity for us to help influence what will become a leading voice in the IT industry and a welcome support for the reseller community,” he said.

Dinah Greek, Computeract!ve, Friday 10 October 2008 at 17:04:00

ISP says current tests will give users of high-speed broadband inaccurate readings

Broadband speed testers can’t give accurate results when used to test high-speed broadband services, said Virgin Media.

The cable giant said its research had found lab tests of its 50 Mbits/sec service have shown serious discrepancies between the results and the actual speeds users were likely to be getting.

It said even users of current 20 Mbits/sec services can be given readings that don't reflect the user's true connection speeds.

This could have serious consequences for ISPs who increasingly rely on the speed they can offer in this hugely competitive market.

Jon James, director of group strategy for Virgin Media, said: "Customers increasingly rely on speed test comparisons to choose their broadband provider. "

According to Virgin the problem is the way these speed testers handle data. To get a result they test how quickly a small file is uploaded and downloaded to the user's PC. However, Virgin contests this can’t give a reliable result.

It contends the file size is too small and data often needs to travel across many parts of the internet to get to the end user, causing delays. It also said that like any site on the internet, web based speed testers are subject to congestion; if too many people are testing speeds at the same time the result will be skewed as the speed test site isn't able to send data fast enough.

It said only a hardware speed test solution that attaches to the customer’s modem, such as the hardware adopted by Ofcom. This has been developed by Sam Knows (a broadband comparison site), and is able to test the speed of a connection directly.

It said while it was not criticising the sites hosting the speed testers, when very high-speed broadband, such as its 50 Mbits/sec service, is adopted widely customers will demand accurate readings.

“We are working with speed test sites to help them accurately measure all broadband services, including our new superfast offerings. We will also be helping customers to understand the accuracy of the speed test information available to them so they can make well-informed choices,” said Mr James.

Kayleigh Bateman, CRN, Friday 10 October 2008 at 17:05:00

Microsoft LAR heads for UK market with boosted sales staff

Swiss Microsoft large account reseller (LAR) SoftwareONE is poised to enter the UK market after wooing five sales staff from local fulfilment partner Bytes.

SoftwareONE, which also carries Adobe, Citrix, Symantec and McAfee, offers software licence procurement and software asset management services (SAM). It already has offices in nine countries.

Sales director Zak Virdi is one of five Bytes staff to make the leap across. Although his exact role is yet to be defined, SoftwareONE has tasked him with enhancing SAM practices and driving consistency across all regions.

Virdi was vague on whether his new employer would compete with Bytes, which has traditionally acted as a partner for SoftwareONE.

“SoftwareONE has European status as a Microsoft LAR and under EU law our operations can be extended into the UK,” he said. “We recently opened new offices in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy, as we want to expand our footprint in all the major regions.”

Patrick Winter, chief executive of SoftwareONE, said: “We will be rolling out a UK partner model and plan to build upon it. Zak will help by driving the SAM business globally.”

Darren Spence, group marketing director of Bytes, confirmed that the five vacancies had been filled, with Bytes veteran Mandy Nicholson taking on the sales director position.

“Zak did well at Bytes and we are pleased that we will continue to benefit from his expertise,” he said.

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, vnunet.com, Friday 10 October 2008 at 23:49:00

Four critical patches planned in monthly update

Microsoft has given advance notification of at least 11 security fixes in its October Patch Tuesday update.

The update will contain four bulletins rated 'critical', six rated 'important' and one rated 'moderate'. The company has, however, added or removed bulletins in between the advance notification and the update release.

The four 'critical' bulletins include fixes for Windows, Internet Explorer, Excel and Microsoft Host Integration Server. All four address flaws which, if exploited, could allow an attacker to remotely execute code on a targeted system.

The six 'important' bulletins address flaws in the Windows operating system. If exploited, three of the flaws could allow for remote code execution, while the other three could allow an attacker to obtain elevated privileges.

The lone 'moderate' bulletin addresses a security issue in Office XP which could potentially lead to information disclosure. Other versions of the Office suite are not listed as vulnerable to the flaw.

Microsoft plans to release the October security update on 13 October.

Andrew Donoghue, BusinessGreen, Friday 10 October 2008 at 16:31:00

Orders for its wind turbines were up 50 per cent year on year, the company claims

Despite tough economic conditions overall, engineering giant GE claims that its wind business has helped to improve the performance of its energy business in the third quarter of this year.

Addressing analysts in a conference call on Friday, GE chairman and chief executive Jeff Immelt said the economic environment was tough but that GE was well placed to be able to weather the storm.

"Clearly the environment remains very volatile. The global financial system is tough. We see consumer confidence falling and unemployment up against last week but we still see pockets of strength," said Immelt. "The company is well placed to perform no matter what economic environment we see in the future."

According to GE its energy business, GE Energy, continues to be strong thanks in part to a growing wind business. "Wind orders were up 50 per cent to $2.3bn (£1.4bn) and today our wind commitments are $14bn, up 90 per cent from a year ago," said GE vice chairman and chief financial officer Keith Sherin.

GE claims that more than 1,000 wind turbine units were delivered in the quarter, up 70 per cent on last year or about 340 units, which helped drive up the segment profit 36 per cent.

"If you look, you will see that the energy business has a very strong backlog position, driven by incredibly broad global demand," said Sherin.

But despite the claims made to analysts, GE has warned of some impact on its wind business from the global downturn. Speaking to BusinessGreen last week, at its Salzbergen facility in Germany, GE Energy's global sales leader for wind energy, Mete Maltepe, said that the rising cost of commodities such as steel would drive up the price of turbines.

Maltepe also signaled that the financial turmoil and the current state of the credit markets would affect GE's renewable business in the short term. "Our view of what is going on in the markets is that short term there is turmoil – in the short term projects will be delayed," he said. "But the fundamentals are that people need energy and governments support renewable projects. Wind energy projects are quality projects and when credit is tight money usually goes to quality projects.

GE acquired its wind business as part of its purchase of Enron Wind Corp in 2002. GE bought the unit in a $325m bankruptcy sale following Enron's spectacular implosion in 2001.

Juergen Obermann, CRN, Friday 10 October 2008 at 16:34:00

The data loss issue is not going to go away, says Juergen Obermann

Private businesses and public sector organisations are straining under the weight of decades of creation and storage of electronic information.

With files and electronic documents dating back years, unstructured data not only represents a critical asset for the enterprise, but also a substantial burden.

At its simplest, this issue can be dealt with in two ways: either destroy the data that is not required, or organise it in some intelligent and consistent way.

Aside from being easier said than done, the task is compounded by increasingly stringent legal and industry-specific compliance regulations.

Businesses cannot simply ‘de-junk’ their data, they must ensure it can be reported on at short notice for audit, freedom of information requests, and the like.

What’s more, IT expenditure is under increased scrutiny and every penny must be justified.

One way which businesses are seeking to cut the cost of managing data and, in turn, the total cost of ownership of network infrastructure, is by investing in outsourcing data management, back-up and archiving procedures.

However, cash-strapped companies have CIOs and IT directors who may feel savings may best be made by employing outsourcing services. They could be missing the bigger picture.

One recurring themes in the industry over the past 12 months has been data loss.

Whether it be via dossiers left on trains, CD-ROMs lost in the post, or back-up tapes stolen from safes, the risk from losing data and the disastrous public backlash that might ensue has become of consequence to any organisation dealing with confidential or business critical data.

Should businesses be entertaining the notion of outsourcing data management?

Why add to the risk of data loss? In most cases, simple, cost-effective, low-risk steps can cater for the management of information.

By deploying an in-house solution, CIOs and IT directors will keep a much tighter rein on their data and can be confident that corporate policies are enforced at all times.

Resellers may offer advice to struggling businesses on how to manage growing volumes of data, while demonstrating the added value in solutions that minimise risk.

The issues involved are ongoing and, over the next 12 months, we are sure to see even more data loss fiascos hit the headlines, reinforcing the need for mitigating solutions that counter this threat.

The reseller that offers assistance and provides support in tackling these issues will be a valuable and trusted partner.

Juergen Obermann is chief executive officer of GFT inboxx

TypePad Blogs, Friday 10 October 2008 at 15:00:06

If all the recent talk of DRM-free MP3 downloads is of interest you might want to check out a website that offers...

If all the recent talk of DRM-free MP3 downloads is of interest you might want to check out a website that offers the same with a number of distinct advantages. EasyMP3Downloader is a small application that installs on your PC and allows you to peruse a database of over a hundred million tracks by searching public audio and video websites and downloading content direct to your hard drive.

The songs are DRM-free so can be copied and burnt to your hearts desire and while there's a subscription fee involved it's quite negligible and during this time you can grab as much as you want. The service claims to be '100% legal' (where have we heard that before?), is amazingly fast and easy to use and collates a massive range of songs from just about every established artist out there. The catch? Well aside from the fact that we have a sneaking suspicion that it may attract some RealDVD-style attention from angry industry reps, you'll often find incomplete ID3-tag information and most importantly all of the audio seems to be in 64kbps format. This may put some people off altogether, but with subscription prices going as low as $1.66 per month, (you can also opt for a lifetime subscription for just $49.95 or six months for a tenner) it's certainly cheap enough to give it a go. - Paul Lester [EasyMP3Downloader] MP3 download DRM

Phil Muncaster, Computing, Friday 10 October 2008 at 16:09:00

Science and Technology Committee debates progress on Personal Internet Security report

The House of Lords has renewed calls on the government to act on several recommendations made in its Personal Internet Security report (PDF), including new data breach notification laws and a 'kitemark' scheme to rate secure internet services.

Lord Broers, chairman of the Science and Technology Committee, said during a debate to discuss recommendations made in the 2007 report and its follow-up this year, that the Lords were gratified that the government had softened its stance in some areas.

However, he pointed to several aspects which have yet to be acted on, including compelling banks to refund customers who fall victim to internet fraud, and setting up a cross-departmental group of industry and academic experts to classify different types of electronic crime.

"Why is the government resisting? Do they think they can do this themselves? " asked Lord Broers during his opening remarks.

"We also recommended data breach notification laws. The government seems eager to admit its losses, but this is not the case for banks and industry."

Lord Broers also said that the government had resisted a BSI kitemark scheme to help differentiate internet services according to their levels of security.

Rachael Singh, Accountancy Age, Friday 10 October 2008 at 16:03:00

KPMG has announced that it will have to make redundancies as well as close more outlets

The Yorkshire textiles retailer which announced last month that it was going into administration has confirmed that there will be redundancies.

Rosebys, which has 280 stores and employs 2,000 staff, had initially said there were no planned job losses, and had managed to sell the brand name to its Indian parent company GHCL.

KPMG, the administrators to the company, has today announced however that it is to close a further 31 chain outlets and make 186 redundancies.

Howard Smith, Joint Administrator and KPMG Restructuring Associate Partner, said: 'It is with regret that we have had to close both the distribution centre in Selby and 31 more stores across the country. We anticipate further store closures next week, while we continue to have dialogue with a number of parties who are interested in either the whole or parts of the business.'

Among the outlets to close include, Hammersmith, Walthamstow, Liverpool and Edinburgh.

Further reading:

Rosebys appoint adminstrators from Leeds

Administrators sell Rosebys brand to parent company

Daniel Griffin, Information World Review, Friday 10 October 2008 at 15:34:00

New islands in Second Life will expand publisher’s presence

The Nature Publishing Group (NPG) has increased its presence in the virtual reality world of Second Life (SL) launching the Elucian Islands, its new official area.

Speaking at the launch event, Timo Hannay, Publishing director of Nature.com said the reason for developing the chain of islands was complimentary to Nature’s strategy, “to help scientists communicate more effectively among themselves as well as provide the latest scientific information.”

As well as a platform for scientists to improve collaboration and knowledge distribution, the new islands will be shared with parent company Macmillan Publishers. Hannay said “in addition to the Second Nature islands we have expanded to include a large central island dedicated to all areas of learning, not just science”

Second Nature, NPG’s original SL presence also received a redesign, and premiered the launch of a new range of films featuring Nobel prize-winners. The two films (from a series of five) comprise of discussions between the Nobel Laureates and students as they talk about the theories and models surrounding key issues in physics today, such as dark matter and dark energy, quantum computing and the Large Hadron Collider.

Paul Grant, Accountancy Age, Friday 10 October 2008 at 15:36:00

21st annual survey shows another £1bn on revenues

Accountancy Age's 21st annual survey of the consultancy industry reveals that the top 75 firms exceeded expectations by adding a whopping £1bn to their revenues. But in an industry inextricably linked to the economy, and financial services, there are tougher times ahead, writes Philip Abbott.

To view our coverage of the survey, click here.