InformationWeek Daily Archives
05/23/2013 11:30:38 Daily, December 08Help Us Help Ourselves
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In This Issue:
1. Editor's Note: Help Us Help Ourselves
2. Today's Top Story: In-Security
- Microsoft To Beef Up Internet Explorer 7 Security
- Sites Installing Spyware Via Zero-Day IE Bug
Related Stories
- Small Data Breaches Pose Big Identity Theft Risks
- Study: Unchecked Software Piracy Could Cost Nations Billions
- FBI: Terrorists Lack Ability To Mount Serious Cyberattacks
3. Breaking News
- Webcasts Deliver Holiday Cheer To Troops
- Analysis: Is Firefox 1.5 Not Ready For Prime Time?
- Q&A: IBM Exec Looks Ahead To Emerging Technologies
- NEC Develops Paper-Thin Mobile Battery
- Yahoo Launches VoIP Service Linked To E-Mail
- Firefox 1.5 Intro Sparks Slight Market-Share Gain
- Inmarsat's Global Broadband Lifts Off
- Electronic Check-Clearing To Become More Widespread
- Millions Of Domain Names Registered With False Contact Data,
GAO Says
- Sprint Creates Subsidiary For Enterprise Mobility
- Group Pushes Alternate Route For UWB Standard
- Handheld Device Melds Data Collection, Voice
4. In Depth: Personal Tech And Reviews
- The Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide
- The Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide Photo Gallery
- Review: Pro Tech NoiseBuster Headphones
- Want To Review That E-Mail? Take It With You On Your iPod
- New Sony CD Security Issue Needs Patching
- Man Sues Microsoft Over Flawed Xbox 360
- Beware Of IM Greeting Cards
5. Grab Bag: News You Need From Around The Web
- XBOX 360 Games: The Good, Bad, And The Ugly (AP)
- Google: Once-Brotherly Image Turns Big Brotherly (USA Today)
- Fears Over Identity Theft Overblown: U.S. Study (Reuters)
6. Voice Of Authority
- Podcast: The Number Of Women Seeking Careers In IT Is Declining
7. White Papers
- Beyond BI: Building Intelligence Into Your Operational Decisions
8. Get More Out Of InformationWeek
9. Manage Your Newsletter Subscription
Quotes of The Day: Just the facts, Jack
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as
you please."
-- Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
"God give me strength to face a fact though it slay me."
-- Thomas H. Huxley (1825 - 1895)
More proof that life extends indefinitely on the Internet is a
letter I received out of the blue from a student the other day in
reference to a column I had written in 2002. 2002? Lord, what had
I written? (Apparently, it was assigned reading for some class.)
Well, it was a lament about the dying throes of customer service
and the need for "Trustworthy IT." Today I'd wager that many
people, when asked about customer service, wouldn't hesitate to
say, "It's dead -- stick a fork in it already!" Certainly the
student writing me felt that way.
"I believe the marketplace has become more abusive of consumer
confidence and less trustworthy, especially when given privacy
breaches, information theft, and general inattention to safe
computing practices... [It's] a rather shameful state of
affairs today as management has failed to proactively, and
effectively, deliver necessary product protections. Published
software viability is suspect, and places everyone at risk."
That's one window into what ails the consumer-retail
relationship, and we've certainly written pages about it. But
it's not all security issues. Increasingly, more and more of the
work of running a business is being shifted onto customers --
support, help desk, data, ordering, checkout, and the hunting
down of manuals or the retrieval of basic information. It's all
available online or via kiosk or self-checkout or the worsening
hell of automated phone systems.
Self-service can be a good thing -- it's certainly one reason a
lot of us shop online. Many people will be shopping their fingers
off this holiday season, doing their bit to help move retailing
into the next technological evolution. But it's not a good thing
when the system works against the customer, is unfathomable, or
heightens the pain level of the transaction. You can read more
about kind of thinking I believe should go into the building of
online and automated systems by reading my blog.
Patricia Keefe
Microsoft To Beef Up Internet Explorer 7 Security
Sites Installing Spyware Via Zero-Day IE Bug
Related Stories:
Study: Unchecked Software Piracy Could Cost Nations Hundreds Of
Billions Of Dollars
Webcasts Deliver Holiday Cheer To Troops
Analysis: Is Firefox 1.5 Not Ready For Prime Time?
Q&A: IBM Exec Looks Ahead To Emerging Technologies
NEC Develops Paper-Thin Mobile Battery
Yahoo Launches VoIP Service Linked To E-Mail
Firefox 1.5 Intro Sparks Slight Market-Share Gain
Inmarsat's Global Broadband Lifts Off
Electronic Check-Clearing To Become More Widespread
Millions Of Domain Names Registered With False Contact Data, GAO Says
Sprint Creates Subsidiary For Enterprise Mobility
Group Pushes Alternate Route For UWB Standard
Handheld Device Melds Data Collection, Voice
All our latest news
Watch More News
In today's episode:
Alex Wolfe with "Dream Mergers/Merger Dreams"
Paul Kapustka with "Think & Drink Club, Redux"
Protecting The Corporate Network
IT Insight
A Week's Worth Of Dailies--All In One Place
-----------------------------------------
The Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide
The Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide Photo Gallery
Review: Pro Tech NoiseBuster Headphones
Want To Review That E-Mail? Take It With You On Your iPod
New Sony CD Security Issue Needs Patching
Man Sues Microsoft Over Flawed Xbox 360
Beware Of IM Greeting Cards
XBOX 360 Games: The Good, Bad, And The Ugly (AP)
Google: Once-Brotherly Image Turns Big Brotherly (USA Today)
Fears Over Identity Theft Overblown: U.S. Study (Reuters)
Podcast: The Declining Number Of Women Seeking Careers In IT Is
An Alarming Trend
Beyond BI: Building Intelligence Into Your Operational Decisions
A Network Computing Editorial Perspectives TechWebCast -
-----------------------------------------
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InformationWeek Daily Newsletter
1. Editor's Note: Help Us Help Ourselves
pkeefe@cmp.com
www.informationweek.com
2. Today's Top Story: In-Security
In a change that will mean better security mostly for home users,
Microsoft is revamping the way that Internet Explorer 7 handles
its four security categories.
A security vendor says in an alert about the Internet Explorer
vulnerability that it has detected thousands of sites connecting
to a malicious URL that's "actively exploiting this vulnerability
to execute malicious code."
Small Data Breaches Pose Big Identity-Theft Risks
That's because of the limited number of identities a criminal can
actually put to use in a set amount of time, a new study says.
Cutting piracy by 10% over four years would generate 2.4 million
new IT jobs, a new IDC study says.
FBI: Terrorists Lack Ability To Mount Serious Cyberattacks
Investigators keep a close watch on terror groups' use of
computers but haven't detected any plans to launch cyberattacks
against major public institutions in the United States, FBI
assistant director Louis M. Reigel said this week.
Operation Best Wishes connects troops overseas with family
members in the United States on a high-speed Webcast channel.
Family members receive 10 minutes of free recording time to wish
their loved ones well.
Mozilla's latest version of Firefox is drawing widespread
acclaim. But Scot Finnie has found problems that haven't been --
and should be -- fixed.
Bruce Harreld, senior VP of strategy at IBM and about to become
head of marketing, talks about what he sees as the key tech
drivers ahead.
The new type of battery is flexible, environmentally friendly,
and fully recharges in under a minute, according to NEC.
The Yahoo offering, to be available in 180 countries, will link
with existing Yahoo E-mail and instant messaging features, and
that appears to be what will distinguish the service from many of
its competitors.
The browser's average share in November went to 8.8%, up from
8.6% in October, a Web measurement firm said, showing it has the
potential to hit the 'magic' critical-mass figure of 10%.
Six years in the making, the service offers simultaneous voice
and data and, for now, covers Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
Viewpointe Archive Services, which archives more than 60% of all
checks written in the U.S. each year, has established a
connection with two other aggregators that will allow thousands
of banks to exchange check data and images electronically.
Those seeking to register Web-site names likely provide
inaccurate information to hide their identities or to prevent
members of the public from contacting them, a Congressional
auditor suspects.
The subsidiary will offer consulting services to help enterprises
determine which applications to mobilize and will help them
design and create those systems, among other services.
The WiMedia Alliance has received ECMA approval for its standard
and wants to halt all related IEEE efforts because of
long-standing problems and delays in that organization, it says.
A partnership between Avaya and Symbol has resulted in a way for
mobile workers to capture data for enterprise applications such
as CRM and ERP.
http://www.informationweek.com/news
http://www.thenewsshow.tv
John Soat with "Consider Yourself Lucky" in the current episode of
The News Show.
http://www.thenewsshow.tv/?episode=20051208&thisFrame=31&autoplay=true
http://www.thenewsshow.tv/?episode=20051208&thisFrame=121&autoplay=true
http://www.thenewsshow.tv/?episode=20051208&thisFrame=217&autoplay=true
----- The latest research, polls, and tools -----
Examine the security practices of more than 2,500 U.S. companies
in InformationWeek Research's 2005 Global Information Security
Survey report. In addition to spotlighting security best
practices and near-term investment plans, the study also
documents recent security incidents. Use the report to help fine
tune your company's security procedures.
http://www.informationweek.com/reports/showReport.jhtml?articleID=170100861
Take a five-minute break and try one of the 18 research tools
available from InformationWeek. They're informative,
confidential, and free and are just a click away.
http://www.informationweek.com/benchmark/
Have you missed an issue or two of the InformationWeek Daily? Or
want to check out some recent quotes of the day? Check out our
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5. In Depth: Personal Tech And Reviews
Want to make sure your gift list includes the latest and
greatest? We've come up with the hottest, highest-tech gadgets to
give (and get) this year.
Getting great sound in an airplane at 35,000 feet doesn't require
shelling out $300 for a high-end Bose noise-cancellation headset.
Just $69 will buy you high-quality sound with the NoiseBuster.
Doesn't that sound better?
MagneticTime software allows you to convert E-mails and Word
documents into audio files.
MediaMax Version 5, which Sony uses to restrict how many times a
CD can be copied, installs a file folder in the computer that
could allow a guest user to gain unauthorized access. A patch is
available online.
Robert Byers of Chicago filed the suit in federal court on
Friday, and seeks unspecified damages and court expenses, as well
as the replacement or recall of the Xbox 360.
A new memory-resident worm is making the rounds disguised as a
holiday card. It propagates through an IM network by sending
itself to other users listed on the infected user's buddy list.
5. Grab Bag: News You Need From Around The Web
We've worn our fingers to the bone the past few weeks (just for
you) playing through the 18 titles available when the system
launched. While the offering is diverse, many of the games are
merely visually tweaked versions from the older consoles. Worse,
Xbox 360 games can cost a whopping $60 -- roughly $10 more than
games for older systems. Here's our take, from best to worst.
Opponents long ago painted Wal-Mart, Microsoft, and a handful of
other behemoths into a rogue's gallery of too-powerful
corporations needing government restraint. Now, a brash upstart
with a "don't be evil" mantra may soon join them: online search
giant Google.
A new study suggests consumers whose credit cards are lost or
stolen or whose personal information is accidentally compromised
face little risk of becoming victims of identity theft.
Women comprise about 29% of the IT workforce, says Laurie
Sullivan. But there's concern among technology companies the
number is shrinking, according to Lucy Sanders, CEO at the
National Center for Women and Information Technology. So
non-profit organizations, universities, and businesses, such as
Wal-Mart, Cisco, and IBM, are working to reverse that trend.
Listen to this Q&A with Sanders.
Organizations that are looking to extend the success they've
enjoyed with business intelligence are the best candidates to go
to the next level, and embed more intelligence into high-volume
operational decisions. Enterprise Decision Management is focused
on execution of decisions and actions rather than reporting.
------- Webcasts -----------------------
Unleashing the Power and Opportunities of Grid Computing
Date: Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2005
Time: 1:00 PM PT / 3:00 PM CT / 4:00 PM EST
A panel of experts will identify trends in grid computing, and
will provide actual examples of customer experiences using grid computing.
https://www.cmpnetseminars.com/btg/IBM/?K=PWNWSL&Q=376
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