SHAREPOINT SECURITY RISK

By D.E.Levine

The Sharepoint collaboration tool is one of the fastest growing applications in the Windows environment. It provides much needed collaboration tools in an easy-to-use suite.

So simple that it is frequently deployed by employees without help from the IT department, Sharepoint may prove to be a mega security risk.

When unsupervised deployment occurs companies are frequently left with unsecured Sharepoint deployments that includes sensitive data.

Sixty percent of companies use security tools designed for Sharepoint while the other 40 percent use conventional server and endpoint security applications that don't fully secure the Sharepoint environment.

Many companies don't have policies in place for use of Sharepoint, a crucial failing that leaves the environment open to unauthorized access from other departments within the company and outside of the company.

CISCO GOES GREEN

By J.C. Bishope

Cisco's Energywise program is new and hopes to lower power use significantly.

Cisco offers the program for other vendors to integrate with power management software on its Catalyst switches to monitor and control power usage.

Cisco estimates a reduction of 30% for companies with gear that can be powered down at night.

INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS CUT IN DEPRESSION

By D.E.Levine

Despite the downturn and the current depression, Verizon and AT&T have posted solid earnings.
It's unlikely that this can continue in the current economy.

Analysts explain that carriers frequently don't show immediate losses because they sign their customers to long term contracts and demands for voice services remain fairly stable.

As a result, even if customers are hurting financially, they probably won't change their telecommunications spending until well into the recession or depression.

It's agreed that carriers will show some of the pain of the recession and as a result will have to adapt. This year Sprint has already announced it is laying off 8,000 and AT&T is going to cut 12,000 off the payroll.

Analysts agree that the cuts will come primarily within the wireline business as more and more customers switch to wireless. AT&T and Verizon statements from 2008 both back up this thought.

If necessary, to save even more, carriers could slow network upgrades and big capital projects. Additionally, carriers could push more low-cost services to consumers and enterprise customers.

GMAIL FEXIBILITY ENHANCED

By M.S. Bishope

Now in beta, Google has made available an offline capability for its Gmail platform.

This capability allows business and consumer users to work with email and eventually calendar items while disconnected from the network. and received.

Google announced that its Gmail Labs is developing and testing offline capabilities that allow users to read, compose and archive messages while offline.

When the user reattaches to the network, new messages are sent

CREDANT SECURITY FOR SMARTPHONES

By D.E.Levine

Credant Mobile Guardian or CMG is software that can be used on a variety of mobile portable devices since it works equally well on laptops and multiple smartphone OS types.

With agents deployed on smartphones, security is controlled by the CMG Enterprise Server management system. The CMG Enterprise Server integrates data control policies and existing user directories.

Using this type of control, CMG can limit access to potentially sensitive information stored on mobile devices. When a smartphone is lost or stolen and someone besides the owner tries to access it, the Credant software can "brick" the phone and make its contents unusable, even when it's disconnected from all networks.

Easily "unbricked" remotely, the software support staff dispatch new keys to the device's key ring.

Credant encrypts files individually using keys unique to the user and his or her device Centrally generated keys and function policies are fed to devices through four categories called "shields."

These categories include access control, encryption, permissions and usability, with multiple settings within each. Updates are pushed whenever shield policies change.

Authentication to a CMG-protected device is policy-based with the policy capable of being linked back to an organization's LDAP directory.

Credant policies can be built in a variety of ways but Credant only secures data at rest. To protect data in transit, other safeguards are necessary. Malware detection and firewall capabilities are not included.

While comparable with other security, Credant is not cheap. However, data is valuable, sometimes even priceless, so companies will have to decide whether the cost is worth it.

PALM PRE

By D.E.Levine

Palm's Pre smart phone took the award for best new cell phone but the company didn't stick around long enough for interviews. Immediately after winning the award they packed up their suite and left, only 2 days after CES 2009 opened, and well before it closed.

More important is why the phone won. New from Sprint, the Pre offers an innovative new WebOS that's fully integrated with the internet. What this means is that your calendar, e-mail, contacts, Web pages and other information are all updated whenever related information has changed online.

The new WebOS is made up of Web languages like HTML, CSS and Java script so developers and partners can create new applications and content for the device in a quick and timely manner. Amazon was the first to announce that it was partnering with Pre-s on-board DRM free music store.

The phone was developed to think like the human mind. Each active task is represented on the home screen by a card. When a user is finished all he has to do is flick the card away by gesturing across the multi touch display.

Below the screen is a dedicated gesture area for accessing your most used tasks or flipping through open cards on the desktop.

Searching is simple. To search the user starts typing. When the search terms aren't on the device the Pre will bring up a menu to search through Google, Wikipedia or Google Maps.

The camera is 3MP with no video recording. There's a 3.1 inch color display, Wi-Fi support and the Pre has a full 3.5mm headphone jack.

Sleek looking, easy to use, excellent Wi-Fi reception, the Pre is an entertainment center as well as a phone.

LINKSYS BY CISCO MEDIA HUB

By J.C.Bishope

The emphasis this year on storage differed from years past. This year the emphasis focused on storage companies helping consumers rescue their videos and photos from their hard drives and display them on different screens throughout their homes. In other words, in addition to using storage for backup, consumers are now using storage for different display services.

Linksys by Cisco Media Hub is an external drive that attaches to your router. This allows any PC with the bundled software installed to recognize and list the media on the drive.

The hardware is very sleek in appearance. However, it is the software whose intuitive interface does a superlative job of searching for and organizing photos, music and movies that makes this storage unit better than its competitors.

The Linksys is an extremely user-friendly storage unit for storing and streaming media easily and without error.

PHOENIX HYPERSPACE

By D.E.Levine

Hyperspace Instant-On by Phoenix Technology is poised to change the way people use their PCs. This light-weight low-powered Linux environment can load in lieu of Windows or run alongside it.

Hyperspace is end-user installable. The "Hybrid"version of Hyperspace runs parallel to Windows, allowing users to switch back and forth instantly between operating systems by hitting the F4 key. The OS wakes from "naps" in under a second and from longer sleeps in under 4 seconds, which is impressive and faster than any competitors. Additionally, Hyperspace is designed for power saving.