WI-FI PUSHING ETHERNET ASIDE?

By K.C.Bishope.

Wi-Fi has become and is increasingly becoming so popular that companies are finding 50% to 90% of their Ethernet ports are going unused.

With 70% of all new ports being wireless by 2011, is there really a need to spend so much on wired infrastructure?

Just as many younger people know only the desktop and laptop PCs, today's younger students and workers are frequently clueless about patch cords and ports. Having grown up with wireless that's what they're used to and expect.

While the culture may be changing, many companies remain unconvinced that enterprise Wi-Fi networks offer the same reliability, security and bandwidth that current applications demand. Other individuals are just as convinced that the Wi-Fi networks can offer everything that's needed.

People argue over whether IPTV requires a wire or not. Does it justify hundreds of idle switches and thousands of dollars in yearly maintenance contracts?

A lot of the activity in different companies or within different company departments depends on the company's business. Employees tied to their desk may expect and use the wired ports. For those employees that go into the field daily or for long stretches of time, the mobility and convenience of Wi-Fi cannot be underestimated or understated.

Companies have saved millions of dollars by reducing Ethernet ports to reflect actual usage, eliminating unused switches and rolling ot WLAN.

As for the question of whether WLANs can deliver enough bandwidth, it's been established that most user applications remain transaction oriented, fitting within the 1Mbps per user bandwidth requirement.

Only a few years ago desktop PCs were the norm and laptops were used only by employees who traveled. Times have changed radically in the office since with smaller technology and more power most offices now have 40% to 60% laptop users, even when they remain in the office.

According to market research by the end of 2009 50% of office PCs will be laptops and the majority will have 802.11n wireless built into them. If that's the case, these users won't need an Ethernet cable.

Cisco maintains that a unified network consisting of wireless and wired with a 3G cellular overlay is necessary since wireless only is inflexible and the cost benefits are exaggerated.

Probably since every company and every situation is different, there isn't one solution and each situation will have to be assessed and dealt with in the manner best suited to that company. However, thus far, WLAN appear to save large amounts of money while providing networks perfectly suited to the users.

ACER NETBOOKS BEAT ASUS

By D.E.Levine

I travel with an Acer netbook which I love because of it's light weight, high speed and wireless connectivity. I always thought I'd get an Asus, since they were introduced first, but the Acer offered me XP and a 160GB hard drive which the Asus couldn't match.

They're both good netbooks, serviceable, small, lightweight and after years of traveling with a heavy, clunky laptop, a journalist's dream.

But Asustek (Asus) was in the industry first and everyone though the company had an edge and the highest shipments since it introduced the original Eee PC.

However, as it turns out, Acer edged out Asus to become the leader in netbook shipments in 2008. The company claims it shipped 5 million netbooks in 2008, actually falling short of its 6 million target because of the global economy decline. It anticipates shipping 10 million to 12 million in 2009.

Asus shipped 4.9 million netbooks in 2008 and didn't comment on it's 2009 expectations.

INTEL POWER MANAGEMENT TOOL

By D.E.Levine

Intel recently released a new power management tool for data centers. Known as Data Center Manager (DCM), the tool is a software tool kit capable of reducing the power drawn by servers in data centers by tapping into hardware resources.

DCM communicates with Intel's Intelligent Power Node Manager software tool installed on the chip set of each server. Node Manager is then instructed by the middleware to set power limits for the servers based on the activity level

Companies can build software to manage or cap power consumption by individual servers or a group of servers by using the development kit.

Designed for use on servers running Intel's Xeon 5500 chips (which include motherboards with the Node Manager software) DCM is capable of capping power on inactive servers while raising the power bar on very active servers.

Since power consumption and regulation is a "hot" topic, we see DCM as a promising tool that should become increasingly popular.

GOOGLE VERSUS VMWARE

By M.S.Welles

There seems to be a war starting between Google and VMware. VMware executives believe virtualization is the only viable enterprise-ready technology for cloud computing. They've openly stated that when speaking at conferences and with clients.

Google disagrees. Google is a long-time proponent of cloud computing and points to its success by using low-cost computers with great software and without virtualization, to achieve great economies of scale, reliability and performance.

The question now is which approach is better. Is it best to utilize cloud computing in a private data center via hardware virtualization or in a public cloud via Google's software approach?

There's going to be a lot of discussion and experimentation regarding the best approach to cloud computing. We look forward to the ensuing battle.

MEXICAN OFFSHORING SINKING

By K.C.Bishope

At one time Mexico was high on the list for favorite areas for locating offshore facilities. It's close to the United States and lacks cultural barriers. Travel to and from the country and within its environs was easy.

But things have changed quickly in just a short time and now off shoring to Mexico has fallen out of favor.

There's been a tremendous amount of border violence and drug related crime during the past year. The result is that a lot of businesses in Mexico temporarily shut down which doesn't fare well since IT runs 24/7.

Add to that the swine flu epidemic which hasn't helped either. It has resulted in many workers staying home and schools and businesses shutting down. On top of that, Mexico has now imposed travel restrictions that make getting around to do business more difficult.

Even as we post this article, many vendors are going elsewhere to establish business and there's no assurance of when Mexico will regain its prominent offshore status.

CLOUD SECURITY NIGHTMARE AT RSA

By D.E.Levine

At the recent RSA Conference 2009 the discussion and the fears expressed centered on cloud security.

Customer-driven groups acknowledge that defensive measures are far behind the known vulnerabilities of public cloud computing services. Vendors too acknowledge the lag.

Cisco CEO John Chambers called cloud security a "security nightmare" and said it "can't be handled in the traditional ways."

Throughout the conference attendees heard warnings about data loss and integrity, compliance, liability, reliability, authentication and information life-cycle management dangers regarding cloud computing services.

Experts agree that cloud security is clearly lagging and the dangers may outweigh the benefits and necessitate aggressive risk management.

Using such statements and fears as a jumping off point, many vendors introduced new security services specifically centered on cloud computing.

Cisco and Trend Micro both have security services that pull thread data from around the Internet and pushes it to users rather than depending on desktop protection which may be out of date .

McAfee is aiming at predictive security where there is cloud-based sharing of threat intelligence among different categories of security devices. The reasoning behind this approach is to locate and block malicious activity faster than by traditional means.

Savvis has already launched a Web application firewall service. The service is based on a choice of either virtual instances of its software residing between the Internet and the network, or its Imperva WAF appliances.

RSA plans to work with Microsoft and Cisco to develop a common language which will enable sharing intelligence about data-loss threats in the cloud and within corporate networks.

During the conference The Jericho Forum, a Europe-based group, joined forces with the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), an United States based group to pressure the vendors to do more relating to cloud security.

Since both groups include large corporations, they plan to use their influence as major customers to pressure vendors for products that specifically address cloud threats and solutions.

Cloud computing adoption is already widespread. However, because of the lack of familiarity with the systems, as well as lack of planning, most companies do not have any type of plan or standard for checking to see that the cloud service they purchased provides the security they were promised.

De-emphasizing the risk has become very frequent. But risk comes in many forms and in addition to potential data loss there's a real possibility of not being in compliance with regulations. Since regulations differ from country to country, and may differ from state to state (in the U.S.) how can providers prove that data restricted to particular geographic locations is actually staying where it is supposed to be?

Savings produced by cloud computing are tempting and act as a catalyst to reliance on cloud computing services.

To maintain security, continuous monitoring of the vendor is necessary, and if third party verification can be used it will free up resources at the client. That brings up the subject of being able to outsource some of the due diligence necessary for cloud computing services.

Problems abound, but solutions are slow in coming forth.

MULTI-GIGABIT WIRELKESS NETWORKING

By M.S.Welles

A standard is going to be created for multi-gigabit short range wireless networking by a consortium of Microsoft, 17 chip makers and consumer electronics companies.

The Gigbit Wireless Alliance (WiGig) intends to have the first draft of a specification available by the end of 2009. The Alliance is an effort to unite a wide range of vendors behind a unified standard and insure interoperability among a diverse group of products through a testing and certification program.

The WiGig standard uses the largely unused 60 GHz frequency to achieve a data rate of up to 6Gbps. Actual maximum throughput is just over 5Gbps.

There will be a low-power option aimed at mobile and battery-powered devices which will have a minimum throughput of 1Gbps.

The WiGig spec will use the 60GHz band, available worldwide and unlicensed. The frequency has been allocated large amounts of bandwidth in the U.S. and abroad. With very high data rates, WiGig radios would be able to stream uncompressed high quality video.

A wide range of products is expected to be developed to make use of the WiGig standard and be integrated into computer networking.

The WiGig Alliance plans to work closely with the IEEE 802.11ad task group which is already working on a formal multi-gigabit WLAN standard based on the 60GHz band.

RWANDA TO GET NATIONAL DATA CENTER

By J.C.Bishope

A few years ago Rwanda was in the middle of a civil war. Now, the Rwandan government is moving into the 21st century by awarding Bromma, Sweden-based Coromatic AB, a $5 million (U.S.) contract for the construction of a national data center.

The sum may seem small to many, but for Rwanda it's a great leap forward as the new data center will store all the government data and provide backup facilities for other countries in the region.

According to the Rwandan president's office, the data center is a major initiative to improve the country's IT capabilities.

Scheduled to begin in September 2009, the data center should open before the end of the year.

MAINFRAME TOOLS FOR YOUNGER WORKERS

By D.E.Levine

I remember when I was told that mainframes were "going away." That was some years back and it hasn't happened.

Mainframes contain and process so much information that it's doubtful that they will ever go away entirely.

However, younger workers are definitely not being trained in mainframe use, care or languages.

As a result, CA has made 143 of its 166 products comply with its Mainframe 2.0 specifications, specifically designed to ease the process of installing and managing the high-end software.

Targeting younger workers without mainframe skills, the Mainframe 2.0 strategy automates or streamlines routine tasks. This allows younger workers to undertake some mainframe tasks and frees up the mainframe system administrators for other work.

In addition to automating many of the tasks, Mainframe Software Manager shortens the time needed to go through all of the documentation before installing products manually.

In addition to allowing administrators to hand off duties to younger workers, the automated software provides the ability to transition smoothly in case a mainframe person leaves the company. Until now, if an expert mainframe person left the firm, many companies found themselves without staff to cover the departing worker's tasks.

NEW ENERGY PLAN FOR DATA CENTERS?

By M.S.Welles
Amid much speculation, data centers around the United States are waiting to hear what President Obama has to say about his cap-and-trade energy plan.

Designed to implement higher costs on power generators that don't use "clean" energy sources, the government would cap overall carbon dioxide emissions and then auction permits enabling companies to exceed those limits.

It's anticipated that as utilities are forced to buy the permits they will pass the additional cost on to their customers.

The pool of permits would decrease over time, increasing the cost for electricity unless generators switched to cleaner forms of energy.

President Obama appears committed to the idea and has included funding for the cap-and-trade plan in next year's fiscal plan. Earlier this year, during a press conference the President stated that this approach would start pricing the pollution being sent into the atmosphere.

Data centers, because they use so much electricity, are clearly under pressure to deal with this new approach.

While all individual company data centers would be affected, those hardest hit would be companies that are in the data center business and provide data center services for clients.

How companies expect to deal with the cap-and-trade plan remains to be seen.

PRIVACY IS PRIVACY

By D.E.Levine

Privacy is privacy, regardless who's involved according to Kaiser Permanente hospital. Several months ago the suburban Los Angeles hospital fired 15 employees and reprimanded another 8 for improperly accessing the medical records of a patient.

The patient in question was Nadya Suleman, known as the "octomom" who certainly isn't and hasn't been shy about seeking publicity.

Despite Suleman's desire for publicity, the unauthorized accessing of her electronic records violated a California law specifically designed to protect and safeguard the privacy of health care data.

The Bellflower, CA hospital had increased its network monitoring procedures because of the birth of the octuplets. Additionally, Kaiser conducted extra training to remind hospital employees about patient data confidentiality.

Despite all of their precautions, snooping incidents took place. These incidents serve to highlight the lack of adequate data-security controls at health care facilities, including hospitals.

According to a spokesman for the Austin, TX based Patient Privacy Rights Foundation, privacy breaches occur because health care facilities depend on primitive access control methods.

At large health care facilities, thousands of health care workers, most of whom do not need the information, are able to access private patient data.

The University of California at Los Angeles has already admitted that over a 13 year period 165 doctors and other workers improperly access celebrity medical records.

According to a spokesman for Minnesota Privacy Consultants, social network users are so used to poking around in peoples' profiles that they don't see any difference in doing the same thing with employee and customer databases. This attitude is known as the "Facebook effect."

GPS FAILURE TALK UNDER DISPUTE

By D.E.Levine

The United States Air Force doesn't agree with the General Accountability Office (GAO) report that says the Global Positioning System (GPS) used by the military and millions of motorists worldwide may be disrupted unless aging satellites are quickly replaced.

The Air Force is responsible for acquiring satellites and other equipment for the GPS system.

While experts at the Air Force Space Command in Colorado Springs acknowledged some risk in degraded performance due to delays in launching new satellites, they insisted that the service is not in danger of failing.

The GAO cast doubt on whether the Air Force could launch new satellites quickly enough to replace the older, failing ones. Its report strongly suggested that the number of serviceable satellites could fall below 24, the number considered necessary to provide the level of GPS service to which the U.S. commits.

The Air Force claims there are currently 30 operational satellites. The next new satellite launch doesn't occur until November 2009.

Stating that the military could face significant problems if GPS performance lags, a member of the GAO said that the accuracy of precision-guided munitions depends on a full implementation of GPS. Degraded service would require the military use a larger number of munitions to hit the same target.

Additionally, GPS problems could affect the 911 emergency telephone system and cause significant problems with airline scheduling and flight.

Air Force spokesmen were confident that the number of satellites would not fall below the needed 24.

According to the CTIA which represents many wireless carriers, the wireless carriers are aware of the current state of the Global Positioning System. CTIA estimates a 5% chance or problems stating that several satellites could be out of service simultaneously without causing significant problems for most wireless applications.

The GAO recommended that the Department of Defense (DOD) create a single authority to oversee the acquisition and technology of all GPS technology.

FACEBOOK GETS RUSSIAN INVESTORS

By J.C.Bishope

Who would have thought that Russia, once our enemy in the cold war and our competitor in the space race, would be investing in an American social networking site?

That's exactly what happened when Moscow-based investment firm Digital Sky Technologies paid $200 million (U.S.) for a 1.96% stake in Facebook.

According to Digital Sky Technologies, the investment gives Facebook a valuation of $10 billion (U.S.).

Included in the deal was an agreement where Digital Sky will buy "a minimum of $100 million (U.S.) in Facebook stock from the network's common stockholders.

Facebook said this arrangement will facilitate liquidity for employees' (current and former) vested shares in the company.

Despite the investment and promises for future investments, Digital Sky does not gain a seat on the board of directors at Facebook.

SPEAKING OF SPAM

By M.S.Welles

Spam is as bad and annoying thing, there's no doubt about it. According to a recent report from our friends at Symantec Corp. 90.4% of all corporate network message received in April 2009 were unsolicited e-mails.

This represented an increase of 5.1% over the March figures for unsolicited e-mails. MessageLabs monthly report on threat trends also reported that nearly 58% of all spam is traceable to botnets.

As if that wasn't enough, spammers are experimenting with new ways to sneak around corporate filters. It's become commonplace for a spammer to rent legitimate network services and then blast a large amount of spam at the network of a specific ISP.

The idea behind this action is to push as many messages as possible onto the network prior to it being detected by filtering software. Estimates are that hundreds of such messages are sent each day and completely avoid detection.

Social networks have also taken on increased importance to spammers. Because of difficulty in filtering social networking spam at the corporate firewall, a great deal appears to come from friends of the recipients.

Whether the spam is really being blasted by friends or not is open to interpretation. However, overall, spam has become a major headache regardless of age or occupation.

SPAM DESTROYS THE TECHWRITER

By J.C.Bishope

There have been several instances where while posting new articles, our senior editor discovered that The Techwriter site disappeared.

We apologize for difficulties in finding our site and in our posting timely updates.

For some reason, despite the fact that we own a custom domain and post regularly, and even emphasize security, we have been categorized as a "spam site."

That really takes the cake. It also means that D.E.Levine has to retype and repost on a regular basis because our host keeps wiping us out.

Some may ask "Are competitors eager to take The Techwriter offline?"

We don't know. This is a free site, open to all who seek technical knowledge and we've no idea why Google and its affiliates would consistently destroy our content or lock us out.

We're certainly not spammers, since we require readers to access our site and we don't send any solicitations or newsletters to anyone.

IPHONE SECURITY BENCHMARK CREATED

By M.S.Welles

The Center for Internet Security (CIS) in Hershey, PA released a security benchmark for Apple Inc's iPhone.

According to CIS, the new benchmark will help IT managers provide better protection for data stored on the iPhone.

Dubbed the CIS Security Configuration Benchmark for Apple iPhone, the benchmark includes 20 recommendations for system settings, iPhone Configuration Utility settings and Safari settings.

Also included in the benchmark are instructions for creating strong passwords and securely erasing data.

While not every enterprise has adopted the iPhone, the device has found some companies where it has been widely accepted and adopted because of its functionality.

All IT management agrees that the iPhone presents some real security challenges and various organizations and security vendors are working at establishing increased security guidelines and applications for use with the iPhone.

IS BING BIG?

By D.E.Levine

Long trailing Google in the search engine arena, Microsoft has unveiled a new search site called Bing. This is an upgrade to Live Search and comes with numerous related services like Bing Travel, Bing Maps and Bing Cashback.

Will Bing challenge Google Search, which is the acknowledged leader in search engines with a multitude of related services?

Google has been adding enhancements and constantly adjusting things to make the Google search engine better than it is and better than any challenger. To date, Yahoo and others run behind Google.

Is Bing going to be a real competitor or simply follow in Google's wake?

Only time and use will tell. Analysts are looking at Bing with great anticipation, but since the unveiling most seem to feel that it isn't really as good or as trustworthy as Google.

CREDANT MOBILE GUARDIAN PROTECTION

By D.E.Levine

Smartphones and other mobile devices can be secured using Credant Mobile Guardian (CMG) which uses agents to secure information.

Capable of deployment on a variety of portable devices, CMG agents are controlled by the CMG Enterprise Server management system.

The Server integrates existing user directories and data control policies and can limit access to sensitive information stored on mobile devices.

By "bricking" lost or stolen smartphones and making the information stored them unusable to anyone but the owners, Credant agent software protects the smartphone's contents even when the smartphones are disconnected from all networks.

To "unbrick" a smartphone, new keys are sent by the support staff to the smartphones' key ring. Using four categories or "shields" to implement centralized policies, updates are pushed whenever the policies change.

Policies control access control, permissions, encryption and usability, including the availability of a device's ports. If Administrators choose to, they can kill the IP stack entirely and make the phone usable only for voice calls with no data movement.

However, despite the multiple ways in which Credant secures data, it is only data at rest. Data in transit requires other protective measures. Nor does Credant include malware detection and firewall capabilities.

Pricing is based upon the number of seats with Credant increasing the discount as the number of seats increases.

OBAMA PROPOSES UNIVERSAL BROADBAND

By J.C.Bishope

A key initiative of the Obama administration is universal broadband. Two bills have already been proposed.

One bill, proposed by the House, proposes an investment of a about $6 billion with half the funds to be administered by the Rural Utility Service. The other bill, proposed by the Senate is for roughly $8 billion.

Both bills require net neutrality requirements for infrastructure providers. Also, both bills admit that the Universal Service Fund (USF) hasn't worked since it operated as a tax on telecommunications companies and those companies passed along the fees to customers and recommend another agency handle the job.

However, proponents of both bills claim that the real cost for universal broadband falls anywhere between $20 billion and $200 billion. If those figures are correct, the amounts advocated by the House and the Senate won't even scratch the surface for implementing universal broadband.

FEDERAL AGENCIES WANT SMARTPHONES

By M.S.Welles

President Obama wanted to keep his personal Blackberry and arrangements were made so he could. He started a landslide of requests.

Federal workers from every agency are requesting laptops with wireless data cards and smartphones.

The result is that tens of millions of dollars in wireless data contracts are being given to carriers. Despite the cost, the long range plan is to save the agencies money by centralizing the purchases instead of letting individual field offices sign independent contracts for cell phones and wireless data plans.

The current decentralized approach is expensive and doesn't allow agencies to track their inventories. Aggregate purchasing is anticipated to allow tighter control over the devices.

FEMA has already signed a contract with AT&T to deliver secure reliable wireless data and voice communications to 6,600 FEMA employees responsible for coordinating disaster response and recovery operations. FEMA spokesmen said that the choice of AT&T was because of its existing nationwide footprint.

Last summer Verizon Business was awarded a contract to help the Department of the Interior track and manage expenses for 22,000 mobile devices. Spread out over the National Park Service, the Bureau of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the devices require expense management and employee round-the-clock help desk assistance.

The IRS which acquired 4,000 wireless cards from AT&T in 2008 reports a significant increase in productivity that is spurring the implementation of other mobile applications. The U.S.Postal Service has also acquired 5,500 Blackberry devices from AT&T and expects to bid on additional government contracts in 2009.

FEMTOCELLS TO DO ENTERPRISE SERVICE

By D.E.Levine

Femtocells, the small cellular base stations installed in homes and offices that connect to a service provider's network via broadband are getting closer to realistic use in offices.

One of the incentives is that calls are smoothly and quickly handled both inside and outside since any kind of cell device connects to the femtocell inside instead of searching for an external base station.

New heavy duty networks and standards make femtocells more suitable for enterprise work. Femtocells transmit at very low power levels allowing the same frequencies to be reused between buildings and fewer users share bandwidth.

One drawback is the complexity of enterprise femto networks. Users must plan femto placement carefully to avoid any interference and may be faced with Wi-Fi and VPN configuration issues in their existing networks.

Another drawback is the higher price, based upon the necessity for providers to carry more data and voice and to provide a higher quality of service than for the individual consumer.

Femtocells use the Internet to communicate with a femto gateway managed by the ISP. Femtocells look like additional base stations on the operator network because the central gateway connects to the cellular operator network. Configuration, management and security functions are all performed by a central configuration server.

New standards are expected to aid network interoperability. A newly approved core network interface will standardize communications between femtocells and the central femtocell gateway.

As usual, user demand drives development and sales. Operators are ramping up and rolling out femto networks as more vendors offer femtocell devices.

Sprint already offers a nationwide voice-oriented femtocell program known as Airave. Verizon has announced the Wireless Network Extender, a CDMA femtocell product. AT&T is validating High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) femtocells for wider deployment this year and is partnering with Cisco and IP.access on a home integrated gateway. Comcast will deploy WiMax femtocells, leveraging its cable network for backhaul.

Numerous other vendors are targeting the use of femtocells with wireless technologies and with wide area deployment.

It's anticipated that small business and home offices will leverage consumer-oriented solutions with Wi-Fi access points. However, more and more vendors are now targeting the enterprise space where existing PBXs and IPPBXs will need to be integrated.

Supporting a larger number of silmultaneous callers, enterprise femtocells will also enable single numbers for both mobile and desk phones, PBX features and a single voice mailbox. Rules will be enforced through policy management.

When femtocell networks come online operators will handle millions of cell sites as opposed to the current thousands. Correct provisioning and and firmware updates will be essential as will determinations of whether to dedicate radio channels or use established WAN frequencies.

While expenses will be higher, in order to establish an enterprise customer base, operators will need to offer femtocell networks at reasonable prices that customers are willing to pay.

ARE G1 AND IPHONE IN A RACE?

By J.C.Bishope

T-Mobile currently offers the only phone based on the Android operating system. Although proving very popular for personal use, the Android operating system hasn't been very appealing in the corporate sector.

Vodaphone Group PLC plans to release an Android phone made by Taiwan based HTC Corp., the same manufacturer as the G1. Later this year Samsung Electronics Co, plans to ship three Android phones. Corporate managers see great potential for the Android based phones once they become available on the AT&T and Verizon networks.

Currently, corporate personnel frequently brings personal Android devices into work creating problems that IT has to deal with. This is a driving force behind the development of business applications for the Android phone.

Recently, The Wall Street Journal r;ported talks taking place between Apple and AT&T to extend the contract that makes AT&T the exclusive U.S. carrier for the IPhone beyond its 2010 expiration date.

If the contract is not extended and other carriers start offering the IPhone, the advantage of using an Android phone and expanding Android applications would be seriously impacted.

INSUFFICIENT SECURITY BUDGETS TAKE TOLL

By D.E.Levine

Amplitude Research, a research survey company has just completed a survey commissioned by VanDyke Software.

The sixth annual survey entitled "What keeps network administrators up at night" surveyed 320 network and system administrators nationwide. Findings were that 41 percent of the overall IT budgets had decreased compared to 18 percent in 2008.

IT security budgets decreased by 10 percent were roughly 21.2 percent while 12.8 percent of the administrators said their IT security budgets decreased less than 10 percent.

Forty six percent of the respondents claimed their companies had not sufficiently budgeted to meet current information security needs.

In 2008 67 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with laptop security while this year only 59 percent were satisfied. Last year 52 percent of respondents were satisfied with security on their handheld devices and this year only 37 percent were.

The economy was cited as the greatest external factor affecting the IT security budget when given the choice between homeland security, external drivers, the economy or none at all.

More than 27 percent of the companies had actually canceled their IT security projects due to the downturn in the economy.

As expected, those respondents who claimed they were not sufficiently budgeted to deal with IT security needs were also those individuals who were "kept up at night" due to anxiety over the problems Those with adequate security budgets slept better.

UC BERKELEY OVERLOOKS SERIOUS BREACH

By D.E.Levine

The University of California at Berkeley has admitted that between October 9, 2008 and April 9, 2009 there was a serious systems security breach in which hackers stole the private data of 160,000 individuals.

Among the stolen data were social security numbers, health insurance information and immunization records.

Discovered during routine maintenance by administrators were messages left by the intruders. The university's security incident team began an investigation that found the attack was launched overseas by accessing a public web site.

Victims of the breach include UC Berkeley students and their families who had UHS health coverage.

In order to provide information and assistance UC Berkeley has launched a website datatheft.berkeley.edu to provide information and has established a 24 hour hotline to answer questions.

The University admits that if it wasn't for the hackers leaving messages behind, this serious breach might never have been discovered.

WIRELESS SENSORS MONITOR ENERGY USE

By M.S.Welle

Arch Rock has a wireless sensor networking product line. Now it is combining its existing PhyNet IP-based sensor nodes, wireless routers and server appliances with a new electric power sensor and a data analysis and reporting application.

The new Energy Optimizer line allows the sensor to monitor electric use on a fine-grained level by individual circuit. It's able to show what amount of energy each system is using.

The data collected is then exported to data analysis and reporting software that correlates the data with budgeted spending, demand trends and other criteria.

Users can view the data by department energy use or use of energy over a given period of time.

According to Arch Rock, the new system is introduced without changing any existing lighting, HVAC or other systems.

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AT&T WI-FI SURGE REPORTED

By D.E.Levine

According to AT&T, users connected to its Wi-Fi hot spots in the first quarter of 2009 more than triple the amount of volume during the first quarter of 2008.

AT&T cited a figure of 10.5 million connections to Wi-Fi hot spots during the first quarter of 2009.

According to AT&T the reason for the increased usage can be attributed to the expansion of its Wi-Fi footprint to 20,000 locations in the United States and more than 80,000 locations around the world. This was achieved through the acquisition of Wayport and a Starbucks deal.

Also influencing the increase of Wi-Fi usage is the proliferation of Wi-Fi capable devices. The 3G iPhone and the Blackberry line are proving to be extremely popular and accounted for more than 4 million connections to the company's Wi-Fi hot spots.

Even in a down economy, AT&T anticipate things looking up in it's Wi-Fi hot spot usage, claiming that more and more people are adopting smartphones as their everyday phone and giving up their regular land line.

EFFECT OF ILLNESS IN THE IT WORKPLACE

By J.C.Bishope

Recent reports on the swine flu pandemic have created problems for companies in functioning on a daily basis.

Not only are they now confronted with the swine flu problem and the possible spread of the disease if ill workers come into the work place and spread it to co-workers, but there are legitimate questions being raised about the influence of health related issues in the future.

The economy is already in a recession and it would be a simple matter to believe that once a person is exposed he or she will simply remain at home until "cured".

But the realities are that people are out in society networking for job and social opportunities more than ever, and thus, once exposed, the risk of spreading any illness is even greater.

Added to which there have been major layoffs already, and there is significant concern about an increase in the number of layoffs as the economy continues to remains sluggish.

So far, the new jobs that the Obama administration anticipates being created haven't materialized and while it's safe to say that it's too soon in the administration for them to appear, people are out job hunting for existing jobs on a daily basis.

Essential to functioning within the parameters of medical emergencies and layoffs is the need to create a viable documented and tested plan for dealing with workers who are either out sick or permanently fired.

This plan can consist of allowing people to telecommute from their own home or other company locations, training assistant managers to substitute for managers that are out sick, and updating call lists to reflect those individuals fired and no longer on call to the company in an emergency, and those individuals out sick and not available at the moment.

It's true that this may require daily or weekly updates and might prove time consuming. However, in the event that system problems or emergencies arise, a created, tested and updated plan with associated call lists can mean the difference between survival and failure.

Analysts feel that the precautions put into place now with expanded telecommuting and video conferencing may actually prove to be the viable workplace of the future, where companies spend less on workspace and commutation and actually get more accomplished by having dispersed workers functioning from home or nearby locations.

CRITICS OPPOSED TO WHITE HOUSE LEADING CYBERSECURITY EFFORTS

By D.E.Levine

Despite growing cries for the White House to take the lead in coordinating cybersecurity efforts involving both federal agencies and key private sector companies, there is opposition to that idea.

Sen. Susan Collins is the ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security. At a recent hearing on cybersecurity strategies, Sen. Collins said that if the White House was in charge Congress would have a harder time overseeing policies and budgets.

Collins suggested using the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) as a model. Established in 2004, the NCTC is part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Despite such opposition as Collins, another bill giving the White House more control over security efforts was recently introduced into the Senate. Aimed at establishing a National Office on Cyberspace, whose director would be appointed by and report to the President, the bill argues against shifting control over cybersecurity to the White House.

UNPREPAREDNESS AGAINST CYBERSECURITY THREATS

By D.E.Levine

At a March 10,2009 hearing by the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security five witnesses from government and private sector testified that none felt the federal government is prepared to deal with a cybercastastrophe.

It's almost eight years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and yet widespread consensus is that the federal government has been unsuccessful in its efforts to secure cyberinfrastructure.

A lack of planning, vision and leadership were all cited as reasons why the federal government has been unsuccessful. Although the government has addressed the issue of forming a national strategy for protection on the Internet relatively little has been done to protect national and economic interests against the growing threats in cyberspace.

There have been numerous reports regarding the activities of criminals, unfriendly governments and militaries, hactivists and intelligence agencies (other than U.S.) that have already penetrated U.S. government and private networks. More of this type of activity is anticipated.

Most efforts to date appear to be profit or espionage related. While organizations outside of the U.S. have systematically infiltrated systems without problems, there is a growing threat of attackers who would disrupt vital networks and critical infrastructures such as power and banking.

Added to the real threats are the vivid imaginations of people who write and produced television and cinema and who have used many plots based on system breaches and disruption to actually give cybercriminals ideas and even plots.

While we've already written about legislation submitted that would give the federal government vast powers in developing and enforcing baseline standards for both public agencies and companies in critical infrastructure areas, such legislation has yet to be passed and put into practice.

One function of the legislation would empower the President of the United States to declare a cyber-emergency and permit him to disconnect federal and private-sector networks in the interest of national security.

The current Obama administration has made cybersecurity a priority. While a cybersecurity cabinet member reporting to the President sounds good and practical, there have already been three such individuals and none lasted very long. The last, who departed in 2003, was Richard Clark, who was an advisor to the President on cybersecurity.

MICROSOFT SEEKS TO DEFEND SELF

By D.E.Levine

Microsoft Corp. has asked the European Commission for an oral hearing to defend itself against antitrust charges.

Charges made against Microsoft are that it's illegally tying the Internet browser Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system.

The request is under advisement but no hearing date has been set.

ORACLE TO BUY SUN

By M.S.Welles

After acquisition talks with IBM fell through, we speculated on what route Sun Microsystems Inc. would take. Now, Oracle Corp. has announced it will buy Sun in a blockbuster deal.

Oracle has been vague thus far on exactly what it plans for Sun. Obviously, Oracle sees benefits in acquiring Java and the Solaris operating system (which were the only two technologies actually mentioned as part of the announcement.

It's safe to say that to meet Oracle's profit goals, after the acquisition thousands of Sun workers will be laid off. Such layoffs generally take place after acquisitions, but in the current economic recession, the thought of losing a job at Sun is unsettling.

Unclear still is what will happen to the Java Community Process and Sun's other open-source technologies such as MySQL database and the Sun-dominated OpenOffice.org application suite and Sun-owned commercial product StarOffice.

There's no indication as of this time whether Oracle intends to become full-fledged hardware vendor and chip developer.

Sun customers are wondering what the effect will be on their service and support and are frankly worried about it.

During the announcement, neither Sun nor Oracle commented on customer concerns. All details have been postponed until the future.

SONY ERICSSON CUTS JOBS AGAIN

By J.C.Bishope

After seeing a shortfall in shipments and market share during the first quarter, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB announced an additional layoff of 2,000 workers.

Earlier this year the company laid off an initial 2,000 workers.

Based in London, U.K., the cell phone manufacturer reported a fall of 27% to 1.74 billion Euros ($2.28 billion) from 2.7 billion Euros a year ago.

Shipments dropped 35% during the same period. All the declines were attributed to a lack of new orders from retailers and weak consumer confidence.

MICROSOFT REVENUE DROPS HISTORICALLY

By J.C.Bishope

After 23 years as a public company without a drop in revenue, Microsoft Corp.'s revenue dropped significantly when compared with previous years.

Net income for the quarter ended March 31 was $2.9 billion, representing a 32% decline compared with last year.

While servers and tools remained consistent segments and didn't drop, all other segments across Microsoft did suffer significant declines.

Microsoft representatives said that current economic conditions are responsible for the drop but the long range outlook is strong and during the next 18 months the company expects to introduce a new selection of products that will result in a slow but gradual recovery.

EMC CUTS SALRIES

By J.C.Bishope

After reporting a decrease of 23% in its first quarter profits, EMC Corp. announced a pay cut of 5% across the board for all salaried employees.

Exact figures were a decrease from $251.6 million a year ago to $194.1 million in the current year.

TECH WAGES CUT BY H-1B USE

By M.S.Welles

Researchers at New York University and the University of Pennsylvania business schools (Stern ad Wharton respectively) have completed a study that shows the use of H-1B workers in the United States is decreasing IT wages by as much as 6%.

In an effort to look precisely at "how domestic workers are being affected by globalization", Professors Prasanna Tambe , an assistant professor at Stern and Lorin Hitt, a professor at Wharton, used multiple sources, combining demographic and wage data of individual companies available at a well known job search site (which the professors declined to identify) with information on the H-1B and outsourcing available through government and other public sources.

Computer programmers, system analysts, and software engineers who are U.S, citizens have seen a decline in wages by 5% to 6%. Outsourcing also causes a decline in wages of 2% to 3% for a broader category of workers, including IT managers.

Although the study says that most affected are recent college graduates and people changing jobs, the decrease isn't limited to those categories.

Based on information for 156,000 IT workers employed at nearly 7,500 publicly held U.S. firms. the professors created a "micro-data" view of public companies that hire H-1B visa holders and other offshore workers.

The professors declined to make a judgment regarding whether the effect was good or bad, but said "we simply sought to dispel the myth that globalization generates no "losers" and to provide data on the effects of the H-1B program on IT wages.

REVIEW FINDINGS FOR CYBERSECURITY PROGRAMS

By D.E.Levine

On April 17th Melissa Hathaway completed her review of the U.S. government's cybersecurity programs for President Obama. At this year's RSA Security Conference she announced that collaboration between the private and public sectors is needed to protect critical systems.

She was adamant about the task of leading cybersecurity efforts being the "fundamental responsibility of our government." Her comments raised some controversy among those who believe in less government involvement.

However, according to Hathaway, government's leadership mandate "transcends" those of individual agencies. She added that no individual agency actually has the broad enough perspective to match the challenges facing the country and consumers.

Hathaway admitted that the government isn't organized "appropriately" to address cybersecurity threats. There's a great deal of overlapping authority between agencies which leaves everyone concerned uncertain about who actually has responsibility and power to institute changes.

In essence Hathaway's comments supported other comments by elected officials (senators and congressmen) to overhaul federal cybersecurity processes.

New legislation has already been summitted in the House and the Senate to give federal officials new powers to set security standards and policies for key industries and government agencies.

A companion bill being contemplated would create a cybersecurity office within the White House.

The bills were the result of recommendations made by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

General Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, also spoke at RSA and commented that the NSA isn't looking to take control of the national cybersecurity agenda but instead wants to work with the Department of Homeland Security to provide technical support to combat cybersecurity threats,