THE TECHWRITER

DXG-125V HIGH DEFINITION VIDEO CAMERA

2009-11-30T08:36:00.001-05:00

By K.C.Bishoppe

Small, portable high definition video cameras are all the rage now. It's amazing what the average person, armed with a video camera, can accomplish.

But the problem with video cameras, outdoor elements and rugged activities is pretty much the same as the problem with cameras, weather and sports. Both are somewhat fragile and don't react well to wet, cold. knocks and bumps.

Now we've located an amazing little camcorder that's perfect for outdoors. About the same size as a candy bar, the DXG-125V 720p High Definition camcorder is waterproof, heatproof and basically all-weather and all terrain.

With a rugged rubber hand grip, the unit is protected against bumps and drops Its bright red color makes it easy to locate if you drop it in the snow or elsewhere since it stands out.

It also records movies and still images to internal Flash or SD card. The unit has a two-inch screen, an HDMI output, a MP3 player and a compass.

Video and stills are fairly good in well lit areas, but results are not as good in darker areas. Performance overall, for the price of $139, is pretty good, especially if you're in a rainy, snowy or particularly hot arid area where regular devices suffer from the elements.

WI-FI IS LEAPING AHEAD

2009-11-30T08:33:00.000-05:00

By D.E.Levine

The acceptance of the IEEE 802.11n wireless standard will accelerate major changes in Wi-Fi performance over the next 3 to 5 years.

Performance will jump to 300 bps and 150 Mps throughput and that will result in more use of Wi-Fi in both the personal and business sectors.

The 802.11n standard makes it possible for a range of high data rates that can be adapted to different functions and devices. More of the standard's optional performance features will appear in radio chips which can then be used to make RF signals more resilient and reliable.

Wi-Fi is being embedded in new devices, sensors, tracking tags and systems, medical monitoring equipment, consumer electronics et al. Using the 802.11w standard, messages from attackers can be disregarded instead of obeyed. Security policies in Wei-Fi networks are associated with a user not a port.

There will be more flexibility in querying providers, finding out if a user can use a particular provider and then securely joining that provider's network. A user's cellular subscriber identity will travel with them, enabling the user to make use of various Wi-Fi services.

Client and access points will cooperate in new and interesting ways once intelligence via new Wi-Fi management standard protocols. The 802.11k radio resource management standard will facilitate connecting to the best access point when moving away from the access point to which you're already connected. A Wi-Fi radio in any personal devices could link directly with other client devices instead of establishing a point-to-point link,

While nothing will happen immediately, development of new ways of connectivity are under development and will be developed and introduced over the next few years.

SAMSUNG DUALVIEW TL225 DIGITAL CAMERA

2009-11-30T08:06:00.000-05:00

By M.S.Welles

The price is a bit steep at $350 but the concept is new and innovative. You've probably had some instance when you needed to take a picture of yourself so you held your digital camera facing you and clicked the button to snap a photo.

The thing about this method is when you look at the photo it generally isn't exactly what you want and you wind up retaking the photo several time.

Samsung's DualView TL225 takes the effort and the mistakes out of taking your picture. A sleek black body with a hint of one of four colors around its edge, the camera is a 12.4 megapixel camera.

The distinctive feature is that this camera has two viewfinders. The main LCD screen on the back is 3.5 inches and is a touchscreen as well.

It has a digital zoom of 5x and an optical zoom of 4.6x. The second screen, in the front, is 1.5 inches and has a lower resolution than the other screen. However, the screen is more than enough for a self portrait and can be turned off by tapping it.

The 1.5 inch screen turns on automatically when the camera is in one of three modes: self Portrai, Self Timer or Children. When the camera is in Children mode the screen displays an animated clown designed to make children smile.

The camera has fantastic resolution quality, with a very usable display regardless of lighting. On drawback is that the camera writes to microSDHC cards and users cannot use older SD or SDHC cards.

CIA BUILDING ON A CLOUD

2009-11-26T09:55:00.001-05:00

By M.S.Welles

One of the U.S. government's most secretive agencies, the CIA, is pinning its hopes to a cloud and adopting cloud computing in a big way.

Spokesmen for the agency say that they feel cloud computing makes IT environments more flexible and secure when kept within a firewall.

The agency has had widespread virtualization for years. Virtualization abstracts the operating system and software from the hardware, and is an excellent basis for building a cloud environment.

The CIA also uses thin clients and Web-based applications which reduces the necessity of securing individual workstations.

With the CIA cloud's use of standards-based technology, complexity is reduced and patches are deployed faster.

Since everything in a cloud environment is built on common processes, there is a consistent approach to doing things.

GEOFENCING FEATURE ADDED BY ABSOLUTE

2009-11-26T09:38:00.000-05:00

By D.E.Levine

Geofencing capabilities that enable IT managers to incorporate the physical location of a device into their IT Asset Management strategy have been added to Computrace products by Absolute Software Corp.

End user are alerted when a laptop or mobile device goes beyond a certain perimeter defined on a web-based map.

After the alert, the manager can take appropriate action like deleting data from the device, in order to protect both the device and the data.

SOCIAL NETWORKS POSE THREATS

2009-11-26T08:12:00.000-05:00

By K.C.Bishoppe

It's true that social networking is growing rapidly and more and more companies are using social network to increase their business.

However, with social networks come a variety of threats that could be potentially damaging to the good name of the brand.

Numerous instances of impersonation have taken place and social media cybersquatting is approximately where domain site cybersquatting was ten years ago.

When people use variations on brand names to open social networking accounts it's generally because they hope companies will pay them for the accounts.

But while domains have a central authority (ICANN), social netoworking sites don't have any central authority. There is also a lack of procedures and processes for reclaiming brand names from cybersquatters.

In the meantime cybersquatters, spammers and pirates have cost brand name companies millions of dollars in losses, much of which goes unnoticed unless the company is actively monitoring for such problems.

CIRCUITS RUN OFF TREE POWER

2009-11-23T09:14:00.000-05:00

By K.C.Bishoppe

Trees contain enough power to run a custom circuit. This fact was recently proven by researchers at the University of Washington.

Although the power in trees isn't expected to replace solar power, it's anticipated it could power tree sensors dedicated to detecting environmental conditions or forest fires.

The researchers found that big-leaf maples generate a steady voltage up to a few hundred millivolts. By developing a boost converter capable of storing low incoming voltage and generating stronger voltage of 1.1 V.

Although the researchers haven't established where the voltage in trees comes from, there appears to be some signaling in trees similar to that in the human body, but at a slower speed.

REAL ID IN DANGER

2009-11-23T08:51:00.000-05:00

By M.S.Welles

The Real ID Act was signed in 2005 and requires states to follow a single national standard for identifying and authenticating individuals who apply for drivers licenses. It's specific about the technical and process requirements involved.

From the beginning the Act has met with widespread criticism. Privacy advocates claim that by adhering to the Act a hard to manage and hard to secure national ID card would result.

One stated major concern is the intention to link all state driver's license databases via a data sharing hub.

Additionally, most states have refused to comply stating that it's an unfunded federal mandate.

Now, the Real ID has lost most of its steam since the U.S.Senate recently slashed 40% or $40 million from the previously allocated $100 million for Real ID.

VOLTAGE SECURITY INC. EXPANDS SECUREDATA

2009-11-23T08:36:00.004-05:00

By D.E.Levine

Voltage Security Inc., makers of Secure Data, Secure Mail and Secure File products has added tokenization and data masking capabilities to its SecureData product.

Tokenization replaces PANS or primary account numbers and other sensitive data with a "token." While both the PANS and tokens are stored in an encrypted database, the organization uses the token instead of the PAN to process and record transactions within its systems.

If hackers do manage to gain access to the systems, the meaningless tokens they receive prevent them from gaining access to customer information.

By combining Secure Data with Secure Mail and Secure File, end-users can create an end-to-end data protection platform with a single developer interface, stateless key management and a common policy framework.

DATAGENT PREVENTS DATA MIGRATION

2009-11-20T09:47:00.004-05:00

By M.S.Welles

Worried about insider attacks and misuse of peripherals? Talis Data Systems recently launched Datagent, an NSA/NIAP-validated, hardware-based security system.

Meant to be installed on a PC or workstation, Datagent prevents data-migration across multiple networks by controlling user access to peripherals.

Using a Smartcard-based interface, Datagent provides system administrators with a configurable and auditable protection strategy for managing user access to components.

Validated at EAL level 4, Datagent ensures total physical separation of up to 3 networks within a single network computer.

GOOGLE APS MAKES HEADWAY

2009-11-20T09:05:00.001-05:00

By K.C.Bishoppe

Google Inc. is rapidly expanding its Google Apps Premier as it signs up new customers. Recently the prestigious name brand Jaguar Land Rover obtained a license for 15,000 employees worldwide.

Jaguar Land Rover, which now belongs to Tata Motors Ltd., is currently in the process of separating its systems from its former owner, Ford Motor Company.

Jsguar Land Rover's CIO, Jeremy Vincent, is a convert to cloud computing and indicated that the low cost of Google Apps enabled him to gain necessary approvals quickly.

Use of Google Apps will give the company use of a commodity solution across the workforce and Vincent anticipates the change will give the company a boost in productivity and enable them to gain against their competitors.

TINY FOTOBOX MAKES SLIDESHOW CREATION EASY

2009-11-20T08:12:00.002-05:00

By D.E.Levine

We found a great, small, lightweight device at PhotoExpo that allows everyone from rank beginner to advanced photographer to create photo slideshows from digital photos.

Weighing only 2.1 ounces, the tiny device plugs directly into a computer's USB port and runs off the software contained on the Fotobox.

After inserting the SD memory card into the Fotobox, the user simply plugs the device into the USB port and selects either the "easy" or "advanced" mode when the software program starts.

The user can arrange and rearrange the photos from the SD memory card on the Fotobox storyboard, select a relevant theme from the provided list, preview the slideshow and when satisfied, burn the entire sequence to a DVD or CD with transitions, music and narration.

In addition to DVD and CD, the user can publish to SVCD, VCD, MPEG 1, PREG 2, AVI, DV-AVI, WMV, YouTube, iPod and PSP formats.

The Fotobox is fast, efficient, simple to use and costs under $100. It makes a great stocking stuffer for the holidays and a year round favorite.

BIOMETRIC DEVICE SCANS VASCULAR DATA

2009-11-18T09:49:00.000-05:00

By D.E.Levine

Smarter Security Systems recently introduced the FastScan Vascular Reader device for access control.

The innovative device uses passive infrared technology to scan vascular data found in the blood vessels on the back of the hand.

Hand vascular patterns are the only biometric located inside the body. As a result, vascular patterns cannot be copied or counterfeited and are extremely unique to the individual within whom they're found.

The scan provides speedy and accurate identity verification. Because it depends on a live vein pattern with a flowing vascular stream, the FastScan VR overcomes many weaknesses that are found in other biometric devices.

NEW 802.11 CHIPS ALREADY AVAILABLE

2009-11-18T09:07:00.001-05:00

By K.C.Bishoppe

With the passage of the new 802.11n standard, the door swung open for the manufacture and distribution of new chips that include features of the new standard.

Wi-Fi chip manufacturer Atheros has already launched a new family of chips which includes at least some of the new enhanced standard features.

As the 802.11n supporting chips become available, it's anticipated that 802.11abg products will start disappearing from vendor inventories.

While most products on the market today run two spatial streams regardless of the number of transmit and receive antennas in their access points, the Altheros AR9300 chips support the Transmit Beamforming (TxBF) and Low Density Parity Check (LPDC) options from 802.11n.

As long as both transmitter and receiver participant in the calibration process, TxBF will lock time and phase of a wireless signal together and boost signal reception.

GOOGLES GIVES FLYERS A XMAS GIFT

2009-11-18T08:48:00.000-05:00

By M.S.Welles

Between November 16th and January 15th Google is providing free Wi-Fi services to flyers at 47 airports and on Virgin America flights.

Frequently stuck at airports due to delays after arriving two hours in advance to fulfill security requirements, travelers with waiting time on their hands pass up the opportunity to check email or do work on the laptops because the Wi-Fi charges they're asked to pay, via credit card, are high.

Although they didn't explain the holiday gesture, it's bound to create warm feelings by travelers for Google. Free Wi-Fi will be convenient and with the economy being in the doldrums, savings will be welcomed.

In exchange for the free Wi-Fi, Google will take contributions which will then be given to a variety of charities.

CLAMPI RUNS RAMPANT

2009-11-16T10:36:00.000-05:00

By D.E.Levine

At the Black Hat Conference earlier this fall, researchers from SecureWorks reported that the Clampi Trojan botnet has infected as many as a million machines.

The Trojan botnet is designed to steal login information for paying bills online at 4,600 sites that include banks, financial institutions such as mortgage companies , and other sites.

The researchers reported that Clampi spreads faster than other data-stealing Trojans, infecting computers through a drive-by web exploit and then attempts to spread to all the other nodes of the network.

Security companies are developing and redeveloping a method for locating, identifying and quarantining the botnet.

HSBC PAYS HEAVY PENALTY

2009-11-16T10:05:00.002-05:00

By D.E.Levine

The heaviest fine ever imposed in the United Kingdom for a data breach was levied against banking giant HSBC. The regulator imposed a $4.9 million fine against three separate divisions of the bank.

Earlier this year HSBC suffered two data breaches that resulted in possible exposure of customer confidential information. The bank mailed out unencrypted personal information that went missing.

CISCO AND EMC PARTNER

2009-11-16T09:36:00.000-05:00

By K.C.Bishoppe

The Virtual Computing Environment alliance offers a bundled product, Vblock, consisting of Cisco's UCS server line and networking strength and EMC's storage combined through VMware's virtualization software.

The bundled product, Vblock, is being used by companies building private clouds. John Chambers, Cisco CEO says that Vblock improves utilization, power use and security by optimizing virtual resources through a "network-based architectural approach".

With a new service firm named Arcadia whose task is to help companies implement Vblock, Cisco is openly grasping for a larger piece of the virtualization market despite irritating and alienating other IT vendors that sell Cisco gear.

RED HAT STRENGTHENS VIRTUALIZATION POSITION

2009-11-16T09:23:00.000-05:00

By M.S.Welles

Red Hat, long a leader in the Linux operating system, recently strengthened its position in the virtualization field by entering the virtualization management field selling software for IT shops virtualization servers using the KVM hypervisor built into Linux.

By offering the centralized management system for KVM virtual machines, Red Hat, which already manages machines that use Microsoft's Hyper-V adds to its virtualization portfolio and strengthens its position in the market.

According to Red Hat management, by using Red Hat products, virtualization can be achieved for one-third or less of the price offered by the market leaders Citrix, Microsoft and VMware.

With no up front license, the cost for Red Hat is only $499 per year, per socket.

COUNTERFEITORS FINED

2009-11-12T10:57:00.000-05:00

By D.E.Levine

You'd think with a company as big and well known as Symantec the company would be exempt from the actions of counterfeiters. But it isn't so, and worse still, in a recent judgement the counterfeiters brought to justice were distributors.

In California the court awarded Symantec $18.6 million in two lawsuits against the distributors who were found guilty of selling counterfeit Symantec products.

During the trials, Symantec alleged copyright and trademark infringement and fraud against the two distributors.

TWEETING PAYS OFF

2009-11-12T08:41:00.000-05:00

By K.C. Bishoppe

More and more companies are striving to learn how to measure the actual value of social media tools. Most agree that social media technologies have viable business benefits but it's still difficult to calculate the actual ROI numbers.

Many businesses learned years ago that a brief, interesting video on YouTube could bring customers to their business. The marketing opportunities found on YouTube are phenomenal. And, the cost of doing such a video and posting it is relatively small.

With the popularity of Twitter businesses can send out a tweet internally to communicate with employees and externally to communicate with customers regarding sales, locations, special appearances and other items of interest.

In addition, by posting information on Facebook andn MySpace an even a larger customer base can be attracted.

The result of using social media for disseminating information is frequently a large cash revenue for a relatively small expenditure.

With the addition of a special url to the social media site, companies can also track the number of people who are following them via social media.

The difficult part is getting from activity measurements to actual value. Measuring value is extremely difficult.

One of the ways to accomplish the value measurement is by comparing the amount of time and money spent pre- and post - introduction of social media.

Calculation of social media expenditures is going to become increasingly important as companies invest more money in social media. Accurate figures are going to be necessary to justify the cost of social media.

Some companies have experienced increased customers and revenues through social media. Now those companies are asking is social media better than email and phone calls for communicating with customers and is it a less costly channel?

Only by quantifying social media figures can a company decide if it pays to develop proprietary systems that meet a firm's security standards for sensitive data of a financial and corporate nature.

802.11n STANDARD RATIFIED

2009-11-12T08:23:00.000-05:00

By M.S. Welles

The newly ratified standard named WLAN Enhancement for Higher Throughput adds support for video and other rich data streams while offering data rates of up to 600Mbit/sec. The rate is more than 10 times faster than the current wireless standards.

Seven years after work began on the 802.11n standard, the IEEE Standards Association voted to adopt it on September 11, 2009.

Realistically, many IT shops started using the standard which promotes wireless access points and related gear almost two years ago.

Pleased with the standard and its performance, those who have adopted it are already requiring that all new construction include 802.11n-based gear. Additionally, older access points will need to be upgraded to support the 802.11n standard.

Upgrading is expensive though and it's doubtful that while wireless and mobility are the future of IT it's dubious that wired networks will ever be eliminated from an environment,

Wired networks are frequently used for backbones running multiple 10 Gigabyte Ethernet connections that simply cannot be replaced with wireless for reasons of resiliency, bandwidth requirements, reliability and security.

WILL THERE BE A SERPENT IN APPLE'S GARDEN?

2009-11-09T22:45:00.000-05:00

By D.E.Levine

Apple's decision to incorporate an anti-malware component in its new Snow Leopard operating system has raised questions from security vendors regarding whether the decision might be seen as a challenge to malware developers and result in the development of more malicious files designed for the Mac.

Anti-virus vendors, Symantec, McAfee, Kaspersky Labs and Intego all question Apple's decision. Underlying the question is whether they really believe that malware developers will see the anti-malware component as a challenge or whether they see Apple as a real competitor in the anti-virus market.

APPLE INTRODUCES iTUNES HOME SHARING FEATURE

2009-11-09T10:35:00.000-05:00

By K.C.Bishoppe

A new feature in iTunes software known as Home Sharing allows iTunes owners with multiple PCs and Macs within the same network to listen to and copy music stored on other systems.

Home Sharing is easier for users to enable and use than the previous iTunes library sharing feature. Simply by using the enable/disable feature a user can decide whether to share content with other users on the network.

When a user's system enables Home Sharing, the software sees the first library and allows the user to either play the music over the network or copy it to the new system.

The software still has bugs that need to be fixed since the bugs prevent users from using the software optimally. Discussions on Apple forums show the bugs to be widespread and continuing.

Additionally, the Home Sharing software will only work on systems connected with the same iTunes accounts. Family members cannot transfer downloaded music between PCs if they have different iTunes accounts.

There's a way around this by transferring music to flash drives, transferring the music to the other system and then authorizing the system to play the music. Doing it this way is much more complicated and time consuming and won't be appreciated by users who are always looking for the simpler way to do things.

GOVERNMENT LACKS SUFFICIENT TRACKING OF SPENDING

2009-11-09T10:15:00.000-05:00

By M.S.Welles

Rep. Stephen Lynch (Mass.D) says that because the federal government is doing very little to track spending and repayments under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) it's necessary for the government to figure out some way to provide both transparency and accountability to American taxpayers.

Information about TARP funding is collected b y 25 government agencies but there is no central database for storing and retrieving the information.

Several representatives of technology vendors testified before the House Financial Services Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations telling the members of the subcommittee that there is existing technology that would permit the tracking and analyzing of the TARP funds.

Whether or not the testimony given will sway the government to authorize the expenditure of funds to obtain, install and train personnel on the recommended software, remains to be seen.