Data and Telecom
Companies’ communications strategies must be agile in a rapidly evolving market
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January 31, 2008
The Move to Encryption Gathers Steam
An outsider is likely to take the news that IBM is moving to whole-disk encryption across its entire Big Blue universe in one of two ways: As further evidence that the technology has arrived, or with... More >
Hopefully, Execs Aren't at Sea as Phishers Go Whaling
The names given to various Internet scams are amusing. They also are important. Common sense says that the more precisely a threat is defined, the more effective technical countermeasures will emerge... More >
January 30, 2008
Next Steps for Cable: Inter-Operator Networking and DOCSIS 3.0
The cable television industry, for all the deserved and underserved heat it takes in the media and among customers (and ex-customers), does a good job of exploiting its opportunities. In the old days... More >
Firewalls Expand from the Perimeter to Virtual Machines and Web Apps
The narrative in the security sector is that the onslaught of attacks over the past few years forced a proactive tightening of the perimeter. Firewalls are a main tool in this effort. Now, the thinki... More >
January 29, 2008
Business VoIP Growing -- With Even Better Days Ahead
Enterprises want to have their cake and eat it too. Or, to be a bit more specific, they want VoIP deployments that work well, but they don't want to invest the money in tools necessary to ensure that... More >
Precocious Storm Turns One
To non-experts -- and, perhaps to experts as well -- it seems that all security vulnerabilities are somehow related. Peel the onion deeply enough, and viruses, worms, botnets, phishing, pharming, Tro... More >
January 28, 2008
Financial Jitters Lead to Slow Start for the 700 MHz Spectrum Auction
After much anticipation, the bidding for wireless spectrum in the 700 Megahertz spectrum started last week. According to this Dow Jones story posted at CNN Money , the initial action has been less t... More >
Sprint's Difficulties Make Path to WiMax More Difficult
There is a lot for WiMax proponents to be pessimistic about in this Maravedis report on broadband wireless access technologies, especially when it is considered in the broader context of something ... More >
January 25, 2008
The Roiling Security Sector: M&As, R&D and Moving Targets
This interesting ZDNet blog reports on a recent Symantec analysts' call. Larry Dignan cuts though a lot of the corporate-speak from the security vendor's COO to get to the main point: The company's ... More >
January 24, 2008
Phones on a Plane
Ever since the advent of Wi-Fi and the explosion in the number of cell phones, there has been significant interest in -- and concerns about -- the use of mobile devices on airplanes. The chatter sl... More >
January 23, 2008
Pharming Attacks, Already a Worry, Grow More Alarming
The biggest fear is stealthy dangers that create problems without warning and impact even those who are being reasonably careful. A study by security firm Sophos says dangerous Web pages -- the piec... More >
OpenID Grows as Questions Linger
One key to the continuing expansion of the commercial Internet is simplification. As peoples' lives move online, they accumulate too many passwords and user names to remember. In that context, the an... More >
January 22, 2008
Banking on Multi-Factor Authentication
As the name implies, multi-factor authentication is the use of more than one process to ensure the person using a system or device is authorized. While that's a workable overview, this SC News revie... More >
Demanding Apps Push Fuel Cell, Battery Innovation
Mobile devices that run demanding multimedia applications tend to run out of steam quickly. Last week, according to ZDNet, the journal Nature Nanotechnology published research from Stanford Unive... More >
January 21, 2008
UMPCs: The Promise -- and the Uncertainty -- Remain
The ultra mobile personal computer (UMPC) category has not shaken off the identity crisis it experienced two years ago when it launched. The challenge was -- and is -- staking out a spot halfway betw... More >
January 18, 2008
VoIP Security Still Falling Short
It may be a bit late in the month to still be posting "year ahead"-type stories, but the content of this Help Net Security piece on the security threats facing VoIP makes it worthwhile. The bottom ... More >
Note to IT: Here Come the Social Networks
Social networking to date has been, of course, largely the province of teenagers. IM once was as well, remember, and social networking may be on the verge of following it into the enterprise. ... More >
January 17, 2008
Interesting Tidbits -- and a Bit of Good News -- on the Insider Threat
Enterprising reporters unearthed two interesting items this week. The Times of in the UK ran a story on a patent application filed in the U.S. by Microsoft for technology that will wirelessly trac... More >
UC: Lots of Risks, Lots of Steps and Lots of Rewards
Unified communications (UC) can be an organization-altering platform. There are no short cuts, however, and nothing comes for free. An undertaking with a high potential reward clearly means that ther... More >
January 16, 2008
HSDPA -- 3.5G -- Makes Progress Worldwide
There is certain to be confusion when emerging and future technologies are discussed. In the case of mobility, at least some of the challenge stems from the labels being used. The two most popular la... More >
Harmful or Not, iPhone Trojan Points to Danger
A significant cottage industry has sprung up among experts debating whether Apple's iPhone should be sanctioned by IT departments for use in the enterprise. Last week, various sites and publications ... More >
January 15, 2008
IPTV Growing Quickly, and That's Good News for Business
Evidence keeps rolling in that suggests the network infrastructures on which business and consumer communications rely are in flux and transition . Last week, IMS Research released a report that h... More >
It's Not Exciting, but Neglecting Printer Security is Dangerous
The growing number of networked printers scattered like confetti across an organization periodically get the attention of IT staffs. This is one of those times. The Register says that a new e... More >
January 14, 2008
Pushed by Other Approaches, IMS Enters a Critical Year
Everyone agrees that it is imperative to find the best way to bridge networks so that applications can flow seamlessly across all delivery platforms. People must be able to use the same applications ... More >
January 11, 2008
Bright Forecast for 2008: Cable and Telcos to Continue Battling
The competition between cable and telephone companies continues to accelerate, and business and residential users continue to be the big winners. While this is not a new trend , it is comforting to ... More >
January 10, 2008
In the World of Botnets, Three Isn't a Charm
Bad things happen in threes. First there was the Storm botnet, then Celebrity and now -- according to i nternetnews.com -- Nugache. That order of appearance may not be entirely accurate, h... More >
Databases, aka Big Fat Targets
Databases hold the crown jewels of any organization -- information about customers, vendors, employees and just about everything else -- and thus are prime targets of hackers and dishonest and/or gre... More >
January 9, 2008
Sprint's Move Away from WiMax: Never Mind
Sprint Nextel certainly isn't acting like a company that is backing away from WiMax. At the Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas, the company made several announcements related to... More >
The Hazy World of Ethical Hacking
The use of the term "hacker" to denote a computer expert with bad intentions is a misnomer. A hacker is anyone with a high level of computer expertise, no matter how he or she uses it. Hackers come i... More >
No Femtocell Standard Doesn't Mean No Femtocells
Get ready for femtocells. Telephony Online reports that Samsung's much-publicized trial with Sprint Nextel last year was but one of several the vendor has undertaken in North America. A Samsung e... More >
January 8, 2008
Attention to Wi-Fi Security Isn't Increasing
This Internet News report about a simulated attack on a Wi-Fi network conducted by Indiana University offers good news and bad. The bad news is that the researchers found it would be possibl... More >
January 7, 2008
Fiber and Copper Will Cooperate, Compete
This comprehensive and readable summary at Converge! Network Digest , written by Ikanos' vice president of marketing for the access products group, summarizes the physical layer networking landsca... More >
The Chilling, Thrilling World of Web 2.0
IT-Analysis has a very good overview of Web 2.0 security. While there is nothing completely new in the piece, it is an excellent synthesis of why this expansive redefinition of the Web is rife with ... More >
January 4, 2008
Could Site-Specific Browsers Secure Online Transactions?
Imagine somebody who spends a majority of his or her television time glued to one channel. (We know such folks.) Imagine, further, that the minimal time spent on other channels creates tremendous ins... More >
January 3, 2008
An Industry Sector Aimed at Fighting Botnets Emerges
The intense concern -- some would call it fear -- engendered by botnets in general and the Storm botnet in particular is giving rise to a security sector expressly aimed at this threat. Botn... More >
Though Aimed at Consumers, HD and DTV Matter to Business
When it comes to IP-based networks' ability to simultaneously carry many different services and applications, the mix matters -- phone services demand more exacting quality of service (QoS) than e-ma... More >
January 2, 2008
Encryption, Now More than Ever
It's good to know that at least one positive thing came from the Veterans Administration laptop disaster . The high-profile case, in which about 26.5 million veterans' records were exposed via a los... More >
