"Your phone is being wiretapped," Sophos warns of Trojan November 20, 2007
Sophos warns of a new Trojan horse "Troj/Dorf-AH," which has been spammed out attached to an email claiming that the sender is a private detective and that your phone calls are being recorded.
The "detective" claims that he will reveal who has paid for the surveillance at a later date, but in the meanwhile, the recipient should listen to a recording of a recent phone call(which is attached to the email as a password-protected RAR-archived MP3 file).
The MP3 file is not an audio file but a malicious executable program that installs further malware onto the victim's computer which it downloads from a dangerous website. Amongst these is a piece of scareware which displays a fake Windows Security Center alert and tries to convince the victim to purchase bogus security software.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, says "The first spam-run of this Trojan horse failed for the malware authors because they made fundamental mistakes in their code." It's not unusual that such mistake happens, and the authors simply made mistake, he comments. "Now their emails are capable of infecting the unwary, while posing as a private investigator," he added.
Sesame Street's Web Site Operations to move to Equinix Data Center November 16, 2007
Equinix, the provider of network-neutral data centers, announced that Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organization behind Sesame Street, has entered into an agreement with Equinix to collocate its Web site operations. Sesame Workshop will begin operating in one of Equinix's four New York area Internet Business Exchange centers for greater performance, reliability, and scalability.
Within Equinix's New York area hub, Sesame Workshop will have direct access to the more than 130 carriers, ISPs and network service providers operating within the center. By directly interconnecting with this aggregation of networks in a single location, rather than connecting to them in multiple, disparate locations and over long distances, Sesame Workshop will be able to reduce bottlenecks in the path between content and end-users, providing improved performance levels. This network-rich environment also gives Sesame Workshop the greatest amount of flexibility in scaling its Web operations, as well as the ability to reduce network interconnection costs.
"Content providers, such as Sesame Workshop, are now seeing that they can more effectively manage their ever-growing Web operations by moving operations to Equinix's centers, where they can leverage the highest quality centers and access to the largest aggregation of networks," said Margie Backaus, chief business officer of Equinix.
Sesame Workshop operates five interactive Web properties for its top educational programs.
Vaau Unveils new Enterprise Role Management software November 16, 2007
Vaau announced the launch of RBACx 4.0, the newest solution in its line of complete role management and identity compliance software at Gartner Identity&Access Management Summit(IAM) 2007. RBACx 4.0 provides an integrated set of capabilities that allows customers to better manage the interrelationships between digital identities, the IT infrastructure and critical business processes.
Users of RBACx 4.0 can expect enhanced features across all three primary areas of Vaau's RBACx platform: identity warehousing, enterprise role engineering and management, and identity certification and auditing.
RBACx 4.0 has a unified Web-based GUI, which is more intuitive and improves the usability of the application, and works both for the end-user and administrator functions. Additional components include graphical dashboards for all the above three areas of solution's modules.
RBACx 4.0 also offers an enhanced workflow engine to manage the lifecycle of roles. This new workflow engine provides the ability to design various workflow processes and also allows users to call external functions from the workflow. The newly introduced is role versioning capability, which creates a complete snapshot of the role when a major change is made to the role or can be triggered on demand.
Also enhanced is an ability to perform certifications at the instance or server level of a resource, advanced drill down capabilities for users, and advanced filtering and searching capabilities on the certification interface.
Sophos research shows 70 percent of Businesses Concerned about Data Leakage via Email November 16, 2007
Sophos revealed that 70 percent of businesses are concerned about sensitive material falling into the wrong hands as a result of data leakage via email. A further 50 percent of employees admit to having accidentally sent an embarrassing or sensitive email to the wrong person from the workplace, demonstrating that email leakage is a very real concern.
Sophos notes that it can potentially cause corporate embarrassment, compliance breaches and the loss of business critical information. There can also be a significant financial impact from data such as customer lists, engineering information, and financial statements falling into the wrong hands, Sophos notes.
To combat the risk of leaked information, Sophos recommends that companies install an email security solution that enables them to scan messages for sensitive data and keywords, and that uses encryption to ensure that business critical emails are sent securely.
"The vast majority of data leakage via email are purely accidental, so companies that put a solid solution and security policy in place, and those that educate employees on responsible email use, will mitigate the risk and dramatically reduce the possibility of critical data loss," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.
Sophos' Email Appliances add data leakage prevention November 13, 2007
Sophos added to its Email Appliances, ES1000 and ES4000, new functionality. It includes data leakage prevention, with which administrators can prevent leakage of confidential information via email by creating policies to managing keyword lists, strings and attachment file types.
With Wizard-based policy, administrators can easily configure a comprehensive set of inbound and outbound rules according to an organizations' established Acceptable Use Policies.
Sun to acquire ERM vendor Vaau November 13, 2007
Sun Microsystems announced that it has agreed to acquire Enterprise Role Management(ERM) vendor Vaau. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Headquartered in California, Vaau offers an integrated user-management solution that includes role engineering, role management, and identity compliance. Vaau's flagship solution, RBACx, allows enterprises to manage the lifecycle of identities from role definition to the ongoing and continuous process of auditing and certifying users' accessibility rights to company resources and information.
Combined with the provisioning and identity auditing capabilities of Sun's identity management portfolio, powered by the Solaris 10 OS, organizations can streamline the provisioning process and reduce the cost of auditing.
The transaction is expected to be completed during Sun's fiscal third quarter 2008, which begins on December 31, 2007.
HP to Acquire Data-Support Company 12 November, 2007
HP announced that it agreed to acquire EYP Mission Critical Facilities, a consulting company specializing in strategic technology planning, design and operations support for large-scale data centers. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Headquartered in New York, EYP MCF has approximately 350 employees. The firm provides mission-critical services to enterprises around the world in business sectors including financial services, telecommunications, technology, broadcast, manufacturing and healthcare, as well as federal, state and county government agencies.
By acquiring EYP MCF, HP will be better able to help customers to transform their data centers, optimize energy efficiency and position them for future business growth.
The transaction is expected to be completed within HP's first fiscal quarter.
More trick than treat? Sophos warns Halloween spam 19 October, 2007
Sophos indentified a Halloween spam, a spam email campaign that tries to lure recipients into handing over a wide range of personal information with the promise of a $250 gift card.
Clicking on links contained in the email takes computer users to a website containing Halloween imagery, named "Count Dracula."
The website asks for a large amount of personal information including email addresses, postal addresses, phone numbers and date of birth, before presenting a stream of questionnaires on subjects as diverse as student loans, gender and cigarette smoking.
"It's not immediately obvious whether this spam is being sent to commit identity theft or whether it's market research gone mad. If you visit the site and give it your personal information the chances are that you will be bombarded with unwanted junk email until hell freezes over," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "There's no evidence to reassure people that they will really receive a gift card - and as the people behind this website have already proven themselves prepared to send unsolicited spam, this is probably more of a trick than a treat."
Microsoft, Dassault Systemes Launch Virtual Earth -3DVIA October 18, 2007
Microsoft has teamed up with Dassault Systemes to launch "Virtual Earth -3DVIA." This free online application, developed by Dassault Systemes, allows consumers to imagine and create realistic 3-D models, such as of buildings and structures, then share them through Virtual Earth and online communities.
Virtual Earth -3DVIA users can easily design a 3-D model of their house, favorite building or any structure, then select from different visualization options, textures and colors to give their 3-D model a style of its own. Users can then upload their 3-D models to Virtual Earth, specifying an address or neighborhood so they can experience the model within a real-life context. Furthermore, users can add their 3-D model to collections, and share it with friends and colleagues through Web communities.
Virtual Earth -3DVIA is being released as a technology preview to allow community feedback before the next release of the product. It's available here.
iRobot Awarded $8.8 Million U.S. Military Order for PackBot Robots October 16, 2007
iRobot announced it received a delivery order totaling $8.8 million from the U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation (PEO STRI).
This order for 40 iRobot PackBot robots, plus spare parts and equipment, brings total orders to date from PEO STRI to $45 million. PEO STRI placed this order for a range of iRobot systems, including PackBot with ICx Fido Kit as well as the Army's first orders for the PackBot 510 robot and more than 300 new high-performance radios that will be retrofitted onto existing iRobot PackBots in theater. These radios increase the operational range and flexibility of the PackBot systems to achieve mission success in a wider range of tactical environments than previously possible.
The robots will ship with iRobot's new game-style hand controllers for faster training and easier operation in the field.
iRobot expects to complete delivery by the end of June 2008.
IBM, Linden Lab to collaborate on 3D Internet October 10, 2007
IBM and Linden Lab announced that they will collaborate on the 3D internet. They will work with a broad community of partners to drive open standards and interoperablity to enable avatars-- the online persona of visitors to these online worlds-- to move from one virtual world to another with ease, much like you can move from one website to another on the Internet today.
Users could maintain the same "avatar" name, appearance and other important attributes such as digital assets, identity certificates, for multiple worlds.
Also, IBM and Linden Lab plan to work together on issues concerning the integration of virtual worlds with the current Web; driving security-rich transactions of virtual goods and services; working with the industry to enable interoperability between various virtual worlds; and building more stability and high quality of service into virtual world platforms.
As more enterprises and consumers explore the 3D Internet, the ecosystem of
virtual world hosts, application providers, and IT vendors need to offer a
variety of standards-based solutions in order to meet end user requirements.
To support this, IBM and Linden Lab are committed to exploring the
interoperability of virtual world platforms and technologies, and plan to
work with industry-wide efforts to further expand the capabilities of virtual worlds.
Gartner announces Top 10 strategic technologies for 2008
October 9, 2007
Gartner announced the Top 10 strategic technologies for 2008. The research company defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Here're the Top 10 and a few comments from Gartner analysts:
Green IT. The focus of Green IT will accelerate and expand in 2008. Regulations are multiplying and have the potential to seriously constrain companies in building data centers. Scheduling decisions for workloads on servers will begin to consider power efficiency as a key placement attribute.
Unified Communications. Today, 20 percent of the installed base with PBX has migrated to IP telephony, but more than 80 percent are already doing trials of some form. Gartner analysts expect the next three years to be the point at which the majority of companies implement this.
Business Process Modeling. Top-level process services must be defined jointly by a set of roles (which include enterprise architects, senior developers, process architects and/or process analysts). The strategic imperative for 2008 is to bring these groups together. Gartner expects BPM suites to fill a critical role as a compliment to SOA development.
Metadata Management. Through 2010, organizations implementing both customer data integration and product integration and product information management will link these master data management initiatives as part of an overall enterprise information management strategy.
Virtualization 2.0. Virtualization plus service-level, policy-based automation constitutes an RTI.
Mashup & Composite Apps. By 2010, Web mashups will be the dominant model (80 percent) for the creation of composite enterprise applications. Mashup technologies will evolve significantly over the next five years.
Web Platform & WOA. SaaS is becoming a viable option in more markets and companies must evaluate where service based delivery may provide value in 2008-2010. Companies must also look beyond SaaS to examine how Web platforms will impact their business in 3-5 years.
Computing Fabric. A computing fabric is the evolution of server design beyond the interim stage, blade servers, that exists today. The next step in this progression is the introduction of technology to allow several blades to be merged operationally over the fabric, operating as a larger single system image that is the sum of the components from those blades. The fabric-based server of the future will treat memory, processors, and I/O cards as components in a pool, combining and recombining them into particular arrangements to suits the owner's needs.
Real World Web. It is used in real-time based on the real world situation, not prepared in advance for consumption at specific times or researched after the events have occurred. For example in navigation, a printed list of directions from the Web do not react to changes, but a GPS navigation unit provides real-time directions that react to events and movements; the latter case is akin to the real-world Web of augmented reality.
Social Software. Through 2010, the enterprise Web 2.0 product environment will experience considerable flux with continued product innovation and new entrants. Nevertheless social software technologies will increasingly be brought into the enterprise to augment traditional collaboration.
UC Berkeley's courses available on YouTube October 3, 2007
The University of California, Berkeley's courses are now available on YouTube. Visitors can view more than 300 hours of the schools' entire videotaped courses and events, free of charge.
Topics range of the courses varies from bioengineering, to peace and conflict studies, to one of the most popular campus course, "Physics and Future Presidents." The school will continue to expand its offerings.
UC Berkeley launched its audio podcast program in 2006. In 2007, the program has delivered 15 courses.
http://www.youtube.com/ucberkeley
Microsoft unveils Free Online Service September 30, 2007
Microsoft unveiled a free online service, Office Live Workspace, which lets people access their documents online and share their work with others.
Users can organize documents and projects for work, school and home online, and work on them from almost any computer, even one not connected to the company or school network. They can save more than 1,000 Microsoft Office documents to one place online and access them via the web.
Also, users can work collaboratively on a project with others in a password-protected, invitation-only online workspace, helping to eliminate version-control challenges when e-mailing drafts to multiple people. Collaborators who don't have a desktop version of Microsoft Office software can still view and comment on the document in a browser.
New Yahoo! Search helps find information in one search October 2, 2007
Yahoo! Search now has a new feature, Search Assist, which gives an user real-time query suggestions as well as related topics and concepts. They are especially valuable when a person is searching on an unfamiliar topic.
Search Assist senses when a consumer need help with their search and opens a drop down menu of suggestions and related concepts that enables further exploration around their search topic. You can either appear or disapper the Assist option by your choice.
Integrated with video, audio and photos directly into the search results, Search Assist allows consumers to get their answer --whether it's a Web link, photo, video or music clip --in one search.
Also provided is Search Shortcuts, which help consumers save time when searching for popular categories such as events, music, movies, travel, sports, health, shopping, businesses and restaurants. Shortcuts integrate ratings and reviews, photos, official websites, and other useful information.
iRobot Unveils gutter-cleaner and virtual communication robots September 27, 2007
iRobot, a marker of vacuum cleaner Roomba, announced the Looj gutter-cleaner
robot and the Connect virtual visiting robot.
The Looj cleans an entire stretch of gutter from one location, reducing the
number of times a ladder must be repositioned and climbed during gutter
cleaning. The 2.25-inch high Looj drives easily under gutter straps
propelled by a three-stage auger that dislodges and sweeps out dirt, leaves
and other debris that can cause costly water damage, overspills and ice
dams.
It also features a detachable handle that doubles as a wireless remote
control, providing full control of the robot while cleaning.
The Looj is available in the fourth quarter of 2007 in the US.
The Connect links easily to a home wireless network and provides
VoIP-quality video and two way audio communications with a remote person. It
features a top-mounted, full tilt-and-zoom video camera, speaker, microphone
and headlight to enable users to see, hear and interact with people in the
home as if there in person.
The Connect is operated via included Connect software, enabling remote users
to "call" and drive the Connect around the home using a computer keyboard,
mouse or joystick.
The product will be available in early 2008 under $500.
Sophos releases PureMessage for Microsoft
Exchange 3.0 September 19, 2007
Sophos released PureMessage for Microsoft Exchange 3.0, which protects the
email servers of organizations running Microsoft Exchange 2007 and 64 bit
Windows Server 2003. The new version enhanced the ability to define and
enforce email content policies across multiple servers.
PureMessage can apply different policies and configuration options to
inbound, outbound and internal email, with full integration and
synchronization with Active Directory. In addition, for business using
PureMessage on multiple servers, administrators can monitor, configure and
enforce policies across all servers from a single console.
Furthermore, reports and graphical charts of the dashboard data can be
generated to highlight trend and to identify any issues.
Yahoo! to acquire Zimbra
September 17, 2007
Yahoo! announced today that it has agreed to acquire Zimbra, a provider of
email and collaboration software, for $350 million.
The acquisition of Zimbra will help Yahoo! to expand its presence in
universities, businesses and through ISPs by enabling organizations to host
e-mail, while remaining their own domain.
Zimbra offers rich, Ajax-based e-mail, calendar, and contact management
features that can be used both on and offline. Their open platform enhances
the user experience by enabling creative mash-ups called Zimlets that tie in
valuable Web services to e-mail, and can be tailored to fit the needs of
every customer.
Following the acquisition, Zimbra will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Yahoo!. The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of
2007.
Sophos appoints Microsoft director
July 19, 2007
On July 16th, Sophos appointed Andrew Bradshaw, a mid-market and partner
director at Microsoft, as vice president of UK sales and marketing.
Bradshaw was responsible for revenue growth across 5,000 customers and 1,000
key partners, according to Sophos.
Prior to that, Bradshaw spent five years in sales divisions at Hewlett Packard.
Worm targets Harry Potter fans
June 30, 2007
Sophos warns Harry Potter fans not to open an email which claims to include a copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," JK Rowling's last book of the series to be released on July 21st.
A W32/Hairy-A worm automatically infects a PC when users plug-in USB drives. If the users allow them to auto-run, they will see a file called "HarryPotter-TheDeathlyHallows.doc," which includes one sentence "Harry Potter is dead."
This is not the end however.
The worm then looks for other removable drives to infect. After infecting Windows computers, the worm creates a number of new users, namely Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, the main characters of the book.
When logged in as one of these users, the following message appears:
"read and repent/the end is near/repent from your evil ways O Ye folks/lest you burn in hell...JK Rowling especially."
In addition, everytime infected users open Internet Explorer, they will find their start page has been redirected to an Amazon.com web page selling a spoof book entitled "Harry Putter and the Chamber of Cheesecakes".
Beware of bogus MS security patch, warns Sophos
June 29, 2007
Sophos warned of a widespread attempt to infect email users by sending them a warning about a bogus Microsoft security patch, and advised not to download Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-0065.
The emails, titled "Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-0065," pretend to come from Microsoft, and claim that a zero-day vulnerbility has been discovered in the Microsoft Outlook email program. They go on to warn recipients that "more than 100,000 machines" have been exploited via the vulnerability in order to promote medications such as Viagra and Cialis.
In the mail, users are encouraged to download a patch which, it is claimed, will fix the problem and prevent them from becoming attacked by hackers.
However, clicking on the link contained inside the email doesn't take users to the legitimate Microsoft's website but one of many compromised websites hosting a Trojan horse.
Sophos detect the Trojan as Mal/Behav-112.
Email examples, seen by Sophos security experts, contained the recipient's full name and the company they work for, in an attempt to lull users into a false sense of security.
Here is a sample article that I wrote about Hitotsubashi's Business School, where all the classes are conducted in English.
Reinventing a Business School: Hitotsubashi's Challenge
The Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy (ICS) at Hitotsubashi University isn't your ordinary business school.
Located in Kanda Hitotsubashi, the central business district of Tokyo, with the latest IT capabilities, open lounges, an indoor athletic facility, restaurant and cafeteria, you wouldn't think that it's a traditional national university with over 125 years of history. Modern arts of Paris on one floor, works of Joan Miro on another, and a vivid colored exotic folk craft article on yet another, you might take this place for a modern museum. This is where ICS was opened in April of 2000 with grand ambitions. Its four courses include an MBA program in International Business Strategy (IBS), the first full-time MBA course offered by a Japanese national university.
IBS is designed to give those, with more than three years work experience, an intensive, highly participative program to develop specialists with a global perspective.
One Bridge
As the university name, Hitotsubashi, (which literally means one bridge) indicates, the ICS program serves as "the bridge" between "the best of two worlds."- That is, an eastern perspective as well as a western one, an old economy as well as a new one, and practical experience as well as theory. ICS also serves as "the bridge" to the company of your choice or your dream company. ICS offers you the inside track at the time of your placement, introducing you to one of the top and highly influential people in the organization.
Captains of Innovation
Throughout its history, Hitotsubashi University has provided the business world with over 60,000 "Captains of Industry" or business leaders with an international perspective. To put it another way, ICS aims to create "Captains of Innovation." In today's world of constant change, you, as a leader, are demanded to think "out-of-the-box," and to pursue the cutting edge. ICS will give you the ideas and tools you need to enhance your performance in this endeavor.
Unique Courses
There are many courses at IBS which will do just that. One of the most unique and most popular at IBS is "Global Citizenship." In this adventure program, you interact with the homeless, mentally handicapped children, and physically handicapped people, and develop a sense of a company's social responsibility. Other courses include company visits to Sony, Toyota, NTT DoCoMo, and Morgan Stanley; field research projects with Nestle Japan, Uniqlo, Hitachi, and IBM; and sports activities, in addition to the original, fundamental academic courses.
This is probably the fun part of the first year, but as an IBS student, you're required to take a minimum of 60 credits, for which IBS has gained a reputation as a "tougher than Harvard Business School."
If you're fortunate enough to get through the first year, you would then have the option of custom-designing your second-year curriculum, which should give you a real-business situation to apply what you've learned during the previous year. For example, starting up a new venture, "shadowing" prominent CEOs, participating in a company internship program (fall Internship 2003 sponsors included Accenture Korea, IBM Business Consulting, Lehman Brothers, GE Real Estate, Sony, and Toyota Motor), an overseas exchange program (among the partner schools are London Business School, Darden School at Virginia, Hass School of Business at UC Berkeley, Anderson School at UCLA and Peter Drucker School at Claremont), or a field study, to name just a few.
Small Groups
IBS places strong emphasis on small group learning or activities. Accordingly, the number of students enrolled each year has been less than 50 per year, comprised of approximately 15 nationalities. This makes for a student/faculty ration of approximately three-to-one, which is an advantage you won't find anywhere else.
It's virtually impossible, at IBS, to go through the program without getting to know the faculty members and classmates.
An academic advisor, to whom no more than four students are assigned, will supervise your graduation requirement thesis, give you advice, as your "mentor for life," in course planning, and often act as "go-between" between you and recruiters in job-hunting, taking advantage of their personal contacts as well as Hitotsubashi University's huge alumni network.
It's also a great opportunity for networking for the future. Because IBS courses involve highly interactive bonding, in-class activities, you'll be sure to leave IBS with a strong network of future business leaders, which should last a lifetime.
Faculty Members
What makes the support in landing students' jobs possible is the faculty members' strong connections to the business world.
The courses at IBS are taught exclusively in English by leading experts from the world's top business schools, such as Harvard, Stanford and Columbia. Most of these
have real-world work experience in consulting firms, investment banks, advertising agencies and other firms, such as McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, and Merrill Lynch.
The world's sharpest business thinkers provide you with the knowledge and framework necessary to take the lead in your organization, and train you to become a specialist. The IBS program puts all that in your hands.
What Lies Ahead
Not surprisingly, IBS graduates are successful in finding employment in the organizations of their choice. The school has had only two graduating classes so far, and its alumni have begun to spread across the world. Their fields vary from consulting to manufacturing. Among the major employers are Accenture, Roland Berger, Canon, NTT DoCoMo Inc., Pfizer, and Honda.
Desirable Location
Located in the heart of Tokyo, just two blocks from the Imperial Palace, within healthy walking distance to the Ohtemachi section of central Tokyo, you will have access to almost all of the major global companies as potential employers. IBS takes advantage of this desirable location, and invites prominent business leaders as guest speakers.
Tuition
And how much does all this cost? It's a surprisingly low \1.33m for two years, which is approximately one-fifth of that of leading business schools in the U.S. or Europe. Taking advantage of its status as a national university, with 80 percent of funding coming from the government, IBS offers you a luxurious and rich learning environment at a relatively low cost.
If you're a non-Japanese national, a limited number of scholarships are available, ranging from \1m to \3m for the 2002-2003 academic year. Housing assistance is also available and dormitories are available at a very reasonable rate.
This is the business school that will change your view of the international business world.
