Computerworld articles from September 2003

Computerworld archives from September 2003

IT budget boosts seen in 2004: security, Web services and CRM among areas of increased spending.(Industry Overview)
September 1, 2003... Improved corporate revenue and pent-up demand for long-delayed technology projects are expected to contribute to a 3% to 5% increase in overall IT spending next year, according to several industry researchers. And as IT managers enter the...

IBM pushes data center provisioning: like HP and Sun, to offer software to control computing resources.(Resource Optimization)
September 1, 2003... Looking to trump offerings from Hewlett-Packard Co. and Sun Microsystems Inc., IBM this month plans to begin rolling out a set of intelligent system-provisioning tools that can track the use of mainframes, servers and storage devices and...

Blaster worm linked to severity of blackout: exposure of communications flaws heightens concerns about security of the U.S. power grid.
September 1, 2003... The W32.Blaster worm may have contributed to the cascading effect of the Aug. 14 blackout, government and industry experts revealed last week. On the day of the blackout, Blaster degraded the performance of several communications lines...

Suspect arrested for Blaster variant.(At Deadline)
September 1, 2003... The FBI arrested a Minnesota teenager who is suspected of developing a copycat variant of the W32.Blaster worm, which targets a security hole in Windows. Jeffrey Lee Parson, 18, of Hopkins, Minn., was being held on one count of intentionally...

Boeing, IBM sign voice IT contract.(At Deadline)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... IBM said it has won a three-year contract worth an estimated $160 million to manage The Boeing Co.'s worldwide voice communications network. As part of the deal, IBM and Verizon Communications will install a new voice management system for...

Lockheed Martin wins FBI IT deal.(At Deadline)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Lockheed Martin Corp. in Bethesda, Md., said it has been awarded a five-year, $140 million contract to be the systems integrator on the FBI's Technology Infusion Program. The project is part of a plan by the FBI to develop a new enterprisewide...

Sun Microsystems Inc. and Siebel Systems Inc. this week plan to announce a joint development deal aimed.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC. and SIEBEL SYSTEMS INC. this week plan to announce a joint development deal aimed at optimizing the performance of Siebel's CRM software on Sun Solaris servers.

Power grid IT contract up for bid.(News)
September 1, 2003... WASHINGTON The electric power industry this week plans to take the first step in a $100 billion modernization program by requesting bids for a contract to develop an advanced modeling and simulation system capable of advising utilities on...

Use of RFID raises privacy concerns: 'smart' tags could profile consumers, critics contend.(News)
September 1, 2003... PRIVACY CONCERNS related to the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology got an airing at a recent California state legislative hearing. RFID is a nascent technology that's expected to eventually replace bar codes. It uses...

Inadequate systems play role in Columbia disaster, report finds: agency failed to integrate critical data.(according to Columbia Accident Investigation Board ()(news)
September 1, 2003... Spaceflight is an inherently risky business, but the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's reliance on e-mail and a flimsy spreadsheet application helped turn risk into disaster. That's one of the main conclusions of last week's...

CA agrees to settle class-action suits.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Computer Associates International Inc. said it has agreed to settle three class-action lawsuits that were filed five years ago over its accounting practices. CA will take a pretax charge of $144 million during its current quarter to cover the...

Siebel adopts new governance rules.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Siebel Systems Inc. in San Mateo, Calif., plans to make several corporate governance changes as part of an agreement to settle an excessive-compensation lawsuit filed last year by the Teachers' Retirement System of Louisiana. Among other steps,...

Amazon targets e-mail spoofers.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Amazon.com Inc. said it has filed 11 lawsuits against online marketers in the U.S. and Canada, claiming that they illegally used its name in spare e-mail. One of the alleged e-mail forgers has agreed to a settlement, it added. The Seattle-based...

Silicon Grpahics Inc.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... SILICON GRAPHICS INC. said it will cut 600 more jobs, reducing its workforce to a total of 3,000 employees....

Sun Microsystems Inc. and Hitachi Ltd. extended through 2006 a deal under which Sun resells Hitachi-made.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC. and HITACHI LTD. extended through 2006 a deal under which Sun resells Hitachi-made storage devices.

Sun disputes claim that Java handhelds ...(On The Mark)
September 1, 2003... ... lack the security of other lava systems [QuickLink 40320]. Tim Lindholm, CTO of Sun's consumer and mobile systems group, acknowledges that a Java-ready cell phone doesn't have everything in your desktop's Java virtual machine. But to imply...

PeopleSoft renews its anti-Oracle refund offer.(News)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... PeopleSoft Inc. last week said it has reinstated a refund offer that would entitle buyers of its business applications to get their money back, and more, if the company is bought out and the new owner discontinues PeopleSoft products. The...

Users turn to automated patch management tools: Blaster, other worms highlight need for protection.(News)(such as one from Ecora Software Inc., Shavlik Technologies L.L.C. and others)
September 1, 2003... HOPING to better protect themselves against escalating security threats such as the W32.Blaster worm, user companies are taking a fresh look at automated patch management technologies. These products, which are available from a growing...

Corrections.(News)(Correction Notice)
September 1, 2003... The Hands On Reviews feature in our Aug. 25 Technology section ("Handhelds Try to Do It All") incorrectly listed a secure digital expansion slot as one of the features built into Handspring Inc.'s Tree 300 handhold device. The overall grade and...

Network Associates adds low-end management and security tools: pricing about half the cost of Sniffer line.(News)(Netasyst Network Analyzer)
September 1, 2003... Network Associates Inc. last week announced network and security management software for small and midsize users, saying that the products top out in price at about half of the $12,000 starting cost for its enterprise-class Sniffer tools. ...

Military unit expands use of monitoring tools to detect performance glitches: Transcom measures application response times with robotic probes.(Application Monitoring)
September 1, 2003... The U.S. military's unified transportation unit is expanding a deployment of network management tools and robotic PCs that monitor end-user experiences on the global system used to make sure that troops, weapons and supplies arrive on time and...

Dell to release network management software: tools are free for users of its switches.(News )(OpenManage Network Manager)
September 1, 2003... Dell Inc. this week will announce a set of network management tools that it plans to offer at no extra cost to users of its PowerConnect line of switches. The OpenManage Network Manager software is designed to help IT staffers centralize...

Overseer calls for changes at MCI ...(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... WorldCom Inc.'s court-appointed monitor filed a report recommending 78 corporate governance changes at the company, which now does business under its MCI brand name. Included is a separation of the chairman and CEO jobs now both held by Michael...

... While Oklahoma charges company.
September 1, 2003... Meanwhile, Oklahoma's attorney general filed 15 felony charges against MCI and six of its former executives over the accounting scandal that led to its bankruptcy filing. MCI said it will cooperate but claimed that pursuing the case would...

Attack takes down SCO's Web site.
September 1, 2003... The SCO Group Inc.'s Web site was inaccessible from Aug. 22 through Aug. 25 because of a denial-of-service attack, the second attack launched against the Lindon, Utah-based company since May. The site was also offline fur about 10 hours on Aug....

MIT.(Short Takes)
September 1, 2003... MIT confirmed that one of its Web sites was taken off-line after hackers overwrote all of the site's files....

Comdisco Holding Co. in Rosemont, Ill., plans to sell the assets of its U.S. IT equipment.(Short Takes)
September 1, 2003... COMDISCO HOLDING CO. in Rosemont, Ill., plans to sell the assets of its U.S. IT equipment leasing business to BAY4 CAPITAL PARTNERS LLC in Tampa, Fla.

First U.S. automated alert net goes live: RAINS-Net a model for possible national system, creators say.(News)
September 1, 2003... AFTER 16 months of development and testing, a public/private security partnership based in Oregon has activated what's being described as the nation's first fully automated, Web-based regional security alert system. Known as RAINS-Net and...

Vendor upgrades tools for detecting security flaws during App development.(News)
September 1, 2003... Security vendor Sanctum Inc. last week announced an enhanced version of its AppScan software suite aimed at helping companies detect and fix security flaws during application development. Sanctum's AppScan 4.0 suite features new automated...

Global standard will force changes in banks' IT: tighter database integration, new risk management engines will be needed.(News)
September 1, 2003... A proposed international regulation that would require banks to tighten their integration of different back-office systems and use more sophisticated risk management tools is expected to be finalized in the fourth quarter, thus pushing...

McData aims to buy its way to better storage switches: plans to acquire two vendors, invest in a third.(News)
September 1, 2003... McData Corp. last week announced plans to acquire two vendors of storage networking products and invest in a third company, as part of an effort to gain a functionality edge over storage switch rivals Brocade Communications Systems Inc. and...

Rogue warriors.(Opinion)
September 1, 2003... WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE? When it comes to IT projects, that would be you and your technology group, right? if only reality would stop intruding. If only there were no such thing as "rogue IT," the catch-all term for those unauthorized,...

Dodge spam by going one-to-one.(Opinion)
September 1, 2003... I GIVE UP. After spending hours battling Blaster worm variants and setting e-mail filters to block Sobig.F, I surrender. The e-mail spammers, hackers and miscreants win. I no longer expect e-mail to function consistently. It acts more like...

Redefining 'heroic' IT leaders.(Opinion)
September 1, 2003... DURING the past eight months I have been deeply involved in a multiyear global research project involving hundreds of CIOs and aimed at better understanding the evolving CIO "habitat." I've discovered that it's a varied and exotic ecosystem,...

Outsourcing acceptance is hard to find.(Readers' Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... HAS DAVID MOSCHELLA considered the security issues of code being generated in parts of the world that are hostile to the U.S. ["Outsourcing Is Good," QuickLink 40327]? In the same issue that this column ran, just look at the front page and the...

Corporate Express goes direct: the B2B office products vendor is slashing costs by integrating tightly with customers' procurement systems.(Field Report)
September 1, 2003... WHEN YOU HAVE consolidated Computer systems from 500 corporate acquisitions, you get pretty good at IT integration. Indeed, nothing so distinguishes IT at Corporate Express Inc. as the degree to which it seamlessly links major sup ply...

Tape technology stretches out: as backup needs grow, tape vendors are preparing faster drives, better management tools and terabyte-size tape cartidges.(Technology)
September 1, 2003... LIKE MANY IT EXECUTIVES, Eric Eriksen, chief technology officer at New York-based Deloitte Consulting, would like tape to just go away. The added cost of managing tape backup systems, slow and unreliable restoration, cartridge inventorying and...

Genoa II: man and machine thinking as one: can software algorithms predict a terrorist's next move before he makes it?(Future Watch)
September 1, 2003... Some of the technology shown in last year's blockbuster movie Minority Report may soon be a reality and a centerpiece of the intelligence community's war on terrorism. In the futuristic thriller, Tom Cruise played the head of a police unit that...

New spam policy: return to sender: kicking back suspected spam dramatically reduces unwanted e-mails, but not before creating an endless loop of confusing messages.(Security Manager's Journal)
September 1, 2003... WE'VE been trying to control the problem of spam, and at long last, we can see light at the end of the tunnel. My security team and I already use an outsourced service that identifies spam and labels each message accordingly. It does a...

Security bookshelf.(Security Log)(Real 802.11 Security: Wi-Fi Protected Access and 802.11i)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Real 802.11 Security: Wi-Fi Protected Access and 802.11i, by Joe Edney and William A. Arbaugh, Addison Wesley, 2003. The promise of wireless LANs has been delayed by inadequate security technology to the point where WLANs have become...

Device provides key storage for Windows 2003.(Security Log)
September 1, 2003... NCipher PLC, a Cambridge, England-based security firm with U.S. headquarters in Woburn, Mass., last week upgraded its line of hardware-based cryptographic key management products with a new device featuring support for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows...

The curse of IT infrastructure.(Technology)
September 1, 2003... IN JULY, the General Accounting Office published what I consider a rare insight into IT spending. The agency broke down the $26 billion Department of Defense IT budget into the following categories: business systems, $5.2 billion; business...

Dealing with rogue IT: bootleg IT projects are going on behind your back. Here's how to cope.(Managament)
September 1, 2003... CIO JOSEPH PUGLISI says he had no idea the IT project was going on. And, he says, the Emcor Group Inc. business unit installing the ERP package had no idea it had selected a product that Puglisi had earlier reviewed and panned. "Ultimately, the...

Global toolbox: managers try various took, from videoconferencing to collaboration software, for managing offshore contractors.(Management)(Industry Overview)
September 1, 2003... SHAPE THE PROCESS for managing an offshore IT operation into a pyramid, and at the top are personal visits. Directly below that are videoconferences, followed by telephone calls, e-mail, instant messaging and distributed software development...

Business rules come first: don't start an IT project until the company has written a clear set of rules about the way it does business.(Book Excerpt)
September 1, 2003... RECENTLY, colleagues and I were talking to the chief software developer at a large client organization about progress on a major re-engineering effort there. Our concern was whether the project team members could meet a deadline some nine...

'Virtual close' piques interest.(according to Meta Group)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Large companies that are looking to close their monthly financial books faster than the current paper-based 15 days are showing interest in the "virtual close," according to a report by Meta Group Inc. With a virtual close, all transactions and...

Eaton hires IT vet as new CIO.(Robert Sell)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Industrial manufacturer Eaton Corp. has named Robert Sell as its new CIO. Sell has approximately 30 years of IT and operations experience and most recently was CIO at Moore Wallace Inc., a distributor of print and digital information. He has...

Think like an archaeologist.(Management)
September 1, 2003... IF YOU'D LIKE YOUR IT PROJECTS and department to run more efficiently and effectively, you probably need to develop a keen appreciation for the work of archaeologists. That's right, real archaeologists. I'm not talking about the Indiana Jones...

New work world.(Frankly Speaking)
September 1, 2003... ON THIS LABOR DAY 2003, what's the state of IT work? According to the numbers, it's not quite as bad as it could be--but it's still pretty grim. A report out last week from Robert Half Technology says that only 4% of CIOs plan to cut IT staff...

Recovery disaster.(Shark Tank)
September 1, 2003... The big blackout hits, but power from UPSs lets this pilot fish shut things down properly in the server room, Next day, electric service is restored--but now fish is locked out of the server room. "The computer room door has a key-card lock,...

Security breach at Web host leaves sites at risk: visitors to thousands of sites left vulnerable to infection; provider says flaw has been fixed.
September 8, 2003... An administrative error at Web hosting provider Interland Inc. may have caused thousands of hosted sites to become infected with malicious code. Visitors to those infected Interland-hosted sites were in turn vulnerable to having their...

IT links to blackout investigated: Feds search system logs for signs of sabotage.
September 8, 2003... Federal and private-sector officials last week said they still can't rule out cybersabotage or IT-based failures as the cause of the Aug. 14 blackout. Although no clear-cut evidence has been found to suggest that the blackout was the...

Compliance laws vex IT.(9/11: two years later)
September 8, 2003... No matter how hard Wall Street firms try to dress them up with flowers and patriotic bunting, the concrete barricades outside their entrances are a constant reminder to Ravi Jethmal of the terrorist attacks that occurred two years ago just...

Quickpoll results.(Brief Article)
September 8, 2003... NLINE WWW.COMPUTERWORLD.COM QuickPoll Results Rogue IT projects within my organization: Cause more 54.8% security/ support problems than they're worth Bring in useful, 30.7% affordable...

Protection of critical systems still haphazard: some progress made, but private/public partnership remains weak, experts say.(News 9/11: two years later)
September 8, 2003... TWO YEARS after terrorists killed 3,000 people, the government and the private sector are still struggling to define priorities for the security of the nation's critical infrastructure and to turn those priorities into real systems and...

Private-sector IT wary of government intervention.(News 9/11: two years later)
September 8, 2003... The Blackout of 2003, which remains under investigation this week, not only highlighted the vulnerable nature of the nation's critical infrastructure systems, but also reinvigorated the debate over government regulation of security in the...

Congress could see cybersecurity legislation: one proposal would require companies to document efforts to secure systems.(News 9/11: two years later)
September 8, 2003... As Congress reconvened last week after a month-long break, some members were considering introducing legislation that would impose cybersecurity requirements on the private sector. One proposal would require publicly held companies to...

Judge set to begin hearing on MCI ...(At Deadline)(Brief Article)
September 8, 2003... A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in New York today is scheduled to begin a hearing to determine whether WorldCom Inc., which now does business under its MCI brand name, should be cleared to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The hearing...

... As company expands board.(At Deadline)(Brief Article)
September 8, 2003... In other MCI news, the company said it plans to add five board members after it emerges from Chapter 11 protection. The appointments will increase the number of directors on the board to nine. Meanwhile, AT&T Corp. filed a civil racketeering...

White House CTO takes vendor job.(At Deadline)(Brief Article)
September 8, 2003... Norman Lorentz resigned as chief technology officer at the Office of Management and Budget and took a job as senior vice president at DigitalNet Government Solutions LLC, a government IT contractor in Herndon, Va. His departure came just two...

John Hancock Financial Services Inc. announced that it awarded IBM a six-year, $254 million contract.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
September 8, 2003... JOHN HANCOCK FINANCIAL SERVICES INC. announced that it awarded IBM a six-year, $254 million contract to install and manage an on-demand computing infrastructure for the Boston-based company....

Microsoft Corp.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
September 8, 2003... MICROSOFT CORP. warned of a "critical" security hole in its Visual Basic for Applications development tool.

Real networks signs onto Sun's ...(On The Mark)
September 8, 2003... ... Project Madhatter, boosting the prospects that real people with real jobs will want the low-cost, Linux-based desktop when the Unix systems giant unveils it Sept. 18. Later this week, the two companies will announce that RealPlayer 8 will...

SCO may send Unix license invoices to Linux users.(News)
September 8, 2003... The SCO Group Inc. said last week that it's considering mailing invoices to companies that it identifies as Linux users, asking them to pay a licensing fee of $699 per CPU for the right to run the open-source operating system. The invoice...

Pentagon awards contracts to rebuild Iraq's communications: satellite systems, mobile technology will connect administrative offices.(News)
September 8, 2003... THE U.S. DEPARTMENT of Defense last week confirmed that it and the U.S.-run provisional government in Iraq have awarded a series of contracts worth a total of more than $100 million in an effort to jump-start the rebuilding of the war-torn...

Bank takes hybrid route on new telephony system: Alcatel switches support mixed IP/circuit approach.(News)
September 8, 2003... Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. last week said it has completed a three-year project to install IP telephony systems at several of its U.S. offices. But the New York-based banking and investment management firm isn't moving away from...

Gateway cutting manufacturing jobs.
September 8, 2003... Gateway Inc. will close its manufacturing plant in Hampton, Va., and cut jobs at its two South Dakota plants, the Poway, Calif.-based company said last week. Those manufacturing jobs will be handled by outside companies and other Gateway...

EDS lands deal with State Dept.
September 8, 2003... Electronic Data Systems Corp. in Piano, Texas, last week said it signed a deal to take operational responsibility for the domestic telecommunications system of the U.S. Department of State. The value of the award wasn't released. WorldCom Inc....

New Siebel apps map performance.
September 8, 2003... San Mateo, Calif.-based Siebel Systems Inc. this week is expected to announce call canter and sales personnel performance management software. The applications will enable companies to measure customer-facing employee performance and...

Verizon Wireless signed a $1 billion deal with Nortel Networks Ltd.(Short Takes)
September 8, 2003... VERIZON WIRELESS signed a $1 billion deal with NORTEL NETWORKS LTD. for wireless infrastructure technology....

Stratus Technologies Inc.(Short Takes)
September 8, 2003... STRATUS TECHNOLOGIES INC. in Maynard, Mass., said Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition is available on its fault-tolerant servers, including the ftServer 5600 and 6600 systems being announced today.

PeopleSoft moves to mix apps after merger; says it will maintain J.D. Edwards' products and blend software features.(News)
September 8, 2003... PEOPLESOFT INC. last week disclosed the initial details of its plan for integrating its products and operations with those of onetime rival J.D. Edwards & Co., saying that links between the two vendors' business applications will be made...

SAP pushes to increase use of its middleware; online community, tools upgrade aim to boost NetWeaver.(Application Integration)
September 8, 2003... Looking to lure more software vendors and corporate developers to use its NetWeaver application integration technology, SAP AG this week plans to announce upgraded programming tools and the creation of a virtual community that will let users...

Online tech job postings increase, but IT execs don't expect a jump in hiring: staffing levels likely to remain at status quo in Q4.(News)
September 8, 2003... There are some signs that the IT labor market may finally be picking up some steam. But corporate technology executives and industry analysts last week said most companies are likely to maintain IT staffing at or near current levels for the...

Correction.(News)
September 8, 2003... A story in the Sept. 1 News section ("Dell to Release Network Management Software") incorporated stated that Dell Inc. has sold about 50,000 of its PowerConnect switches since the devices were introduced two years ago. Dell actually has about...

HP broadens its support for grid computing apps: will 'grid-enable everything,' offer consulting help.(News)
September 8, 2003... Hewlett-Packard Co. last week took two more steps to extend its Adaptive Enterprise computing strategy, announcing plans to buy a vendor of Web services management tools and to support grid computing capabilities across all of its products for...

Judge dismisses software patent suit.
September 8, 2003... A federal judge in California dismissed a lawsuit in which Business Objects SA claimed that data analysis software vendor Micro-Strategy Inc. in McLean, Va., had infringed on a U.S. patent involving relational database access technology. The...

Outsourcing suffers from poor relations.
September 8, 2003... Most companies are unprepared to properly manage the outsourcing vendors they hire and closely monitor their work, according to Gartner Inc. The research firm forecasts that by 2005, 70% of companies will use more than three IT service...

Virginia Tech picks Apple for cluster.
September 8, 2003... Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University plans to build an InfiniBand cluster using Apple Computer Inc.'s new dual-processor Power Macintosh computer with the 64-bit G5 processor. The cluster of 1,100 nodes is expected to rank among...

Cargill Inc. selected Altiris Inc.'s IT life-cycle management software.(Short Takes)
September 8, 2003... CARGILL INC. selected ALTIRIS INC.'s IT life-cycle management software to manage its IT assets, including 27,000 PCs and 500 servers....

Hitachi Ltd.(Short Takes)
September 8, 2003... HITACHI LTD. said it has developed a radio frequency identification chip that requires no external antenna and makes possible the embedding of tracking and identification chips in bank notes and other paper products.

C&W offers new hosting service despite exit plan.(News)
September 8, 2003... Three months after Cable & Wireless PLC disclosed plans to exit the U.S Web hosting market, its U.S. unit today is due to announce a "business-ready" hosting service to try to shore up its customer base for potential buyers. The new...

White House taps Energy Dept. CIO to head e-gov office: private-sector executives express their support, optimism for strong leadership.(News)
September 8, 2003... President Bush plans to appoint Karen Evans, CIO at the Department of Energy, to become the new head of the administration's e-government initiatives, the White House announced last week. Evans, a 20-year veteran of the government IT...

Linux to play key role in archival database for Moving Images: IBM to contribute pSeries servers.(News)
September 8, 2003... Three U.S. universities and the Library of Congress are working with IBM to develop a Linux-based repository of film and broadcasting archives. In an announcement last week, IBM was named the lead hardware vendor for the database project,...