IT Week (UK) articles from March 2005

IT Week (UK) archives from March 2005

Comment - Harmonisation - a cure for all IT ills?(Column)
March 7, 2005... Byline: Madeline Bennett. Pricing, anti-spam laws and security technology are three areas that could benefit from greater harmonisation - but problems would still remain. Harmonisation seems to be the fashion for solving all of those...

WLAN bargains may not last.(Wireless LANs)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Many wireless LAN (WLAN) vendors are selling their products at a loss in order to maintain their stake in an increasingly competitive market, leading to fears of discontinued products lines and consolidation in the future. Recent figures...

HP PCs make admin easier.(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... HP has introduced business desktops that are designed to be easy to manage and maintain. The HP Compaq dc5100 series is based on Intel Pentium 4 and Celeron chips up to 3.4GHz and with up to 4GB of memory. The systems are available in...

Online blackmail grows.(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Byline: David Neal. Companies are being advised to ensure their systems are protected against denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, as the problem of online blackmail is growing. According to Duncan Hine, business centre director at Qinetiq...

HP and Kyocera add to business printer lines.(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Byline: Daniel Robinson. HP and Kyocera both announced new printers last week. HP's are aimed at graphics professionals while Kyocera has introduced low-cost laser products for the desktop. HP's DesignJet 90 series, available from...

Comment - ISPs repackage broadband.(Internet Service Providers)(Column)
March 7, 2005... Byline: Martin Butler. ISPs may discover a lot more customers want tailored broadband services, if the pricing is right. A few months ago I wrote about the way internet service providers (ISPs) would see advantages in offering...

Comment - Security outsourcers don disguises.(Column)
March 7, 2005... Byline: Lem Bingley. IT chiefs are reluctant to outsource vital security tasks, but are they being honest with themselves? IT Week's publisher, VNU, recently carried out some interesting research into IT security planning, in...

Enterprise Week - Firms try single sign-on appliance.(Single sign-on Appliance)
March 7, 2005... Byline: Roger Howorth. Single sign-on (SSO) technology provider Imprivata has begun customer trials of its SSO appliance with several UK companies. Imprivata launched its OneSign appliance in the US in May last year, and is now starting...

Enterprise Week - Surge in sales for Linux and 64bit servers.(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Byline: Roger Howorth. Sales of 64bit x86 server systems grew rapidly during the last quarter of 2004, according to the latest server purchasing report from research firm IDC. Linux servers accounted for nine percent of worldwide...

Enterprise Week - Comment - Opteron versus Xeon servers.
March 7, 2005... Byline: Martin Banks. IBM has been explaining how processor types and other components affect server performance. IBM has been briefing the press and analysts about its new servers based on its latest server chipsets. Given that most...

Internet Week - VeriSign reports on the state of the e-nation.(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Byline: David Neal. VeriSign has released the fifth of its Internet Security Intelligence Briefings, identifying the trends in e-commerce, security and fraud since last October. According to Souheil Badran, vice-president at the...

Internet Week - Comment - Home users will bodge DIY security.(Column)
March 7, 2005... Byline: David Neal. A government-backed web site that advises home users on security could do more harm than good. Using computers is not easy. When I was at university I rendered a library computer unusable by altering the screen size...

Client Week - Intel PCs to get Nvidia features.
March 7, 2005... Byline: Daniel Robinson. Chip firm Nvidia last week previewed a version of its nForce motherboard chipsets that will support Intel processors in place of AMD chips. The product, due later this year, will bring to Intel-based desktops...

Client Week - Corel aims design suite at technical illustrators.(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Byline: Daniel Robinson. Corel last week introduced a new suite aimed at technical illustrators. Corel Designer Technical Suite 12 allows professionals to create technical documentation such as instruction manuals and maintenance...

Client Week - Nokia extends handset range for corporates.(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Byline: IT Week staff. Phone maker Nokia last week announced three new mid-range handsets. The firm is offering a business-oriented model with Bluetooth; a basic voice handset; and a new camera phone with 1.3 megapixel resolution. ...

Client Week - Comment - Wipe-clean smartphones required.
March 7, 2005... Byline: Martin Courtney. Handsets containing sensitive information are easily lost, but their data can still be protected. A thief should always try to be inconspicuous, but in the sea of dark suits and starched shirts that made up the...

Network Week - Networks move up a generation.
March 7, 2005... Byline: Dave Bailey. Many global corporates will have to upgrade their networks if they want to take full advantage of new business applications such as voice over IP (VoIP), according to a new report from consultancy BearingPoint....

Network Week - ISP provides broadband guarantees.(Internet service providers)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Byline: David Neal. Internet service provider Tiscali is offering quality of service (QoS) guarantees for its DSL broadband, for voice over IP (VoIP) and a range of other business applications used by remote staff and branch offices. The...

Network Week - Comment - Shannon's legacy lives on.(Claude Shannon theories)
March 7, 2005... Byline: Bill Pechey. Claude Shannon's communications theories are still improving many areas of IT, including VoIP. Every so often I feel the urge to write about Claude Shannon, to introduce him to new people and remind the rest of the...

Management Week - BI suites aid financial reporting.(Business Intelligence)
March 7, 2005... Byline: Phil Muncaster and Madeline Bennett. Business intelligence (BI) vendor Information Builders will release a new version of its WebFocus software today, to tackle financial reporting issues and data integration problems. Meanwhile,...

Management Week - OFT gathers evidence for anti-spam initiative.(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Byline: David Neal. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) will this week release results of a 48-hour spam sweep, carried out last month. The initiative is designed to provide information on which to base new anti-spam plans. The sweep was...

Management Week - Comment - Get human resources behind IT.(Column)
March 7, 2005... Byline: James Woodhuysen. The HR section of a company web site is a great place to trumpet successful IT-based initiatives. Which organisations use IT to make the most of their human resources? One of my standard jokes is that IT...

Management Week - Information Security Report - Sensitive data finds sanctuary.
March 7, 2005... Byline: Daniel Robinson. Data vaults can keep documents safe and help firms comply with governance rules. To comply with new corporate governance regulations such as the US Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act, there is a growing need for...

Intel lays out plans for more flexible IT.
March 7, 2005... Byline: Martin Veitch in San Francisco. Intel last week detailed its latest plans for platforms that unite CPU, subsystems and software. The firm aims to improve I/O, manageability, virtualisation, security and 64bit addressing for a new...

IP multimedia for remote staff.(Internet Protocol)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Telewest is to offer a managed service delivering voice, video conferencing, messaging and collaboration tools to remote staff, which could help firms to support flexible working. The multimedia over IP (MMoIP) service will provide...

Hosted CRM services add polish.(Customer Relationship Management)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Byline: David Neal. Customer relationship management (CRM) vendors are rushing to extend their on-demand offerings, to differentiate themselves with features such as client management and options to switch between hosted systems and...

Storage needs new strategy.
March 7, 2005... Byline: Dave Bailey. Storage management and data migration are posing significant problems for UK firms, recent surveys have found. Experts suggest the solution is to adopt a centralised and automated approach to data management. ...

CA ups its support for the Eclipse Foundation.(Computer Associates International Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Byline: Roger Howorth. Software giant Computer Associates (CA) has increased its investment in the open-source Eclipse Foundation, bolstering support for the software development platform as the leading alternative to Microsoft's Visual...

Intel redefines the notebook.(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... At its Developer Forum last week, Intel unveiled Napa, its blueprint for the next generation of Centrino mobile PCs. But apps will need to be reworked to reap the performance benefits of an extra CPU core and power management alterations. ...

Intel cores go forth and multiply.(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Byline: Martin Veitch, at IDF, San Francisco. Intel is plunging deep into dual-core processors with 15 projects under way already, the firm announced at last week's Intel Developer Forum (IDF). Additional cores will allow leaps in...

Spec boosts manageability.(standards of Intel Corp.)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Byline: Martin Veitch at IDF. Intel last week released the specification for its Active Management Technology (AMT) to improve manageability of IT networks even when systems are switched off. The spec defines embedded interfaces in...

Barrett homes in on WiMax and Moore.(Moore's Law, Craig Barrett)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Byline: Martin Veitch at IDF. Craig Barrett delivered his last Intel Developer Forum speech as chief executive last week, outlining the potential for WiMax and celebrating the continuing relevance of Moore's Law. Barrett, who will...

Security Watch - Cisco patches ACNS software.
March 7, 2005... Cisco has found denial-of-service flaws and a default administrator password vulnerability in devices running its Application and Content Networking System (ACNS) software. Users can check which versions of software are vulnerable and upgrade...

Security Watch - RealPlayer flaw discovered.(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Security firm iDefense has discovered a stack-based overflow in versions of RealNetworks RealPlayer, which if remotely exploited could allow execution of arbitrary code. RealNetworks has released updates for all affected versions at the...

Security Watch - Worm teams up with trojan.(report)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Antivirus vendors have detected six Bagle email worm variants together with another four versions of the Mitglieder trojan. Panda software has noted that Bagle.BN and Mitglieder.BO are the most active and work in conjunction with each other to...

Security Watch - CA License Package at risk.(Computer Associates International Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... Security firms eEye Digital and iDefense have discovered numerous buffer overflows in Computer Associates (CA) License Package. Exploitation of them could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code with local system privileges on Windows...

Security Watch - HP OpenVMS vulnerability.(Hewlett-Packard Co.)(Brief Article)
March 7, 2005... HP has identified a vulnerability with VAX and Alpha versions of its OpenVMS OS, which could be locally exploited for privilege escalation and unauthorised system and data access. Patches are available through the following URL. -...

Comment - Vendor rivalry puts progress on hold.(Column)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Martin Veitch. Intel's developer conference rejoiced over integration gains, but technology improvements alone are not enough to meet tomorrow's IT challenges It was hard to avoid Gordon Moore at the Intel Developer Forum...

SAP and Oracle vie for Retek.
March 14, 2005... Oracle stirred up the back-office sector again last week by launching a bid for retail software specialist Retek, just a week after SAP agreed a deal for the same firm. Following hot on the heels of its acquisition of PeopleSoft, the move...

Mobile searches get personal.(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Search tools vendor Fast will today launch a search tool for wireless devices, to provide tailored capabilities for mobile users, especially for location-sensitive services Fast's mSearch, available initially only for Vodafone subscribers,...

IT outsourcers make changes.
March 14, 2005... Byline: James Murray. UK companies wanting to outsource IT functions and other activities could soon have new options, as Siemens Business Services (SBS) may merge with Atos Origin, while outsourcer Accenture has announced it will expand...

Key system guards devices.
March 14, 2005... Byline: Daniel Robinson. Cryptography firm Certicom has announced a security framework to help device makers secure embedded systems connected to the internet. The new platform is designed to protect networked appliances against attacks....

Email security vendors combat spam.
March 14, 2005... Byline: Phil Muncaster. Email security specialists CipherTrust and Clearswift announced new and updated offerings last week to help companies stop spam and other threats. IronMail 5.0, due at the end of March, will feature the latest...

Microsoft converges comms.
March 14, 2005... Byline: Martin Veitch. Microsoft has stepped up its efforts to bring computing and communications together with the release of new integrated client software and upgrades to its online meeting and communications server products. The...

Comment - Operation Ore fights over evidence.(Column)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Neil Barrett. In cases of child pornography on PCs, the battle between prosecution and defence is often complex. The web contains a lot of pornography. In itself, there's nothing particularly wrong with that. Unfortunately,...

Comment - Software vendors must take care.(Column)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Lem Bingley. Makers of most goods owe a duty of care to buyers - why should software vendors be different? My colleague Roger Howorth recently opened a can of slippery worms, pondering whether the law should be used to force...

Enterprise Week - Windows honeypot foils worms.
March 14, 2005... Byline: Roger Howorth. Microsoft has reported it is developing new technologies to thwart worms and hacker attacks. At its recent TechFest event, it described how its Vigilante project is using "honeypots" to automatically spot and remove...

Enterprise Week - Linux specialist invites hackers to crack server.
March 14, 2005... Byline: Roger Howorth. Linux consultancy Linuxense is challenging security professionals to hack one of its online servers. The server, available to hackers since last week, is apparently running Debian Linux and the Apache web server, and...

Enterprise Week - Update fixes weaknesses in Gentoo OS.(Gentoo Linux )(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Byline: IT Week staff. Gentoo Linux has issued the 2005.0 update to its open-source operating system, which patches remotely exploitable flaws in the Gaim multiprotocol instant messaging client and the Mozilla Firefox browser; and locally...

Enterprise Week - Comment - Intel bruiser battles for Itanium.
March 14, 2005... Byline: Roger Howorth. Intel technology chief Pat Gelsinger may still talk up the Itanium processor, but its fate appears sealed. Intel's battle to ensure a good future for its 64bit Itanium chip suffered several setbacks recently....

Internet Week - Top 10 intranets provide models of good practice.
March 14, 2005... Byline: David Neal. Usability guru Jakob Nielsen has announced the winner of the Nielsen Norman Group (NNG)'s best intranet award, and offered advice on how firms should tailor portals for their staff. The top 10 sites ranged from...

Internet Week - Comment - Why email has lost its way.
March 14, 2005... Byline: Tim Anderson. Until there are better ways to filter out unwanted emails, the appeal of alternatives will grow. Around 88 percent of email is spam, according to email security firm Postini, extrapolating from the traffic seen in...

Internet Week - Search goes far beyond the web. Search technology Report by Matt Hicks.
March 14, 2005... The search giants are extending their technologies to reach more mobile devices. The major search engine firms are looking beyond the web. At the Search Engines Strategies 2005 Conference & Expo this month, experts predicted a future in...

AMD extends 64bit laptop range.
March 14, 2005... Byline: Daniel Robinson. AMD has introduced its Turion 64 Mobile Technology, bringing the company's 64bit processors to thin-and-light laptops. The firm said that Turion-based laptops will offer similar battery life but better performance...

Mobile platform gives enterprise data a push.(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Daniel Robinson. Mobile data firm Intellisync has updated its Mobile Suite platform to support push delivery of data from enterprise applications to mobile clients. The firm said Mobile Suite now enables access to virtually any...

UK accents for Pocket PC voice control.
March 14, 2005... Byline: IT Week staff. Microsoft has introduced a UK English version of its Voice Command application that enables users to control their Pocket PC device by spoken commands. A common use for the tool is to allow mobile staff to make...

Client Week - Comment - Why high Arpu is bad news for you.
March 14, 2005... Byline: Daniel Robinson. Are handset makers creating devices that benefit the network operators more than their users? The communications industry seems to be the worst offender for impenetrable jargon, even by the low standards of the...

Client Week - Sonoma laptop scores on connectivity. Laptop Review by Daniel Robinson.
March 14, 2005... The HP Compaq nc6120 notebook boasts almost every feature a typical business user might require, but its large footprint might make it cumbersome for mobile working. The Compaq nc6120 is a mid-range model in HP's revamped laptop range,...

Network Week - NTL unveils business Ethernet.
March 14, 2005... Byline: Dave Bailey. Last week communications provider NTL launched its National Ethernet service for businesses. NTL said its proprietary Broadnet network is second only to BT in terms of local reach, but unlike its competitors has been...

Network Week - Service provider body aims to regulate VoIP.
March 14, 2005... Byline: James Murray. Last week the Internet Telephony Service Provider Association (Itspa) launched the IP telephony industry's first code of practice, in an attempt to position the trade group as the regulatory organisation for the...

Network Week - Comment - QoS means nothing without SLAs. Quality of service guarantees are far more complicated than many IT buyers seem to think.
March 14, 2005... Byline: Martin Courtney. Most IT professionals rightly define quality of service (QoS) as a term used to guarantee the effective transmission of voice and video IP traffic over both LAN and WAN links, though it is usually applied to...

Management Week - Anti-phishing laws on the cards.
March 14, 2005... Byline: Phil Muncaster. Moves to introduce specific anti-phishing laws in the UK could begin this year, following proposals for such legislation in the US to combat the growing problem of identity theft. The US Senate began debating...

Network Week - Governance still urgent after new SOX deadline.
March 14, 2005... Byline: James Murray. UK firms could pay a heavy price if they delay implementation of IT systems to comply with corporate governance rules, despite a recent extension to a deadline for US SOX auditing laws, experts have warned. The US...

Network Week - Europe lags behind US for IT spend.(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Phil Muncaster. The level of spending on IT in Europe is 20 years behind that in the US, according to a new report. The report also says that government policy must change if Europe is to achieve its goal of becoming the world's...

Management Week - Comment - How IT can drive into Jaguar class.
March 14, 2005... Byline: Ken Young. Companies say that IT has increased their productivity, but could IT vendors and customers do better? Recent research sponsored by consultancy Accenture got a lot of media coverage last month. The reason? The...

Management Week - Patching needs good processes. Patch management Interview by Phil Muncaster.(interview )(Interview)
March 14, 2005... Chris Andrew of patch management specialist PatchLink explains how third parties can help firms guard systems and offers some tips to help IT staff increase efficiency IT Week: As vice-president of product management at patch management...

Microsoft to lure worms into honeypots.
March 14, 2005... Byline: Roger Howorth. Microsoft this month revealed it is working on honeypot technology to repel internet worms. Experts said honeypots will be a key weapon in the fight against malware, and that Microsoft's move could make more firms...

MySAP upgrade beefs up roles.(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... SAP has upgraded its MySAP ERP suite a month early, tightening its grip on enterprise applications. Announced at CeBit in Hanover last week, the new version includes more user-role templates and enhanced analytics. The release will also...

Trade body to certify RFID skills.
March 14, 2005... Byline: James Murray. IT trade group Comptia is developing a certification scheme for RFID skills, in response to concerns that the boom in wireless tag projects could be hit by a shortage of qualified staff. Comptia, the Computer...

Salesforce to smarten up CRM.
March 14, 2005... Byline: David Neal in New York. Salesforce.com is to add more customisation capabilities to its hosted customer relationship management (CRM) platform, to enable users to move between hosted applications more easily and potentially give a...

Firms overlook threat from the enemy within.
March 14, 2005... Byline: Phil Muncaster. Almost two thirds of firms have no measures to detect internal attacks or to protect against them - leaving systems open to "invisible" hacks, a new study has found. Of 500 European IT managers questioned by...

Microsoft buys Ozzie's Groove.
March 14, 2005... Microsoft is to acquire Groove Networks, the much-hyped collaborative software vendor and brainchild of Lotus Notes creator Ray Ozzie. Although Notes has long been head-to-head with Microsoft's Exchange, Ozzie will now become Microsoft's...

Microsoft updates ERP in stages.
March 14, 2005... Byline: James Murray. Microsoft's Project Green initiative, designed to fully integrate all of the company's enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems on one code platform, will now be released on a piecemeal basis, with some elements due...

Dell ships low-cost laptop.
March 14, 2005... Byline: Daniel Robinson. Dell last week introduced a Latitude laptop with a starting price of just [pounds sterling]399 + VAT, making it one of the cheapest laptops available. The Latitude 110L, shipping now, is based on Intel's...

Micromuse hones control.(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Micromuse is sharpening its focus on business service management (BSM) with the launch of two new bundles for visibility into service availability and troubleshooting. The BSM Availability Solution offers a single interface and combines...

Oracle bundles business intelligence.
March 14, 2005... Byline: Martin Veitch. Oracle has released Business Intelligence 10g, providing a packaged version of familiar and new BI applications that were first announced last December. The release offers a new user interface that brings...

Security Watch - Microsoft patch releases.
March 14, 2005... Microsoft quietly issued two patches this month. The first was an update to MS05-002 to correct cursor and icon flaws for Windows 98 and ME. Security advisory MS05-015 was updated with data relating to Windows 98 and ME. Microsoft has also...

Security Watch - First virus to spread by MMS.
March 14, 2005... Antivirus firm F-Secure is analysing a virus for Symbian Series 60 phones, which it says attempts to spread via Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and Bluetooth. F-Secure has seen two versions of the virus so far. - www.tinyurl.com/7y3n9.

Security Watch - Ethereal Radius flaw.
March 14, 2005... Security firm LSS has discovered that versions 0.10.9 and earlier of the Ethereal open-source network protocol analyser has a flaw in its Radius authentication dissection function. Remote attackers could exploit this to crash the system and...

Security Watch - Windows circle attack.(safety and security measures)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP with SP2 are vulnerable to a Land attack. This sends an IP packet to the system in which the source IP is set to match the target's IP, to get the system to reply to itself, which causes a denial of service....

Security Watch - Avaya IP Phone Manager flaw.
March 14, 2005... Comms vendor Avaya has released a security advisory, ASA-2005-041, for version 2.013 of its IP Office Phone Manager software. The flaw could lead to password disclosure and the note advises users to restrict local and remote Windows registry...

Comment - How to make security a safer bet.(analysis)(Column)
March 21, 2005... Byline: Neil Barrett. Until more firms exchange information on IT security threats it will be hard to assess the dangers. The hardest aspect of security isn't the search for appropriate technology, since there are many options. Take...

Comment - Will multi-core lead to micro-payment?(forecast of the licensing models)(Column)
March 21, 2005... Byline: George Gardiner. As hardware changes alter the economics of software, radical licensing models may gain traction. A couple of months ago I wrote about the licensing implications of the new multi-core processors being developed....

Enterprise Week - HP improves server hardware.(Paul Perez, Hewlett-Packard Co.)
March 21, 2005... Paul Perez, HP's worldwide head of industry standard server hardware, last week detailed sweeping changes to the firm's x86 server range that he said would lead to the introduction of cheaper, faster and better systems. Speaking...