David Kernell, 20, of Knoxville, Tenn., the son of state Rep. Mike Kernell, was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge C. Clifford Shirley, according to a statement from the Justice Department.

David Kernell was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Knoxville for intentionally accessing without authorization the e-mail account of Palin, Alaska’s governor, the Justice Department said.

Kernell, an economics major at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a three-year term of supervised release.

His father, a Memphis Democrat, is chairman of Tennessee’s House Government Operations Committee. Mike Kernell has said he had nothing to do with the hacking incident.

The indictment against David Kernell alleged that on Sept. 16 he reset the password to Palin’s personal e-mail account to gain access to it. Authorities say Kernell then read the contents of the account and made screenshots of the e-mail directory, e-mail content and other personal information, later posting some of the information to a public Web site.

The Justice Department said the case was being prosecuted by section chief Michael DuBose and trial attorney Mark Krotoski of the criminal division’s computer crime and intellectual property section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Weddle of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee. The FBI’s Anchorage and Knoxville field offices investigated the case.

Source: Yahoo! News

While enterprises may be on top of their security practices for the most part, data leakage as a result of end user misuse and abuse is something that might very well be flying under the radar.

According to a newly released global study by Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO), “The Challenge of Data Leakage for Business and Employees Around the World,” employees are taking numerous risks that could lead to the loss of corporate information.

Personal and Local Matters

The use of corporate technology resources for personal activities is becoming increasingly prevalent as the line between people’s personal and work lives continues to blur. The study indicates that nearly eight in 10 end users use their company-issued computer to send and receive e-mails through a personal e-mail account on a regular basis. In addition, roughly half use their work computer for personal research and online banking.

The most interesting numbers coming out of the survey of 1,009 end users and 1,011 IT decision makers in 10 countries is the disparity in data security practices from country to country. In China, Brazil and India, for example, a significantly larger proportion of end users has altered the security settings on their company-issued laptop (42 percent, 26 percent and 20 percent, respectively). By way of comparison, the U.S. sits at a mere 2 percent.

This discrepancy could be attributed to the fact that these countries have been experiencing a significant ramp up in the knowledge worker industry over the past five years, notes Marie Hattar, vice president of network and security solutions for Cisco in San Jose, Calif. “There is more outsourcing of services and as a result, more Internet use. Given that this is fairly recent, they weren’t there nine years ago when the rest of us were hit by Blaster, Nimda or Code Red viruses.”

Open Doors and Open Minds

Physical access to networks and premises is another issue that deserves attention. About four in 10 IT decision makers have had to deal with an employee gaining access to an unauthorized physical or network area. The same holds true for vendors or partners visiting sites.

Users are also more cavalier with their IT resources. More than four in 10 end users have allowed someone else to use their company-issued computer without supervision.

The risk can even extend to conversations between co-workers and family members. More than four in 10 end users have shared sensitive information about their job with others.

“Companies tend to think that data loss is all about network security,” Hattar says. “When you think of data loss, you have to look at it as anywhere someone can potentially take information away. If you want to develop a holistic strategy, you have to include the physical security [of server rooms and computer use] and personal behavior.”

Bad Habits to Break

For the most part, user habits that can lead to data loss are done without a second thought. Approximately two-thirds of respondents have done one or more activities that threaten corporate security on some level. At the top of the list is stepping away from a computer without logging off or shutting it down and/or leaving a computer turned on overnight.

Other potentially risky activities on the list include carrying corporate data on portable storage devices outside the office; storing computer login/password information on your computer at work; sharing computer login/password information with fellow workers; and throwing away corporate paperwork without shredding it.

The risks are also increasing as we deal with a rapidly growing mobile workforce:

• Only half of remote workers continually monitor their surroundings to make sure no one is looking at their work
• More than half do not take any special precautions to ensure security and privacy while working in a public setting
• Almost half transfer work documents to and from their home computer

The Learning Curve

Dealing with data loss is only going to be more challenging in today’s networked world, Hattar says. “All of a sudden there are a lot more collaboration tools and thousands of entry points to corporate assets. The explosion in social networking is only adding to this, as employees become much more open and less private about anything. That’s why they need to be brought up to speed on good security practices.”

Social engineering is creating one of the biggest gaps in network security, so the need to look at behavior as well as technology is critical, said Michael Hall, chief information security officer for Drivesavers in Novato, Calif., a data recovery firm.

“IT departments are very proficient at defining their network architecture. One telling thing that this study shows, however, is the lack of communication with end users. You can hedge your bets by putting restrictions on laptops and manipulating hardware to stop some [bad habits] but you can’t control what people say to other people. The only thing you can do is educate them, and have security training policies and procedures in place to create constant awareness.”

Even though Apple released iPhone developers from its overly strict nondisclosure agreement, there is still a lot of grumbling going on in Apple’s orchard. The approval process remains to be a mystery, with Apple approving and disapproving of applications seemingly at whim. Apple may have “opened up” the iPhone, but it is still maintaining strict control of the ecosystem surrounding its darling device.

Google, says Andy Rubin, will not play things that way. BusinessWeek interviewed him recently and reports that “Google won’t impose many of the restrictions Apple developers have been grumbling about. Unlike iPhone aficionados, developers using Android Market will, for example, be able to allow consumers to try their applications for free before they buy them. This may seem like a small thing, but developers name lack of free trial as one of the biggest reasons behind their lukewarm App Store sales.”

Sampling products before you buy them is by no means a revolutionary idea. Many of the network operators’ content can be previewed or sampled before users commit to purchasing it or subscribing to certain services. That Apple does not allow iPhone users to sample applications before they buy them is odd, especially considering that Apple allows iTunes users the ability to sample 30-second snippets of songs before buying them. Why doesn’t Apple allow apps to be sampled?

The Android Market is following the model set by the existing content delivery platforms of the major network operators, and that is a good thing. There are definitely a few applications that I paid for for my iPhone that I am less than thrilled with. Sampling them, even for a few moments, would have been enough to allow me to make a more informed purchasing decision and possibly even save some money.

Source: The Information Week

There, he said it. Microsoft is interested in making money. That’s what CEO Steve Ballmer said in reference to Microsoft’s motivation in the mobile space. Google and Nokia, on the other hand? Who knows what their goal is with all their not charging people for mobile operating systems, Ballmer said.

Microsoft plans to continue charging licensing fees from handset makers for using its mobile operating system and not follow the free offerings of Google and Nokia, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Tuesday.

The pressure on Microsoft’s high licensing fees has increased over 2008 with Google rolling out free Android technology and Nokia offering to buy out others from Symbian and also make its software royalty-free.

“We do,” Ballmer told Reuters, when asked whether his firm would stick with licensing fees. “We are doing well, we believe in the value of what we are doing.”

Who Benefits?

“It’s interesting to ask why would Google or Nokia, Google in particular, why would they invest a lot of money and try to do a really good job if they make no money. I think most operators and telecom companies are skeptical about Google,” he said.

Google tries to promote Web surfing on phones and the use of their services such as e-mail and search so they make advertising revenue.

“In the case of Nokia — are they really open sourcing, or are they really making Symbian their own operating system? We have to wait and see,” Ballmer said in an interview.

Motivated by Money

Microsoft’s market share in smartphone operating systems has stayed at about 10 percent for several years, despite the U.S. technology giant’s efforts to win more.

Microsoft charges US$8 to $15 per phone, according to Strategy Analytics.

“Handset makers are skeptical of Nokia, operators are skeptical of Google, I think by actually charging money people know exactly what our motivations are,” Ballmer said.

Not Into Hardware

He said there was no reason to expect Microsoft to enter the mobile phone making business, like some analysts foresee.

“I do not anticipate us building a phone. Sorry, we are not going build one,” Ballmer said.

Source: Tech News World

Firm urges two IT budgets: one based on execs’ guidelines, another for growth should the economy improve

IT spending is faring better than the overall economy, and the sector “will avoid a recession in 2008,” according to Gartner Inc. But in a report sent to clients this week, the analyst firm said it believes IT budgets will show “very low year-over-year growth rates until business growth significantly improves.”

Gartner and Forrester Research Inc. do not see tech spending traveling into negative territory, but the word “slow” and “slowdown” is used often enough in their reports to get the message across about what’s ahead. Forrester released its forecast last week.

Gartner is nonetheless advising clients to hedge a little and not assume that the economy won’t improve next year. It’s recommending that IT managers prepare two budgets: one “based on guidelines and directions of senior executives,” and another “growth budget for 2009 in the event that healthier economic growth rates begin to return next year.”

Gartner said that overall U.S. economic growth and IT growth are moving at two different speeds and that the tech industry may be “even more resilient than we had originally imagined.”

In the Gartner report, analysts Ken McGee and Mark McDonald cite government data, results of a survey of about 1,000 CIOs, and recent quarterly reports from top vendors to reaffirm an assessment made earlier this year that IT spending won’t turn negative. Tech stocks have taken a beating on Wall Street but have recovered some this week.

Gartner noted in the report that after the last recession, U.S. IT budgets grew slowly. But it said that “executives should not blindly follow history and automatically cut IT costs in 2009 until they are certain that IT’s current counter economic-trend performance isn’t being contributed to, in part, by their competitors.”

In a Sept. 24 report, Forrester said technology purchases were stronger in the first half of 2008 than its projections, but that it was cautious nonetheless. “The U.S. recession and the resulting tech market slowdown have only been delayed, not cancelled,” the report said.

Forrester projects a slowdown in tech purchases in the remainder of this year and that the trend will carry into the first half of 2009. But it has now raised its forecast in 2008 growth in the purchases of IT goods and services by business and government to 5.4%, compared with its May forecast of 3.4%. But it has lowered its projected growth rate of 10% for next year to 6.1%. Forrester noted that software and outsourcing are two strong areas.

The Forrester report’s author, analyst Andrew Bartels, said with regard to financial firms, he expects 10% cuts at most in IT where firms have been acquired or merged. In the case of the bankrupt firms whose assets where purchased, the IT reductions could be as much as 20% to 30%, he said.

Source: Computer World

AVT, based in Hertfordshire, England, sells a product called Retail Focus, which lets retailers plan store floors and shelf space. An add-on product, called Retail Focus Merchandiser, gives retail planners a three-dimensional view of retail space that they can “walk” through virtually.

No terms were disclosed. Oracle said the transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2008.

Oracle plans to add AVT’s employees and management to its Retail Global business unit. AVT’s products will be combined with Oracle Retail’s application suite. The company said it expects the combination will help retailers to increase their profits through better space allocation and monitoring of sales.

Source: CNET

The phones will go on sale in Hong Kong at prices of $695 for the 8GB model and $798 for the 16GB version. If those numbers look strikingly high, it’s only because Apple’s business plan has been to pair the iPhone 3G with a carrier in a given market–for instance, AT&T Mobility in the United States–which subsidizes the cost of the phone because customers are required to sign a service contract and pay for data plans.

Previously, the iPhone was only available in Hong Kong paired with a two-year service contract from Hutchinson, and included a $188 monthly fee.  Now customers will be able to put their old SIM card into the iPhone and activate it in iTunes. It’s not clear whether this gamble will pay off, though it could put more pressure on Apple to unlock the phones in other markets.   

Source: FierceWireless

Developers attending Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference, set for Oct. 27 through 30 in Los Angeles, will leave with an alpha version of the software maker’s upcoming Windows 7 operating system (OS), the company confirmed Wednesday.

Microsoft has historically offered up early versions of upcoming OSes to developers. However, this recent promise dispels rumors that Redmond was planning to skip its traditional alpha release due to timing issues in developing Windows 7.

“This is common. It would have been a bigger deal if they had not given the people attending PDC the code,” said Michael Cherry, lead analyst at Directions on Microsoft.

The rumor, Cherry told TechNewsWorld, stated “that [Microsoft] was not going to release it. Had they not, it would be taken as a sign that they were behind on their development plans. [Microsoft] can’t win. If they give people code at PDC, then everyone will evaluate it and start to comment on what they think Windows 7 will be. If they don’t give code, everyone will assume they cannot get it shipped. So they’re in a no-win situation. In this front, it is hard to be Microsoft.”

Discovery Zone

Developers heading to PDC next month now know they will be able to take a rough version of the next Windows OS for a test drive. However, Microsoft has divulged few details about what it plans to show off to developers, save that they will “see advances across the full range of Windows — including the kernel, networking, hardware and devices, and user interface.”

However, once they have the pre-beta code in hand, developers will have a wealth of information they will use to decide whether and how to optimize their software to function with Windows 7.

“Developers are just eager to see what things Microsoft is changing, but will wait for a more stable build before they begin their work. Others will be looking to see what this means in terms of what they can do with their applications — and whether to try and exploit Windows 7 with their applications,” Cherry explained.

Specifically, developers expect performance improvements to the .NET framework and more Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) controls, said Jeffrey Hammond, a Forrester Research analyst.

“I think support for new interaction model interests developers, and then specifically for ISV developers, there’s interest in being able to continue to take full advantage of frameworks like DirectX,” he told TechNewsWorld.

With the Windows 7 alpha code released, Microsoft hopes to receive feedback from developers on the OS.

“The more feedback they can get early in the process, the better. By the time you get to formal beta, it’s often pretty hard for software development shops to make real substantive changes — the feedback period becomes more about fixing defects and taking input for the next release planning cycle,” Hammond pointed out.

Something to Work With

Software developers are not looking for Microsoft to make a host of changes with Windows 7 but are interested in what their programs can take advantage of. Given Vista’s well-reported compatibility issues, they will definitely be looking to see that Microsoft has remedied the problem in Windows 7, Cherry said.

“Developers are looking to have their applications run wherever there are the most places for them to run. So right now, if your application runs on Windows XP and probably runs OK on Vista, you’re probably covering the largest set of places where an application can run,” Cherry noted.

What developers want is for Vista, and then Windows 7, to really take off — and pull their applications, designed to take advantage of the operating system’s features, with it, Cherry said. They want to know whether it will be worth it to optimize their applications to work with a particular version of an operating system.

Many developers need a larger installed base to sell their software to than currently exists with Vista. Meanwhile, with Windows 7, Microsoft needs to get developers to write software that takes advantage of new features to make the new OS attractive to upgraders, Michael Silver, a Gartner analyst, told TechNewsWorld.

For instance, many developers are increasingly making investments in rich Internet applications (RIAs). That makes the choice of desktop less important than choice of browser, noted Hammond.

“This is one of the reasons Microsoft is investing in Silverlight — to provide a consistent programming model for desktop apps and Web apps. This serves two purposes. It makes it easier for developers to move to rich client apps based on WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), but it also gives Microsoft a .NET development play that is independent of the operating system,” he concluded.

Source: TechNewsWorld

The announcement comes in the wake of news last week that supercomputer manufacturer Cray and Microsoft have teamed to offer a deskside-sized supercomputer for less than US$60,000. Those machines will come preloaded with Windows HPC Server 2008.

HPCs on Deck

HPC Server 2008 picks up for Microsoft where Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 (CCS) left off. CCS was the first HPC cluster technology offering from the company, designed to enable businesses to deploy multiple computers in a high-performance compute cluster in order to achieve supercomputing speeds.

Based on Windows Server 2008, HPC offers administrators simplified deployment and improved productivity of systems administration and cluster interoperability. The software will also speed application development through its integration with Visual Studio 2008.

It also supports standard interfaces, including OpenMP, multiprocessor interconnect (MPI) and Web services, along with third-party numerical library providers, performance  optimizers, compilers and debugging toolkits.

How Super, Really?

The term “supercomputer” has lost a great deal of its power lately since most “high-performance computing” is done with clusters of small computers that can be indistinguishable from those running non-HPC workloads, explained Gordon Haff, an Illuminata analyst.

“Microsoft and Windows have limited presence in ‘classic’ HPC — large pools of systems in academia or national research labs,” he told TechNewsWorld.

That said, however, more and more HPC workloads are being run in regular companies that design and build products, Haff continued.

“These are mostly smaller installations than you find at a Los Alamos [National Laboratory], but they’re still huge computing resources by historic standards,” he noted.

As Microsoft owns some 90 percent of the traditional desktop computing environment and offers users as well as developers a high level of familiarity, its push into the HPC market should start with those facilities, he said.

“Whether for reasons of familiarity, developer tools, or software compatibility, these sorts of sites are often more amenable to Windows than is the case elsewhere,” Haff concluded.

Source: TechNewsWorld