Short takes on this week's news
Bank fraud increasing due to phishing
attacks
Banks will come under further pressure to adopt two-factor
authentication technology following a 55% increase in online
banking fraud over the past year. Figures released today (7
November) by the Association of Payment Clearing Services, show
bank losses from fraud reached £22.5m in the first six months of
the year, up from £14.5m over the same period in 2005. The increase
has been driven by a dramatic rise in the volume of phishing
incidents.
Suppliers' guidelines aim to build
professionalism
The suppliers trade association Intellect has launched a set of
guidelines to help IT organisations improve their professionalism.
The guidelines aim to build trust between suppliers and IT
departments. They focus on seven key aspects: professionalism,
integrity, process, people, communications, learning and
citizenship.
Broadband network to cover south of
Scotland
The South of Scotland Broadband Pathfinder Project has chosen
Thus to provide a network worth up to £32m, which will deliver high
capacity broadband links to rural schools, businesses, libraries
and council offices throughout Dumfries, Galloway and the Scottish
Borders. The government initiative will deliver broadband to 410
connections in the south of Scotland.
Directory services from WDG get speed boost
The World Directories Group, a provider of local directories,
has implemented Fast's Enterprise Search platform across its online
directory services in Belgium, the Netherlands, South Africa and
Ireland. The project has increased the speed and relevance of web
search results.
Lloyds uses Base24-es for faster payments
Lloyds TSB is to use an enhanced version of ACI Worldwide's
Base24-es software to meet the UK's new faster payments service
requirements. Base24-es for Faster Payments should provide Lloyds
TSB with a more flexible, feature-rich gateway for linking to the
central Faster Payments infrastructure being built by Immediate
Payments.
Novell and Microsoft agree on open source
Microsoft has signed a business and technology agreement with
Novell to allow Microsoft's proprietary products to work better
with Novell's open source server platforms. The agreement between
the two companies focuses on virtualisation, web services and
document format compatibility.
SAP competitors file for bankruptcy
Java-based enterprise resource planning software companies
Semiramis Software of Germany and Semiramis Software of Austria
have filed for bankruptcy. Both companies partner with IBM to sell
systems and they compete with SAP in the ERP market. The companies,
part of Austrian KTW Group, owe millions of pounds.
Bodies unite to form anti-spam initiative
A joint anti-spam initiative , the Stop Spam Alliance, has been
launched by governments and industry bodies. The initiative has
come out of the World Summit at the Information Society conference
held a year ago. At the conference, governments and other attendees
were asked to deal effectively with the significant and growing
problem posed by spam.
http://Stopspamalliance.org
Users' mixed feelings on Oracle's support
abilities
Oracles users remain confident about Oracle's ability to support
the acquired Siebel business, but there is a drop in overall
satisfaction among Peoplesoft and JD Edwards users, preliminary
results from the UK Oracle User Group 2006 survey have revealed.
The findings prompted Ronan Miles, chairman of the UK OUG, to say,
"The honeymoon period is truly over for 2005's high-profile
acquisitions."
This year's results show that Oracle needs to continue to invest
effort in reaching out to UK OUG members."
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