In Depth

In Depth

IT risk management

• Tackling the costly issue of fraud

  Despite success, the much-lauded National Fraud Initiative could fall foul of the Data Protection Commission  Continue Reading

• E-business is business as normal

  The most dangerous assumption made about e-business is that none of the normal rules of commerce apply.Nick Booth finds that...  Continue Reading

• Setting up an e-business: get it done or get it right?

  What's more important when setting up a website: speed to market, or making sure the site is secure?  Continue Reading

• Tough challenge for Labour's IT pledge

  The Whitehall IT review was received with mixed emotions by users, suppliers and analysts. Mike Simons reports  Continue Reading

• Thinking inside the Box

  Digital TV has been slow to get off the ground, but it does offer some interesting e-commerce opportunities for companies wanting...  Continue Reading

• The e-envoy in profile

  The Government's e-envoy Alex Allan started his job six months ago - a lifetime in e-business. Just who is he and what has he...  Continue Reading

• Piracy on the web: after Napster, Gnutella

  
  
  The story began with the technology known as MP3, which allows digital music files to be compressed by about a factor of ten, with almost no loss of quality....  Continue Reading

• How Freeserve plans to create the Uberportal

  Freeserve aims to consolidate its powerful position in the ISP marketplace by launching a range of portals to meet its customers'...  Continue Reading

• Post graduate training in information security

  In the wake of the Love Bug virus crisis, an MSc in information security could provide the security skills your department needs,...  Continue Reading

• The law and cyber-sabotage

  Cyber-espionage is a growing threat. How can it be clearly defined and what is the current UK legislation in this area, Andrew...  Continue Reading

• MoD e-contract could yield extra millions for Cap Gemini

  Cap Gemini expects to make £400m on top of a £100m MoD e-procurement contract it is set to win  Continue Reading

• Why it pays not to skimp on testing

  Getting your e-business up-and-running quickly is important but testing that it can handle the load is vital. Failure at key...  Continue Reading

• Snoopers' paradise - the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill

  Innocent until proven guilty? Not if the Government get its way. The RIP bill looks set to give the establishment unprecedented...  Continue Reading

• CRM: living under a magnifying glass

  Customer relationship management is touted as a positive means of serving and empowering the customer. But what other, more...  Continue Reading

• Enlightened Internet policies work

  The days of employees being sacked for personal use of the Internet at work are numbered: enlightened organisations are...  Continue Reading

• Developers offered access to commercial network security

  A security firm plans to let application developers use elements of its network products, writes Lindsay Clark  Continue Reading

• IT chiefs bask in security ignorance

  
  
  Lindsay Clark

  IT managers are over-confident that they have appropriate security in place to protect their company information,...

   Continue Reading

• Government IT: report ignores accountability factor

  A report - Successful IT: Modernising Government in Action - fails to tackle the problems of accountability that dog Whitehall...  Continue Reading

• Lifting the lid on secret stiffing techniques

  One of the UK's most experienced IT negotiators lifts the lid on some of the sharp practices used by software suppliers to get...  Continue Reading

• Light framework set up for e-commerce

  
  
  On 4 May the European Parliament approved the e-commerce directive, the second and final major political hurdle in the European Union's legislative process....  Continue Reading

• Firms plan to patent Internet innovations

  The scramble among US companies to patent their Internet innovations will soon be mirrored in the UK, IT lawyers have warned  Continue Reading

• The trials of Sun's balancing act

  As the Java community gears up for the JavaOne conference in San Francisco next month, Brian Clegg gets behind the hype and...  Continue Reading

• Software upgrade failure leaves Revenue facing prospect of manual assessments

  The government's tax assessment made by EDS in the US will not work on the tax offices' new desktops leaving the government with...  Continue Reading

• E-FM: tonic or treadmill?

  E-business outsourcing is still in its infancy and realising its potential is proving unpredictable, writes Julia Vowler  Continue Reading

• Finding the key to selling services on the Web

  One answer to solving the problem of selling non-commodity items on e-commerce Web sites is to put on your thinking cap and take...  Continue Reading

• Checking the labels online

  I-label may not be leading edge technology, but its effectiveness in keeping e-retailers' product databases up to date has won...  Continue Reading

• 'Good IT practice must have greater priority'

  The Love Bug Security policy, software vulnerability and end-user practice put under the spotlight  Continue Reading

• Are you liable for the smut on your network?

  
  
  On 3 May, Yaman Akdeniz, director of Cyber Rights and Cyber Liberties UK, called for immediate clarification in relation to ISPs' potential liability for...  Continue Reading

• No one is brought to book in latest public sector debacle

  Can public sector organisations learn from IT disasters if they cannot be held accountable after a major failure? Tony Collins...  Continue Reading

• Love Bug: learning the lessons

  An integrated security strategy is the best defence  Continue Reading

• AS/400 has the remotest idea

  Given that the words are abroad that the number of remote workers is increasing - aside from wondering whether this is the case,...  Continue Reading

• SmithKline Beecham goes global on AS/400

  Marketing over 400 products and employing 47,000 people worldwide, SmithKline Beecham (SB) had a pressing need for an enterprise...  Continue Reading

• A new way of networking

  As organisations demand more storage space on their networks, the traditional thin client model struggles to cope, Cliff Saran...  Continue Reading

• Bite the bullet: learn from Y2K

  A business continuity plan is for life not just for the millennium, writes Julia Vowler  Continue Reading

• Can Hercules lift Hitachi?

  >Hitachi has been losing its position in the mainframe market for the past couple of years. But it aims to fight back in 2001...  Continue Reading

• Don't dis-may

  Dates are important in IT - as the Y2K deadline proved. But, says Deiric McCann, millennium mayhem could be eclipsed by May...  Continue Reading

• Computer protection: are you surfing safely?

  
  
  Finjan's launch of its new Surfingate and Surfinguard computer protection programs may seem like just another knee-jerk reaction to the virus and Trojan...  Continue Reading

• Impact of the Demon libel case

  The recent case (March 2000) involving Demon Internet and academic Dr Laurence Godfrey has caused tremors in the ISP and...  Continue Reading

• What price privacy?

  In the e-economy personal data can be a valuable commodity. But a new law threatens big penalties for those who misuse it. David...  Continue Reading

• Grasping the ERP nettle

  Spending thousands on an enterprise resource planning system is useless if the staff don't get along with it. Julia Vowler...  Continue Reading

• Securing information: beware the enemy within

  The wrong document emailed to the press can ruin a company’s reputation and its share price. Protecting data from the enemy...  Continue Reading

• Asda shares saving experience

  Next month's UKCMG conference in York will focus on success stories and potential threats to IT users  Continue Reading

• Bank B2B systems hits delays

  
  
  David Bicknell

  The main provider of a business-to-business Internet commerce "trust" system has admitted that it is up to three months behind...

   Continue Reading

• 'Job well done' verdict, plus spin-offs, over Y2K

  Post-mortems on year 2000 projects produced some unexpected benefits.  Continue Reading

• Spring clean your IT systems

  To get from where your IT department is now to where it needs to be, the manager needs to get down to a good spring clean. Maya...  Continue Reading

• Errors rife in police data file

  Mike Simons Police auditors have found an 86% error rate on the Police National Computer (PNC).  Continue Reading

• The Electronic Signatures Directive under the spotlight

  
  
  What is it? The Electronic Signatures Directive, adopted by the European Parliament in December 1999, establishes a legal framework for the use of...  Continue Reading

• Training for cyber war

  With computers came computer crime. Patrick Hook looks at how the cyber cops are keeping apace with the e-robbers  Continue Reading

• The Data Protection Act: analyse your working practices

  My company is streamlining many of our manual files and transferring these onto a computer-based system. These files include...  Continue Reading

• Xerox aims to make the paperless office a reality

  Xerox's aim is to change the culture of paper technology in the workplace. Liam White talks to the social scientist who is...  Continue Reading

• The music industry, MP3 and copyright law

  Whose responsibility does copyright protection lie with, and what will be the implications of the forthcoming Napster court case?  Continue Reading

• CRM faces customer backlash

  
  
  A backlash against increased personalisation through Net-based data analysis threatens the progress of customer relationship management (CRM) systems....  Continue Reading

• Fend off new laws with opt-in boxes

  Business Web sites should use opt-in tick boxes when collecting personal information for external marketers, according to a...  Continue Reading

• Why pay-as-you-go won't hold you back

  Brian Clegg spells out the advantages of applications on demand versus working off the PC's disc  Continue Reading

• Tivoli offers privacy mangement tool

  Systems management supplier Tivoli has launched an initiative that aims to build privacy policies into corporate information...  Continue Reading

• MPs call for NHS IT investment

  
  
  MPs are set to demand action on the 57,000 NHS operations that are cancelled each year because of under-investment in IT systems.

  A report from the...

   Continue Reading

• IT directors: Build the pillars to success

  
  
  John Lennon once said, "Life is what happens while you are making other plans". By the same token, it might also be said that IT is what happens while you are...  Continue Reading

• MPs question EDS contract

  Inland Revenue and EDS chiefs defend their outsourcing contract against House of Commons Public Accounts Committee scrutiny and...  Continue Reading

• Mobile working: only the quick will survive

  WAP and Bluetooth claim to create viable mobile solutions. Proper planning, ingenious service provision and outsourced support is...  Continue Reading

• Visa reform will not tempt Indian workers

  Indian suppliers group says that visa relaxation will not woo Indian contractors, while British IT contractors threaten legal...  Continue Reading

• Shortage of Net skills could hamper UK growth

  The huge boom in the Internet marketplace is good news for UK companies. However, as Mark Vernon discovered, a skills shortage...  Continue Reading

• Scalable storage solutions for businesses

  When determining the storage needs of your business, it is essential to pick a hardware partner with high quality products as...  Continue Reading

• Putting the mobile into automobile

  Inspecting used cars on behalf of the customer is a growth area. To cope with demand the RAC Inspection Services introduced a...  Continue Reading

• Anywhere, anytime, anyhow

  It is over three years since Lou Gerstner described pervasive computing as 'a billion people interacting with a million...  Continue Reading

• The old grey matter test

  Business intelligence (BI) needs to become more closely aligned with the broader goals of knowledge management (KM).  Continue Reading

• The enterprise paper chase gathers momentum

  Research carried out for PeopleDoc on the top 400 UK companies by turnover demonstrated these blue chip organisations are...  Continue Reading

• The protection racket

  IT security doesn't need to cost a bundle, but you certainly can't afford to be without it. Even the financially challenged can...  Continue Reading

• A return to multi-tiered networks solves the data storage dilemma

  Despite interoperability problems, Sans could be the answer to increasing data storage needs, writes Ian Murphy  Continue Reading

• No such thing as a bad e-business idea?

  Everyone loves backing a winner. E-Business Review asked four specialists to make their predictions for winners and losers in...  Continue Reading

• SANs approaching the final hurdles

  Before becoming widely accepted by user organisations, storage area networks need standards. Nick Enticknap examines progress so...  Continue Reading

• Security: a top level issue

  IT directors should be wary of taking full responsibility for their corporate information  Continue Reading

• No need for a siege mentality

  Does good e-security have to cost a fortune? Nick Booth argues that thinking through the problems can ensure maximum protection...  Continue Reading

• Security: Rallying to the standard

  It may have a low profile now, but could the BS7799 standard finally get the topic of information security out of the closet and...  Continue Reading

• The month in e-business - March

  
  
  Telephony pricing war hots up

  A string of companies announced plans to offer unmetered Internet access. Alta Vista started the trend, followed...

   Continue Reading

• Storing the big e-data mountain

  As e-business/commerce takes off, so the data it generates grows exponentially, producing major ramifications for storage and IT...  Continue Reading

• Net losses: does the Web drain your firm's resources?

  Employees love the Internet, and around a third of the time they spend surfing is not work-related. However, lost productivity could be the least of your worries  Continue Reading

• Data Protection Act will impact on Net users

  On 1st March the new Data Protection Act came into force. The Act was introduced as a result of a European Directive and...  Continue Reading

• Finding an e-business director

  How do you find the skill set you need for the new job of e-business director? Some recruitment experts give their opinion  Continue Reading

• You can't have one without the other

  As volumes of data held by organisations grow dramatically, storage management becomes ever more important.  Continue Reading

• E-business start-ups: a leap in the dark

  Joining an e-business start-up might seem like a fast road to a quick buck but, warns Andy Favell, it has more to do with long...  Continue Reading

• FEI warns Government RIP faces huge hurdles

  The Federation of Electronic Industries has warned the Government that the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) bill faces...  Continue Reading

• NHSnet: reversal of fortune?

  After a near-disastrous year, NHSnet is trying to regain the confidence of GPs with tighter network contracts. But it has a long...  Continue Reading

• Why over-optimism over new online trading exchanges needs tempering

  
  
  The frothy nature of the online trading exchange market is exciting, but partici-pants should enter the fray with their eyes open.

  The announcement...

   Continue Reading

• Strategy Clinic: Can ERP products really pay their way?

  The major enterprise resource planning suppliers tell me a return on investment can be realised within a matter of month. Is this...  Continue Reading

• One2One automates billing system

  One2One automated its billing systems in just one month, and realised a return on its investment within a week. Julia Vowler...  Continue Reading

• Companies weigh up damages over BT network crash

  Companies severely affected by the BT network crash three weeks ago are still considering whether to seek compensation from the...  Continue Reading

• Testing takes on new importance

  The growth in the e-commerce projects is good news for testers, writes Nick Langley  Continue Reading

• Check out your pressure points

  E-business makes complex demands on IT infrastructure, but tackling six key areas can make all the difference. Mark Vernon...  Continue Reading

• Fire Brigade makes big savings with thin client

  The replacement of PCs in favour of NCD Windows terminals has cut support costs  Continue Reading

• Strategy Clinic: Should I go for a bespoke or an off-the-shelf e-commerce package?

  Should scrap our off-the-shelf e-commerce package and opt for a custom-built suite?  Continue Reading

• Fault tolerance: A SMART move

  The SMART system allows for a high degree of fault tolerance when incorporated in hard disk drives  Continue Reading

• A Wyse move switching to Windows 2000

  Wyse Technology shows how migrating to Windows 2000 could be an ideal opportunity to move large parts of the network onto a thin...  Continue Reading

• Kids must be taught Net ethics

  It's fine to give schoolchildren greater Net access, but they still needto be told the difference between usage and abusage.  Continue Reading

• Mobile banking will eradicate the need to queue

  E-visionaries: There are dozens of e-marketplaces emerging to let large corporations trade their surplus inventory. But when the...  Continue Reading

• Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill: what it will mean to you

  RIP: we look at how this new Bill will affect IT departments across the UK  Continue Reading

• Strategy Clinic: How can I maintain the integrity of our networks?

  What strategy - cultural and technological - do you recommend I implement to safeguard the integrity of the organisation's IT...  Continue Reading

• White Paper: Solving the Internet database challenge

  This white paper discusses the all-encompassing duties of organisations that are charged with creating and maintaining databases,...  Continue Reading

• NCC warns of Net legal mines

  IT directors advised to tread carefully until legal issues are resolved  Continue Reading

• Leaked RAF memo scathing of safety software evaluation

  Computer Weekly's Tony Collins uncovers evidence that the MoD has consistently undermined the authority of its software assessors...  Continue Reading

• Women-only Web site to promote IT careers

  Industry and the Government are teaming up to develop a major Web site aimed at attracting more women into IT and supporting them...  Continue Reading