Opinion

Opinion

• How will the Carbon Reduction Committment affect IT outsourcing?

  Government plans to cut carbon emissions in the UK will soon be mandatory for large businesses and public sector bodies. An immediate consequence will be...

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• Information overload: lessons from the Christmas Day terror attack

  The foiled Christmas Day attempt to blow up a plane over Detroit has once again sparked debate about international security and how data relating to passengers...

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• Social media needs a social security strategy

  There are plenty of stories about companies using social networking, micro-blogging and online collaborative services to generate business leads, build sales...

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• E-mail management: keeping the business bloodlines flowing

  IT departments ignoring the growth of e-mail data are putting business continuity at risk, warns Richard Ellis, manager UK & Ireland, Iron Mountain Digital.  Continue Reading

• Security Zone: How to complete a security questionnaire

  Michael Pike discusses the rules of responding to a security questionnaire when bidding for IT work from a large company.  Continue Reading

• How to achieve ERP success: part 2 - the software

  How to achieve ERP success  Continue Reading

• Preparing your IT security for the mobile information boom

  Hardly a day goes by without a new innovation in mobile technology. Mobile banking and transactions will soon be commonplace, and organisations such as hospitals and councils increasingly rely on mobile devices to access sensitive information from ...  Continue Reading

• Data encryption is simple safeguard against data breaches

  The government has introduced legislation that enables the Information Commissioner's Office to issue fines of up to £500,000 for serious data security breaches,...

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• Do we need a single cyber-security organisation to secure the internet?

  A poll by Infosecurity Europe has found that 60% of organisations think that the internet needs a cyber-security organisation to oversee it. Here industry experts have their say  Continue Reading

• Opinion: IT systems management on a small business budget

  Although widely adopted at an enterprise level, professional systems management has been out of the reach of small and medium-sized businesses because of the cost and administrative overheads involved, until now.  Continue Reading

• Security Zone: why we should be more concerned about password authentication

  Passwords as the last means of protection beyond physical control have remained essentially unchanged for more than half a century. From a technology perspective, this single control is no weaker than it was when it was created during World War II. ...  Continue Reading

• Extract - Grown-Up Digital: Net Geners in collaboration

  Excerpt from Grown Up Digital by Don Tapscott: Many Net Geners are happy to help with product design.  Continue Reading

• Telcos must transform their businesses to stop slide in profits

  Big companies and organisations of ancient pedigree find it hard, if not impossible, to change quickly in response to market demands and new technologies, and Telcos are no exception.  Continue Reading

• What is the best thing Santa could bring the IT security manager?

  Security leaders from the ISF, BCS, ISACA, (ISC)2, Tif and ISSA present a wishlist for securing corporate systems in 2010  Continue Reading

• VDU eyecare – clearing the confusion

  On the face of it, the regulations regarding the use of VDUs and eyecare are pretty straightforward. The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations have been in force since 1992 (amended in 2002) and require employers to provide all ...  Continue Reading

• The beginning of the end for online tracking?

  While for many at this time of year its a season for gifts which don't last beyond Boxing Day, the draft paper published by the Information Commissioner's...  Continue Reading

• Save blushes and blame with firewall policy analysis

  It happens in a moment - I put my mobile down and suddenly my client is standing in front of me ready for a meeting. Two hours later I am desperately searching...

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• A sorry tale of a CEO and his laptop

  As the CTO of a data protection and encryption company I hear many tales of woe from senior executives who have confessed to losing their laptops. Here is...

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• Smart meters demand smart deployment

  Smart meters are a smart idea, but consider the nightmare scenario: thousands of angry customers calling because they have yet to receive the new smart meters...  Continue Reading

• PCI DSS: the end is more important than the means

  After making its mark in the US and the UK, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) has its sights on the rest of the world, writes...

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• Cross border VAT and the slow death of offshore financial services outsourcing

  Cross border VAT and the slow death of offshore financial services outsourcing.  Continue Reading

• Review: HTC HD2 - Is it time to close the Windows?

  Ever since I spent a fortune on a Nokia Communicator back in 1996 my wallet has been on a hiding to nothing as far as my smartphone habit is concerned.  Continue Reading

• Review: BlackBerry Storm 2 - More like a shower

  This is not the first Storm that I've got to know intimately, I had something of a hate/hate relationship with the original model.  Continue Reading

• Integrating your Green IT strategy into business objectives

  As we count down to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December, the green agenda is inevitably coming heavily to the fore.  Continue Reading

• HBOS power failure highlights importance of business continuity planning

  Neil Stephenson, CEO of Onyx Group, discusses the recent HBOS crisis and explains why disaster recovery will remain a business bugbear if not managed properly.  Continue Reading

• Careers clinic: The biggest mistake in job interviews

  Let's assume that your CV has done its job and you have been invited to interview, writes Jeremy I'Anson, director of Career...  Continue Reading

• Five reasons to move to the Middle East

  With a tough UK employment market, now may be a good time to look at the possibility of working abroad. The Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) including the...

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• Security Zone: can you prevent scraping or data harvesting?

  We have all innocently copied and pasted text and images from websites, but scripts and bots have made it possible to lift content of websites to industrial mining proportions in a practice known as 'data scraping'  Continue Reading

• How to save money and reduce environmental impact through efficient printing

  A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) has found that the UK spends around £5,800m per year on outsourced printing and £14,300m per year on in-house printing.  Continue Reading

• Google Chrome OS: A threat to Windows 7?

  Google OS has been warmly embraced by the anti-Microsoft crowd, but Davey Winder is less than blown over by the announcement.  Continue Reading

• Careers clinic: marketing your personal product

  Lights Camera Action! Yes, here comes yet another movie star, Brad and Angelina, Madonna, Tom Cruise, Nichole Kidman. Each and every one an attractively...  Continue Reading

• Revised Google Book search deal 'a massive disappointment'

  Last Friday the parties to the US Google...  Continue Reading

• Knowledge transfer strategies to beat skills shortages

  In the West, process engineering companies have typically benefited from the ability to access experienced talent in the form of operators, control/process...

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• Using mobility in compliance and business performance

  Compliance and legislation puts an ever-increasing burden of accountability on organisations, whether it is for the benefit of financial regulations,...

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• Gartner: Users need to use multiple PCs

  Why is corporate adoption of the trusted computing standard still very low when over 70% of new computing devices have built-in trusted platform modules (TPMs)?  Continue Reading

• A wise Oracle follows the Sun

  As negotiations over the Oracle/Sun merger continue, let's examine what they might have in store for businesses and IT managers with respect to software development  Continue Reading

• Guardian jobs database attack demonstrates difficulties of database security

  Job hunting is a tough job in itself - battling with 8% unemployment, rehearsing for job interviews, adding relevant yet interesting hobbies to your CV - and then you receive an e-mail from The Guardian's job site to say that your personal details ...  Continue Reading

• Remedies Directive: public sector IT suppliers beware

  The implementation of the new Remedies Directive into UK law on 20 December 2009 presents serious risks to unwary suppliers. Where a public sector customer...

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• Vote in the Computer Weekly IT Blog Awards 2009

  Vote in the Computer Weekly IT Blog Awards 2009 - voting will end on the 20 November.  Continue Reading

• Online presence: an essential strategy for the public sector

  As Britain becomes digital, Adrian Moss, head of Web 2.0 at Parity, calls for better online engagement at a local level.  Continue Reading

• Online back-up or cloud recovery?

  Backing up files and data online has been around for quite a while, but it has never really taken off in a big way for business customers. Now new solutions...

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• Patches encourage lax security processes

  I have been in the network security game for over a decade and I am still amazed at the number of organisations that only think about their network security...  Continue Reading

• Challenges and benefits of physical IT security

  There has been much talk in the physical security market concerning the imminent arrival of IT manufacturers and the likely impact it will have on the...

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• IT security crisis management: looking beyond the magic bullet

  The main threats that organisations and their customers are facing today are the same ones that have always been around: ignorance, apathy and poverty....

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• Think small to avoid public sector IT disasters

  It is eight years since the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) called for "dolphins not whales", warning of the "hidden danger...

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• Finance's lack of cloud commitment is a surprise

  The finance sector is holding back on implementing cloud technologies  Continue Reading

• What happens when cloud data is lost?

  Everywhere you turn somebody somewhere is extolling the virtues of cloud computing, writes Tom Greenbank of international law firm Pinsent Masons.  Continue Reading

• How to upgrade storage on the cheap

  Increased demands from the business, and in some cases from regulators, are driving an unprecedented rate of storage growth through a need to store more...

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• Microsoft Security Essentials raises baseline security in Windows 7

  The launch of Microsoft Security Essentials should be commended, writes Thorsten Holz, an IEEE member and researcher at the Technical University of Vienna.  Continue Reading

• Why processes, not technology, will drive business improvement

  Businesses are constantly seeking new ways to maximise their profitability and this is never truer than in today's tough economic times, writes Alan Bowling, chairman of the SAP UK & Ireland User Group.  Continue Reading

• Security Zone: Secure by design?

  With nearly every aspect of our lives becoming reliant on computer technology, how do we know we can trust the systems we are using are secure and cannot be easily exploited?  Continue Reading

• Desktop OS upgrade options greater than ever

  Windows 7 finally delivers what Vista should have done three years ago. Application issues have all been greatly improved with Windows 7, it works well...

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• Ten golden rules to avoid delays in ERP projects

  The transformation of businesses today is, more often than not, enabled by underpinning IT which automates the transformed business processes ...  Continue Reading

• Passwords and encryption strengthen printer security

  When we conduct a penetration test of a corporate network, we typically find dozens of printers offering management pages without passwords. This means that anyone on the network could not only print to the machine, but also control it, change the ...  Continue Reading

• Security managers must keep pace with weak points in connected devices

  Restrictions provide a back door into organisational networks through [the lack of] security in embedded devices.  Continue Reading

• Security Zone: How to apply master data management

  Centralised, correct data helps a company operate efficiently. The challenge to consistently present one version of the company's data becomes apparent as businesses increasingly use IT systems to enable their operations and achieve their missions  Continue Reading

• Risk assessment enables targeted security management

  Businesses affected by the economic downturn, suffering a reduction in resources and an increase in threats, need to risk assess their vulnerabilities and think carefully about how and where to focus their attention.  Continue Reading

• Will Cloud Computing lead to several own goals?

  The new Premiership football season is well under way and every manager is hoping his star talent and ‘squad strength’ will see his team through the late autumn sun to the dark cloudy evenings of winter.  Continue Reading

• Responsibility for security of end-point devices must be shared across the business

  Network scanning technology needs to be capable of addressing the end points to ensure that anti-virus or software updates are run on printers and other connected devices to keep them virus-free and "healthy".  Continue Reading

• Interview: How Firefox won its market share

  Chris Hoffmann, Director of Engineering and Special Projects at the Mozilla Foundation, speaks to Cliff Saran about winning the hearts and minds of internet users and developers.  Continue Reading

• Merger mania, data disaster?

  It feels like someone has fired a starting gun for the merger and acquisition (M&A) market. After months of relatively low activity, September saw proposed multibillion-pound deals between major companies such as Kraft and Cadbury as well as ...  Continue Reading

• Security Zone: Checklist for winning IT security funding

  I sometimes wonder what it is that makes otherwise rational security folk seem to ignore the most fundamental aspect of any corporate IT security strategy when they convene to talk , discuss and architect the why, how and where security fits into ...  Continue Reading

• Controls and compliance – maximising value and reducing costs

  Sarbanes-Oxley. Control effectiveness. Management assurance. These are now stock terms within the vocabulary of the CIO and a sign of the heightened level...

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• Next generation IT: understanding user context

  Gartner predicts that advances in networks, mobile hardware capabilities, social computing, service-oriented architecture (SOA), and unified communication...

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• The role of ICT in transforming education

  It has become trite to say that the Government's Building Schools for the Future Programme is more than "bricks and mortar". What is less widely recognised...

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• Can social media save local government?

  The great Ernest Hemingway once said: "There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and...

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• Five best practices for mitigating insider breaches

  I am confronted every day with companies who have suffered some kind of security breach, mostly internal and it often comes down to the mismanagement...

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• Opinion: eBay could innovate to rescue Skype Sale

  News that eBay is facing a copyright claim from the founders of Skype's innovative peer-to-peer 'Global Index' (GI) technology has left its proposed sale of the internet calling business on decidedly dodgy ground, writes Nick Wallin, patent attorney...  Continue Reading

• Google ruling in Louis Vuitton case favours web freedom

  In a case brought against Google by a number of claimants, including Louis Vuitton, an important advisory Opinion was handed down  Continue Reading

• Opinion: Google Adwords gets legal boost from Europe

  The advertising, e-commerce, legal, retail and even counterfeiting industries looked on in anticipation this week, as the European Court of Justice's Advocate General delivered his opinion in the long running dispute between Google and Louis Vuitton...  Continue Reading

• The Obama approach to reducing IT opex

  If you have as a key goal on your MBOs to achieve a significant reduction in your IT opex costs then listen carefully to the subplot in US president Barack...  Continue Reading

• Mixed messages as Microsoft Office comes to the web

  The on-premise walls are crumbling. Microsoft's Office Web Apps are now in public technical preview - though currently for US customers only - which means that users can now create, edit and view Office documents using only a web browser.  Continue Reading

• Meeting regulations is key security advantage

  The business case for information security has finally been recognised. Rather than being viewed as an unwanted necessity and expense, information security is now seen as a valuable contributor for protecting and managing brand image.  Continue Reading

• Protection of customer data makes a strong selling point

  There is no doubt that security will play an increasingly important role in enabling business growth, but it requires those in the boardrooms of Great Britain to wake up to the real challenges that will threaten their business over the next decade.  Continue Reading

• Security bridges the divide between IT and business

  As information security grows in stature within the organisation, we in the profession must be careful not to develop any delusions of grandeur. No matter how crucial our efforts may be, we must recognise that we are very firmly cast in a supporting...  Continue Reading

• Seven ways to align security with the business

  There is no single tactic or strategy that guarantees success in improving business alignment of security. Rather, a number of varied but interrelated actions need to be identified and executed to improve alignment over time.  Continue Reading

• Strong security builds trust; trust builds business

  The first challenge in attempting to articulate the extent to which security can help business growth is for the enterprise to recognise that security is a business issue, not just a technical one.  Continue Reading

• Good security and security governance can win business

  By applying appropriate security within a company, risks can be taken, and by taking risks, business will grow.  Continue Reading

• Five benefits of virtualisation

  Difficult economic times are a challenge for everyone, writes Hamish Macarthur, founder of Macarthur Stroud International. IT managers must keep service levels high while reducing costs, get more out of the same or fewer resources and take on ...  Continue Reading

• Cloud computing faces security storm

  A storm-front is brewing for cloud computing, writes Paul Zimski, vice-president of market strategy at Lumension. As developers continue to reach towards the sky with insecure infrastructure, the chances for a disastrous squall increase every day.  Continue Reading

• Raise the profile of security's risk management potential

  The name "Paul Moore", ex-head of risk for HBOS, is not synonymous with information security, but perhaps it should be.  Continue Reading

• IT rises from the ashes of Lehman Brothers collapse

  It was a year ago today when investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. The collapse of the 150-year-old bank with over 26,000 employees sent a shockwave that rippled through the economy.  Continue Reading

• A guide to storage decommissioning

  Organisations should be in a position to decommission their older storage equipment  Continue Reading

• Benchmarking ISP service: the Harley Davidson standard

  Would the telecoms industry benefit from establishing a standardised benchmark for measuring customer service across the sector? If customer service needs to be improved, is this the best way to do it?  Continue Reading

• Data can be safer in the cloud than on the desktop

  As computing moves out of the desktop and onto the internet, worries about security have mounted. If you store data in another company's servers, in the cloud, how can you be confident that it is safe? writes Eran Feigenbaum, director of security, ...  Continue Reading

• Security Zone: Forensics - don’t hamper the investigation

  All too often investigations are compromised by the involvement of a "helpful" IT department, writes Matthew Parker of Ernst & Young. The common mistake is to attempt to perform the investigation yourself without understanding the ramifications of ...  Continue Reading

• The cybercrime arms race: cyber security back on the political agenda

  A costly and newsworthy breach at one of the US's leading payment transaction processors, a new US president calling for a cybercrime review as one of...

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• Engage, don't enrage: how to connect with customers on Twitter

  Twitter is rapidly becoming one of the most popular social networking sites, with more than 44 million users, according to market research firm comScore....

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• How to prevent data leaking in transit

  The number of incidents involving data intentionally or unintentionally leaving corporate networks is on the rise, writes Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology...

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• Developing flexible instant messaging guidelines

  From its beginnings in the early 1990s, instant messaging (IM) has developed into a powerful business tool, giving internet users access to a simple presence facility, as well as acting as a linchpin for online conferencing, whiteboarding and other ...  Continue Reading

• Security Zone: Keep IT security separate

  Roles, teams and even entire departments are often combined to streamline efficiency and reduce costs, but this is not always as straight-forward as it...  Continue Reading

• Government U-turn on file-sharing measures

  The Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) has released a government statement drastically changing the content of its current consultation on proposed legislation to address illicit Peer-to Peer (P2P) file-sharing, writes Scott ...  Continue Reading

• Best practice for IM security

  Corporate IT Forum members collectively believe that the triangle of trust around security is policy, enforcement and education. Obviously, individual organisations must decide how far they want to go with each of these, depending on the nature of ...  Continue Reading

• IM security: the triangle of trust

  Corporate IT Forum members collectively believe that the triangle of trust around security is policy, enforcement and education. Obviously, individual organisations must decide how far they want to go with each of these, depending on the nature of ...  Continue Reading

• Mitigate IM risks with security awareness and access control

  Instant messaging (IM) is one of those applications that is seen as either the best thing since sliced bread, greatly improving productivity, or the bane of a manager's life because it is perceived that staff waste a lot of time using it.  Continue Reading

• No silver bullet for instant messaging security

  A 2006 Ostermen Research survey found 93% of North American businesses were using instant messaging (IM). Commercial offerings such as Reuters Messaging Interchange will only increase demand  Continue Reading

• Real-time data sharing is key to swine flu control

  The swine flu outbreak emphasises the global, connected challenges facing today's healthcare professionals - but technology can help, writes...

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• Instant messaging: educate, monitor and block

  I have not yet encountered a work situation where employees could not accomplish their objectives or daily workload because they could not use IM.  Continue Reading

• How will the new Google Caffeine update affect your business?

  The advent of Google Caffeine will see Google's technical infrastructure undergoing a massive change.  Continue Reading

• Opinion: Digital Britain needs secure surfing

  Internet security is a constantly changing mission and one that requires you to stay on top of the game, minimising the threats and risk of security breaches, writes Tom Millar.  Continue Reading