I just had a conversation over lunch with some colleagues about the computing power in gaming consoles and how gaming is driving what used to be called supercomputing. Take , for example, the astrophysicist who replaced a supercomputer with a cluster of Playstation 3s. Given the general utility of gaming platforms it won't be long before they become a common target for malware. Trend Micro is trying to get out early for a potential new market.
From WUSA9.com | Consumer - New Antivirus Software For Playstation 3 we get the announcement plus some skeptical reaction:

 
Continue reading Gaming Platforms Used for Mainstream Computing, Target for Malware...

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Posted by Dan Sullivan | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ben Worthen raises good points in his post at the Wall Street Journal on why the Google phone is "A Business-Tech Nightmare Waiting to Happen." The basic gist is:

Here’s the first thing that will happen when a phone with Google’s operating system hits the market: Information-technology departments will ban employees from connecting phones that run Google’s operating system to their computers or the corporate network. The reason is that Google’s operating system is open, meaning anyone can write software for it. That includes bad guys, who will doubtlessly develop viruses and other malicious code for these phones, which unsuspecting Google phones owners will download. Employees could spread the malicious code to the rest of the company when they synch their phones to their computers or use it to check email.

I'm sure the Android platform will be a tempting target for malware writers but I'm less pessimistic about the general IT response. After all, Android should be a tempting market for anti-malware vendors, too.

 
Continue reading Google Android Phones in the Workplace...

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Last week I wrote about the increasing importance of small mass market devices and their effect on IT. I started with the Asus Eee and Zonbu's light weight green-friendly home PC and ended the week disagreeing with Forbe's take on the Gphone, it will matter to IT departments. I didn't mention the iPod and the new iPod touch, but Seth Weintraub took on that topic in a MacWorld opinion piece called iPod touch is a business tool, tool. He starts with:

It offers in one svelte package a host of cool features, everything from Web browsing over Wi-Fi to VPN access and a host of enterprise-useful apps. Sure, you can listen to music, but there's also a practical side, the side that makes it a perfect tool for business.

 
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McAfee has been expanding its offerings well outside just traditional anti-virus market with moves to expand into the risk management arena and today's announcement of the purchase of SafeBoot is more evidence of the evolution of the security market. IT departments are grappling with a lot more than viruses on the desktop and traditional AV vendors are responding. McAfee is getting into data loss protection and risk management, Symantec acquired Altiris to enhance its offering with a reach into the asset management. This all makes sense. Security is multi-layered and vendors that can help manage those multiple layers will thrive.

 
Continue reading McAfee Acquires SafeBoot: The AV Market Ain't What It Used to Be...

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I really like Jek Hui's post at Tech Talk, Linux winning in the lower end market, because he cuts to the chase on why low cost computers, like the Asus Eee, are a problem for Microsoft. He says:

If you just paid $250 for a shiny basic laptop, how much would you pay extra for the software to do basic things like surf the web? Not much I suspect. Another issue is that most of these basic systems save money by sporting very small harddrives (down to 2Gb for the ASUS EEE). The minimum system requirement for Vista Home Basic is a 20 Gb harddrive with 15 Gb available space (ouch). Plus you need a CD-ROM drive to install it...

He goes on to come up with a few ways for Microsoft to respond but he doesn't mention getting out of the operating system business, which is my favorite and not because I don't like Windows.

 
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Microsoft is making more announcements about its strategy to implement some kind of Web-based Office solution. We've been waiting for details on how Redmond would respond to Google Apps and the demise of pay-for-local-use word processing/spreadsheet/presentation software. The details are still somewhat unclear but I think Microsoft Business Division President Jeff Raikes got it right, when he said online/local implementations is not an either or proposition:

 
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Oracle is in the news again and this time not for being #3 in terms of vulnerabilities (see my earlier post on that one). No, this is good news for Oracle. Their revenues are the best in ten years according to infoWorld:

New software licensing revenue growth -- the highest in 10 years for the company -- helped boost Oracle's first-quarter financials.

New software licensing revenue grew 35 percent to $1.1 billion, the strongest growth of any quarter in the past decade, the company reported on Thursday.

Revenue for the period ending Aug. 31 was up 26 percent to$4.5 billion and net income grew by 25 percent to $840 million compared to the same quarter last year, based on generally accepted accounting principles.

Oracle isn't just making money on databases either, they are making progress in middle ware as well.

 
Continue reading Oracle Revenues Up Despite Security Woes...

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In a keynote address to the InformationWeek 500 conference, McAfee CEO David DeWalt summarized the state of cybercrime and the security market, including something of a wake up call:

DeWalt said "it's amazing how low the awareness is of cyber-security threats" among both government officials and corporate executives. "As the world has flattened, we've seen a significant amount of emerging threats from increasingly sophisticated groups attacking organizations around the world."

and

Citing recent highly publicized corporate data breaches that have beset major companies like Ameritrade, Citigroup, and Bank of America, DeWalt said that cyber-crime has become a US$105 billion business that now surpasses the value of the illegal drug trade worldwide.

DeWalt also cited five trends in the security industry:

 
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Following yesterday's announcement by the EU First Court upholding a major anti-trust finding against Microsoft, the folks in Redmond will hear today that IBM is offering its office productivity suite for free. The New York Times reports:

The company is announcing the desktop software, called I.B.M. Lotus Symphony, at an event today in New York. The programs will be available as free downloads from the I.B.M. Web site.

 
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As the data loss protection market grows there is concern that DLP tools will be cast as a silver bullet. This is a regular problem in IT. The new kid on the block with save us all. In the case of data loss prevention, there is a lot that can be done but there are things it can't do. (For more technical details, listen to this recent podcast on the pros and cons of network-based and host-based DLP tools).

Here is another take on the state of DLP functionality for NetworkWorld:

Platforms that detect when sensitive corporate data is leaked are more effective against people making honest errors than they are against criminals trying to steal the data, says one analyst.

A small percentage of data that leaks from corporate networks (0.5%) is stolen by professionals whose efforts will evade detection by security products touted as data-leakage prevention tools, says Nick Selby, an analyst with 451 Group who spoke at the Security Standard conference Monday.

 
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InforWorld has announced it's top tools in a number of open source categories. There are no surprises in the security category with well known applications like Nessus (vulnerability assessment), Snort (IPS), and Spamassasin. An unexpected but welcome recognition went to the Open Source Security Testing Methodologies Manual (OSSTMM) for best testing practices. The paper noted:

 
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SpreadFirefox announced the open source browser has been downloaded 400 million times:

Today, you all have done it once again. With your amazing efforts, Firefox has reached 400 million downloads and demonstrated that not even the world's most powerful companies can keep people from a better, safer, and faster Web experience. You all, the grass roots and the heart of the Firefox movement, have helped hundreds of millions of people find that better, safer, and faster Web.

Of course the number of downloads isn't the same as the number of current users. From Wikipedia we get a a little more detail on the counts, most importantly these counts do not include updates:

 
Continue reading Mozilla Hits 400 Million Downloads, About 110 Million Users...

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Microsoft and Google continue to look more and more like each other. Microsoft is beefing up its online offerings with free cloud computing software, Windows Live. At the same time it looks like Google is recognizing that 100% online services aren't quite there yet. Google Pack, a suite of free client side tools, now includes Star Office, probably the best of the Microsoft Office alternatives. Google Gears is another indication that Google recognizes the need to sometimes work offline. I think these are good indicators of where we'll be soon with a good balance of local and online services and applications. The idea that there is a competition between software will be either all online or all local is wrong, we're going to have both. A big issues will be how data is managed in a hybrid client/service model.

 
Continue reading Microsoft takes on Google with Windows Live; Google Making Moves on the Desktop...

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There is more talk about the Google Phone:

The Boston Globe's Introducing the Google Phone is more about the people who are behind the development rather than the phone itself.

GigOM has 5 Facts About Google Phone which includes "facts" about the device's OS, interface, and browser.

Someon over at IntoMobile has been scanning the patent office to come up with details of a Google SMS payment service described in Google puts in patent application for SMS text message payment system - say what?. So maybe we won't have to listen to ads on a Google Phone, they'll make money off transactions.

 
Continue reading Google Phone Roundup - The Latest News and Rumors...

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A few stories recently are indicating a shift in the center of gravity in the security market. First, there is Symante CEO's comments on Microsoft's downward pressure on the desktop security market. Then there is Monster.com's recent announcement that they'd lost more than the 1.3 million customer records originally reported. Two days ago we saw an alliance of several smaller vendors, led by Imperva announcing a data integration framework for security management and monitoring. I think these will all add up to start expanding the range of what non-security professionals consider baseline security measures - and that will change where budgets are allocated.

 
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Imperva was joined by a few other security vendors (Ounce Labs, SenSage, Crossbeam Systems) yesterday to announce a data integration framework ("Imperva OpenSphere") around its SecureSphere database monitoring and application firewall products. The coverage in eWeek and TMCNet will surely please the marketing staff at the companies involved but I think the coverage misses the bigger picture.

 
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Stories are just starting to circulate about the release of the Gphone in as little as two weeks. (Others argue, no way, the source article is wrong and Business 2.0 gives cogent arguments why it won't happen). Regardless of the accuracy, the rumors will get a lot more attention than the research coming out of UPenn and UC, Davis reported by McAfee's Avert Labs on mobile malware and other attacks. The McAfee blog credits the popularity of the iPhone with an increase interest among hackers for mobile phone hacking. Watch what happens when low cost Gphones hit the street.

Here's the Gphone news from Rediff:

 
Continue reading Gphone in 2 weeks rumors, Malware and Mobile Attacks are the Real News...

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Microsoft and Google have decided there is money in your hard drive, and they want to get it. We have Microsoft filing patents on an advertising framework that includes the ability to scan the contents of your hard drive so it can better target ads to your interests. Google is pushing Google Desktop which brings search down to the local drives but businesses are raising legitimate concerns about security. The real problem though is two-fold:

1. Both Microsoft advertising framework and Google Desktop threaten to breakdown the distinction between the public and private realms of our computer activities.

2. These tools can become an avenue of attack for information theft

 
Continue reading Microsoft and Google Desktop/Web Integration Offer Too Little, Br