Facebook kicked off the new year with additional tweaks to its development platform as it continues to grapple with external programmers who spur adoption of their applications among Facebook members through deceitful and abusive practices.
Facebook has been battling this problem since May, when it opened its social-networking site to third-party developers interested in building applications for it.
Chief among the annoyances have been self-promotion features in applications such as bulk unsolicited e-mails and intrusive message displays. Although Facebook has made several changes in past months, the problems persist.
On Jan. 1, a Facebook official made an official blog posting titled "New Year. New Rules" in which he states that some developers have been sneakily bypassing the amount of e-mail notifications applications are allowed to send.
"Specifically, these developers have been sending notification e-mails to users for one application with another application, in order to 'pool' the total quota of e-mail notifications together," wrote Dave Morin, Facebook's senior platform manager.
In addition, other applications have been designed to trick Facebook members into inadvertently installing other applications by placing links into e-mail messages, internal notifications and the Mini-Feed feature in member profiles.
"Starting today, we'll begin blocking links in Mini-Feed, Notifications, and Notification E-mails which lead to the installation of another application in the hopes that developers focus on user experience and engagement being paramount, not deceiving users for the sake of growth," Morin wrote.
Friday, January 4, 2008
LG.Philips LCD unrolls 14-inch color e-paper display
South Korea's LG.Philips LCD is out to impress at next week's Consumer Electronics Show and will unveil a 14.3-inch color electronic paper display.
The display, which is about the same size as an A4-sheet of paper, has a resolution of 1,280 pixels by 800 pixels and can display 16.7-million colors, LG.Philips LCD said Thursday. That makes it the highest resolution screen of its type yet developed, the company said, and is an advance on a display unveiled in May last year that offered just 4,096 colors.
Electronic paper is being pursued by many companies as a future replacement for paper. The screens are often produced on a flexible substrate so they can bend, unlike conventional LCD (liquid crystal display) panels that are made on glass. But the amount by which they can be bent without causing damage to the screen widely varies between prototypes, and there are still no displays that can be folded like a sheet of paper.
The new LG.Philips LCD panel borrows some of the TFT (thin-film transistor) technology used by the company to make LCD panels and marries it with metal foil and a plastic substrate. The result is a flexible screen that is less than 300 micrometers thick, which is a few times thicker than standard copier paper. In addition to being flexible the screen can be viewed through 180 degrees even when bent, the company said.
At CES the company also plans to show a mono e-paper screen equivalent in size to a B5 sheet of paper (176 mm by 250 mm). While not as impressive as the larger, color display, it is easier to manufacture and LG.Philips LCD said it plans to launch this latter display later in the year.
In addition to the physical specifications of the displays one of the keys to success will be how fast the image can be refreshed on the screen. A conventional LCD is capable of redrawing the image many times per second but e-paper prototypes shown until now typically take a few seconds for the on-screen image to completely change. For example, a Fujitsu prototype unveiled in May last year took 2 seconds to refresh an 8-color image and 10 seconds to refresh a 4,096-color image.
The display, which is about the same size as an A4-sheet of paper, has a resolution of 1,280 pixels by 800 pixels and can display 16.7-million colors, LG.Philips LCD said Thursday. That makes it the highest resolution screen of its type yet developed, the company said, and is an advance on a display unveiled in May last year that offered just 4,096 colors.
Electronic paper is being pursued by many companies as a future replacement for paper. The screens are often produced on a flexible substrate so they can bend, unlike conventional LCD (liquid crystal display) panels that are made on glass. But the amount by which they can be bent without causing damage to the screen widely varies between prototypes, and there are still no displays that can be folded like a sheet of paper.
The new LG.Philips LCD panel borrows some of the TFT (thin-film transistor) technology used by the company to make LCD panels and marries it with metal foil and a plastic substrate. The result is a flexible screen that is less than 300 micrometers thick, which is a few times thicker than standard copier paper. In addition to being flexible the screen can be viewed through 180 degrees even when bent, the company said.
At CES the company also plans to show a mono e-paper screen equivalent in size to a B5 sheet of paper (176 mm by 250 mm). While not as impressive as the larger, color display, it is easier to manufacture and LG.Philips LCD said it plans to launch this latter display later in the year.
In addition to the physical specifications of the displays one of the keys to success will be how fast the image can be refreshed on the screen. A conventional LCD is capable of redrawing the image many times per second but e-paper prototypes shown until now typically take a few seconds for the on-screen image to completely change. For example, a Fujitsu prototype unveiled in May last year took 2 seconds to refresh an 8-color image and 10 seconds to refresh a 4,096-color image.
Eclipse reeling in Swordfish as SOA framework
The Eclipse Foundation with its Swordfish project is developing an open source SOA framework intended for applications ranging from enterprise environments to embedded systems.
Based on technology from German logistics company Deutsche Post, Swordfish features an SOA runtime platform that leverages three popular projects: Service Component Architecture (SCA), Java Business Integration (JBI), and Open Services Gateway initiative (OSGi). SCA provides a common programming model and assembly description format while JBI serves as a common messaging model. OSGi, which is the basis of the Eclipse runtime platform, provides common deployment and runtime component models in Swordfish.
The Swordfish architecture uses OSGi to implement JBI and SCA.
"[Swordfish] is a framework to bring [together] different components, which are needed for an SOA platform," said Ricco Deutscher, CTO at Sopera, which is leading the Swordfish effort and offers an open source SOA suite based on the project.
"[Enterprise IT directors] should be very excited because this is up and running [for] more than six years in the largest logistics company in the world, and it is a very proven, mature technology," said Deutscher.
According to the Eclipse Swordfish blog, Deutsche Post developed the core SOA engine with plans calling for the code to be refactored into an OSGi-based SOA engine. The OSGi engine serves as a milestone to an SOA runtime framework.
The version 1.0 production release of Swordfish is scheduled for the third quarter of this year.
Swordfish offers a way to use JBI, SCA, and OSGi for server-side applications, said analyst Michael Cote of Redmonk. It also demonstrates Eclipse's reach to the server, he said.
"Where I see Swordfish fitting in is [it is] sort of [an] 'enterprise' framework for writing software and applications with OSGi," said Cote. The Swordfish vision also appears to follow the ESB-driven (enterprise service bus) way of doing SOA, he said.
"I think the more interesting thing about Swordfish than just the SOA angle is how it's part of Eclipse's overall idea of doing more runtime -- stuff for the server side rather than desktop stuff," Cote said.
The Sopera open source suite features Swordfish and components for messaging, registry, security, and BPEL (Business Process Execution Language for Web Services). Sopera supports business applications, as well as legacy and SAP NetWeaver integration. It also provides a gateway to third-party ESBs.
Chris Kanaracus, U.S. correspondent with IDG News Service, an InfoWorld affiliate, contributed to this report.
Based on technology from German logistics company Deutsche Post, Swordfish features an SOA runtime platform that leverages three popular projects: Service Component Architecture (SCA), Java Business Integration (JBI), and Open Services Gateway initiative (OSGi). SCA provides a common programming model and assembly description format while JBI serves as a common messaging model. OSGi, which is the basis of the Eclipse runtime platform, provides common deployment and runtime component models in Swordfish.
The Swordfish architecture uses OSGi to implement JBI and SCA.
"[Swordfish] is a framework to bring [together] different components, which are needed for an SOA platform," said Ricco Deutscher, CTO at Sopera, which is leading the Swordfish effort and offers an open source SOA suite based on the project.
"[Enterprise IT directors] should be very excited because this is up and running [for] more than six years in the largest logistics company in the world, and it is a very proven, mature technology," said Deutscher.
According to the Eclipse Swordfish blog, Deutsche Post developed the core SOA engine with plans calling for the code to be refactored into an OSGi-based SOA engine. The OSGi engine serves as a milestone to an SOA runtime framework.
The version 1.0 production release of Swordfish is scheduled for the third quarter of this year.
Swordfish offers a way to use JBI, SCA, and OSGi for server-side applications, said analyst Michael Cote of Redmonk. It also demonstrates Eclipse's reach to the server, he said.
"Where I see Swordfish fitting in is [it is] sort of [an] 'enterprise' framework for writing software and applications with OSGi," said Cote. The Swordfish vision also appears to follow the ESB-driven (enterprise service bus) way of doing SOA, he said.
"I think the more interesting thing about Swordfish than just the SOA angle is how it's part of Eclipse's overall idea of doing more runtime -- stuff for the server side rather than desktop stuff," Cote said.
The Sopera open source suite features Swordfish and components for messaging, registry, security, and BPEL (Business Process Execution Language for Web Services). Sopera supports business applications, as well as legacy and SAP NetWeaver integration. It also provides a gateway to third-party ESBs.
Chris Kanaracus, U.S. correspondent with IDG News Service, an InfoWorld affiliate, contributed to this report.
Qualcomm maneuvers around court's chipset ban
Qualcomm is shipping four new wireless chipsets that do not infringe on a video encoding patent held by competitor Broadcom. Qualcomm expects the WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) handsets containing the chips to go on sale in the U.S. by April, it said Wednesday.
The announcement comes two days after a U.S. federal judge issued an injunction that stops Qualcomm from selling some wireless chipsets found to infringe on the Broadcom patent.
Under a special provision of the injunction, Qualcomm can continue to use Broadcom's patented technology in some existing QChat push-to-talk and 1xEV-DO (Evolution-Data Only) products through Jan. 31, 2009, as long as it pays royalties to Broadcom. New products, or existing products sold to new customers, are not covered by the automatic license.
Qualcomm is still developing workarounds for infringing technology included in the QChat and 1xEV-DO products, it said.
Broadcom won a patent infringement suit against Qualcomm in May and was awarded US$19.6 million in damages. However, Broadcom said the injunction -- which only applies to chipsets sold in the U.S. -- was far more important than the money.
Monday's injunction, issued in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, also prohibits Qualcomm from some marketing and customer support activities related to WCDMA and EV-DO chips.
Qualcomm said it still wants further clarification on some aspects of the injunction, saying it could affect the company's product development. The company said it is also considering filing an appeal or for a stay of the injunction.
The two companies still have other patent infringement and antitrust claims pending.
The announcement comes two days after a U.S. federal judge issued an injunction that stops Qualcomm from selling some wireless chipsets found to infringe on the Broadcom patent.
Under a special provision of the injunction, Qualcomm can continue to use Broadcom's patented technology in some existing QChat push-to-talk and 1xEV-DO (Evolution-Data Only) products through Jan. 31, 2009, as long as it pays royalties to Broadcom. New products, or existing products sold to new customers, are not covered by the automatic license.
Qualcomm is still developing workarounds for infringing technology included in the QChat and 1xEV-DO products, it said.
Broadcom won a patent infringement suit against Qualcomm in May and was awarded US$19.6 million in damages. However, Broadcom said the injunction -- which only applies to chipsets sold in the U.S. -- was far more important than the money.
Monday's injunction, issued in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, also prohibits Qualcomm from some marketing and customer support activities related to WCDMA and EV-DO chips.
Qualcomm said it still wants further clarification on some aspects of the injunction, saying it could affect the company's product development. The company said it is also considering filing an appeal or for a stay of the injunction.
The two companies still have other patent infringement and antitrust claims pending.
Wi-Spy spies on Wi-Fi
While we continue to investigate our problem with deferred procedure calls (see last week's Gearhead) -- a problem that seems to have mysteriously vanished again -- we wanted to bring to your attention a tool that, if you are doing wireless stuff, you are going to want.
The tool is called Wi-Spy 2.4x and is manufactured and sold by the wonderfully named MetaGeek. The Wi-Spy is a USB (1.1 or 2) spectrum analyzer for the radio frequency range from 2400 MHz to 2483.5 MHz with a resolution of 328 KHz. It can detect signals in the range -110 dBm to -6.5 dBm with an amplitude resolution of 0.5 dBm and has a sweep time of 165 milliseconds.
In other words, this is a pretty snazzy piece of hardware, but two other features make the Wi-Spy outstanding. The first is its software, Chanalyzer, which runs on Windows 2000 or later with .Net 2.0 installed. Linux and Mac support are also available via third-party software.
Chanalyzer's user interface shows three graphs that share a common X-axis of frequency; you can select this axis to be displayed as frequency or as Wi-Fi channels or Zigbee channels (I plan to cover Zigbee in more depth in a future Gearhead column -- for now, see this Network World story).
The top graph is the Spectral View. This is a "waterfall graph" (that is, one that scrolls down over time) that plots the selected time period (you can select from 15 seconds to one hour) against the frequency range, with each point color-coded by the signal's amplitude. This highlights bandwidth use over time.
The graph below that is what MetaGeek calls the Topographic View. This display shows the popularity of the spectrum by plotting the percentage activity for each frequency and amplitude over the selected time period. In other words, it is a spectrum utilization map.
The bottom graph is the Planar View, which plots amplitude against frequency and shows current, average and maximum amplitudes. There are also two markers that you can place on the frequency axis to get data for a specific frequency.
What this deluge of data shows you is, for a given location, how the spectrum is being used and abused. For example, you can see where devices such as microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices and cordless phones might be adding noise and reducing Wi-Fi throughput.
When Wi-Fi or Zigbee channels are selected you can click on one or more of their labels on the frequency axis to overlay a highlighted zone that shows the channel frequency limits. Wi-Fi channels are 5 MHz apart, but to ensure more or less complete isolation they need to be 25 MHz apart. This is particularly important where other people's nearby access points might be a problem -- most people never change their access points' default use of channel 6, so to avoid overlap you should use channel 1 or 11.
Note that the European Union also allows the use of channels 12 and 13, and channel 14 is the only one allowed to be used for Wi-Fi in Japan.
The other outstanding feature is that you can save and replay your Wi-Spy spectrum captures and share them with other users. MetaGeek has a library of user contributions that shows what the graphs generated by devices such as microwave ovens, cellular phones, baby monitors and cordless phones look like -- these are extremely useful when you are trying to track down your own Wi-Fi problems.
MetaGeek also offers a freeware rewrite of that old hacker favorite, NetStumbler (last updated in 2004), called Inssider. Wi-Spy 2.4x is, as I wrote, outstanding, and at $399 an excellent value. Highly recommended.
The tool is called Wi-Spy 2.4x and is manufactured and sold by the wonderfully named MetaGeek. The Wi-Spy is a USB (1.1 or 2) spectrum analyzer for the radio frequency range from 2400 MHz to 2483.5 MHz with a resolution of 328 KHz. It can detect signals in the range -110 dBm to -6.5 dBm with an amplitude resolution of 0.5 dBm and has a sweep time of 165 milliseconds.
In other words, this is a pretty snazzy piece of hardware, but two other features make the Wi-Spy outstanding. The first is its software, Chanalyzer, which runs on Windows 2000 or later with .Net 2.0 installed. Linux and Mac support are also available via third-party software.
Chanalyzer's user interface shows three graphs that share a common X-axis of frequency; you can select this axis to be displayed as frequency or as Wi-Fi channels or Zigbee channels (I plan to cover Zigbee in more depth in a future Gearhead column -- for now, see this Network World story).
The top graph is the Spectral View. This is a "waterfall graph" (that is, one that scrolls down over time) that plots the selected time period (you can select from 15 seconds to one hour) against the frequency range, with each point color-coded by the signal's amplitude. This highlights bandwidth use over time.
The graph below that is what MetaGeek calls the Topographic View. This display shows the popularity of the spectrum by plotting the percentage activity for each frequency and amplitude over the selected time period. In other words, it is a spectrum utilization map.
The bottom graph is the Planar View, which plots amplitude against frequency and shows current, average and maximum amplitudes. There are also two markers that you can place on the frequency axis to get data for a specific frequency.
What this deluge of data shows you is, for a given location, how the spectrum is being used and abused. For example, you can see where devices such as microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices and cordless phones might be adding noise and reducing Wi-Fi throughput.
When Wi-Fi or Zigbee channels are selected you can click on one or more of their labels on the frequency axis to overlay a highlighted zone that shows the channel frequency limits. Wi-Fi channels are 5 MHz apart, but to ensure more or less complete isolation they need to be 25 MHz apart. This is particularly important where other people's nearby access points might be a problem -- most people never change their access points' default use of channel 6, so to avoid overlap you should use channel 1 or 11.
Note that the European Union also allows the use of channels 12 and 13, and channel 14 is the only one allowed to be used for Wi-Fi in Japan.
The other outstanding feature is that you can save and replay your Wi-Spy spectrum captures and share them with other users. MetaGeek has a library of user contributions that shows what the graphs generated by devices such as microwave ovens, cellular phones, baby monitors and cordless phones look like -- these are extremely useful when you are trying to track down your own Wi-Fi problems.
MetaGeek also offers a freeware rewrite of that old hacker favorite, NetStumbler (last updated in 2004), called Inssider. Wi-Spy 2.4x is, as I wrote, outstanding, and at $399 an excellent value. Highly recommended.
Anti-botnet vendors plug in
A small group of IT security startups are hoping to cash in on the rise of the botnet scourge as businesses -- telecommunications carriers and Internet service providers, in particular -- seek new methods for stopping the attacks.
While larger security software makers, including Symantec, McAfee, and Trend Micro, have built botnet-fighting functions into their existing products, and carrier security specialists such as Arbor Networks have added tools for detecting the threats in their network monitoring systems, a handful of smaller companies are attempting to market themselves as purists in the anti-botnet field.
As carriers, ISPs, and large enterprises investigate techniques to keep computers on their networks, and those of their customers, from being recruited into the zombie armies of botnet-controlled devices, some experts say that there may be a market for stand-alone technologies that address the problem -- at least for the next several years.
"If you look at the change in the characteristics of malware attacks over the last year, and the public outrage over data breaches, private and government organizations have reached a point where the botnet issue is directly accessible," said Nick Selby, analyst at The 451 Group.
"Botnets are very relevant to data loss, and without question, customers are looking for in-the-cloud protection and clean pipes; the problem is too complex for any individual user to deal with alone, even large enterprise users," he said. "Anti-botnet vendors could see compliance and media-fueled growth because everyone understands the issue of data loss."
Just as Webroot was able to build and maintain a business dedicated to fighting spyware -- even in the face of competition from larger rivals who built tools for warding off those attacks into their integrated security suites -- vendors staking a claim to the anti-botnet space contend that there will be plenty of demand for their specialized skills.
Perhaps the two best-known providers making noise in the segment are FireEye, a Silicon Valley startup backed by funding from Sequoia Capital and Norwest Venture Partners, and Damballa, an Atlanta-based company with roots at Georgia Tech backed by Sigma Partners and Noro-Moseley Partners.
Leaders with both companies maintain that their businesses are already taking off as botnets take over.
"These networks of infected PCs have become, in essence, the world's largest computing grids. They dwarf the world's supercomputers in terms of their power, so that tells you something about the severity of the overall threat," said Ashar Aziz, chief executive of FireEye, who maintains there are currently as many as 150 million botnet-infected computers worldwide.
"This is the actual infrastructure that connects all the malware, spam, and denial-of-service attacks," he said. "A feature built into an end-point client is not going to solve the problem on its own; large enterprises and carriers are looking for something today that is going to help them keep their assets from being victimized."
In addition to the carrier crowd, Aziz said that a growing number of large enterprises are seeking to take things into their own hands to ensure that their networks aren't being exploited by botnet commanders.
Not only are large companies fearful of having their assets used as proxies by all sorts of attackers, and any potential fines that such activity or related data loss could lead to, he said, they are also hoping to avoid the embarrassment of having machines inside their walls publicly revealed as spam and malware delivery stations.
Throughout 2007, researchers at network security technology vendor Support Intelligence repeatedly detailed spam runs emanating from well-known businesses, including Bank of America, Intel, and Nationwide Insurance, that were thought to be driven by botnet-infected computers.
At the core of the company's anti-botnet technology, delivered via its appliances, is its FireEye Analysis and Control Technology (FACT) engine, which looks for suspicious traffic, confirms attacks, and blocks access from infected devices to other machines on a network.
Using the information being drawn from its customers, which already include a number of large North American carriers and Fortune 1,000 companies, according to the CEO, FireEye claims that it also has the ability to backtrack its way through the networks of infected machines to scope out the size of botnet operations and work with carriers to snuff out the infrastructure.
Aziz contends that even if anti-botnet technologies become digested in broader suites by most companies or through carrier-provided services, FireEye -- whose virtualization-based technology was originally positioned for use in network access control (NAC) systems when it was founded in 2004 -- will be able to turn a profit by providing the intelligence needed by those systems to identify and track the attacks.
"The capability to build this intelligence about the botnets themselves is a sizable business opportunity. These companies offering services will need to constantly feed new data into their gateways," he said. "We feel this is a viable business model, finding the infrastructure that is out there and helping people understand where it lives and how it works."
Damballa, which takes it name from the realm of voodoo spirits, is already marketing its capabilities to both enterprises and carriers in a number of different models.
For instance, the company already offers three deployment options to enterprise customers: its Global Surveillance Network, a subscription service that alerts users if any of their machines are infected by known botnets; its Enterprise Protection package, which uses sensors placed on clients' networks to look for attacks; and its Extended Enterprise Protection offering, which utilizes sensors outside companies' firewalls to look for attempts by botnets to connect to users' computers.
It markets comparable services for carriers and other security OEMs.
Damballa leaders said that the key to earning a spot inside more companies' operations will be the continued evolution and maturation of the threats themselves, and the company's unique ability to chart botnet behavior.
"We definitely see a best-of-breed opportunity for fighting botnets. It depends on the customer, but most of the success we're finding is with organizations who already have a lot of security technologies in place but still find themselves dealing with this problem," said Tripp Cox, vice president of engineering at Damballa, which was founded in late 2006.
"These companies are getting green lights from other products telling them that everything is OK, but they are still finding out about compromises inside their networks," he said. "A lot of the larger security players will have to have something in their suite to address the problem, and there's definitely potential for consolidation at some point in this space, but if you look at a problem like spam, there's a history there of companies building a stand-alone business to solve problems like this."
The 451 Group's Selby said that there will likely be growth of the anti-botnet segment before any industry consolidation takes place, despite a wide number of companies --ranging from anti-virus vendors to massive carriers with managed security services -- who want to take on a broader piece of the market.
"It would seem to make sense for these [anti-botnet] companies to cut deals with ISPs to have better visibility into their networks and botnet activity in general, as they already have," the analyst said. "This is a market that should see expansion as botnets continue to become a bigger problem for everyone."
While larger security software makers, including Symantec, McAfee, and Trend Micro, have built botnet-fighting functions into their existing products, and carrier security specialists such as Arbor Networks have added tools for detecting the threats in their network monitoring systems, a handful of smaller companies are attempting to market themselves as purists in the anti-botnet field.
As carriers, ISPs, and large enterprises investigate techniques to keep computers on their networks, and those of their customers, from being recruited into the zombie armies of botnet-controlled devices, some experts say that there may be a market for stand-alone technologies that address the problem -- at least for the next several years.
"If you look at the change in the characteristics of malware attacks over the last year, and the public outrage over data breaches, private and government organizations have reached a point where the botnet issue is directly accessible," said Nick Selby, analyst at The 451 Group.
"Botnets are very relevant to data loss, and without question, customers are looking for in-the-cloud protection and clean pipes; the problem is too complex for any individual user to deal with alone, even large enterprise users," he said. "Anti-botnet vendors could see compliance and media-fueled growth because everyone understands the issue of data loss."
Just as Webroot was able to build and maintain a business dedicated to fighting spyware -- even in the face of competition from larger rivals who built tools for warding off those attacks into their integrated security suites -- vendors staking a claim to the anti-botnet space contend that there will be plenty of demand for their specialized skills.
Perhaps the two best-known providers making noise in the segment are FireEye, a Silicon Valley startup backed by funding from Sequoia Capital and Norwest Venture Partners, and Damballa, an Atlanta-based company with roots at Georgia Tech backed by Sigma Partners and Noro-Moseley Partners.
Leaders with both companies maintain that their businesses are already taking off as botnets take over.
"These networks of infected PCs have become, in essence, the world's largest computing grids. They dwarf the world's supercomputers in terms of their power, so that tells you something about the severity of the overall threat," said Ashar Aziz, chief executive of FireEye, who maintains there are currently as many as 150 million botnet-infected computers worldwide.
"This is the actual infrastructure that connects all the malware, spam, and denial-of-service attacks," he said. "A feature built into an end-point client is not going to solve the problem on its own; large enterprises and carriers are looking for something today that is going to help them keep their assets from being victimized."
In addition to the carrier crowd, Aziz said that a growing number of large enterprises are seeking to take things into their own hands to ensure that their networks aren't being exploited by botnet commanders.
Not only are large companies fearful of having their assets used as proxies by all sorts of attackers, and any potential fines that such activity or related data loss could lead to, he said, they are also hoping to avoid the embarrassment of having machines inside their walls publicly revealed as spam and malware delivery stations.
Throughout 2007, researchers at network security technology vendor Support Intelligence repeatedly detailed spam runs emanating from well-known businesses, including Bank of America, Intel, and Nationwide Insurance, that were thought to be driven by botnet-infected computers.
At the core of the company's anti-botnet technology, delivered via its appliances, is its FireEye Analysis and Control Technology (FACT) engine, which looks for suspicious traffic, confirms attacks, and blocks access from infected devices to other machines on a network.
Using the information being drawn from its customers, which already include a number of large North American carriers and Fortune 1,000 companies, according to the CEO, FireEye claims that it also has the ability to backtrack its way through the networks of infected machines to scope out the size of botnet operations and work with carriers to snuff out the infrastructure.
Aziz contends that even if anti-botnet technologies become digested in broader suites by most companies or through carrier-provided services, FireEye -- whose virtualization-based technology was originally positioned for use in network access control (NAC) systems when it was founded in 2004 -- will be able to turn a profit by providing the intelligence needed by those systems to identify and track the attacks.
"The capability to build this intelligence about the botnets themselves is a sizable business opportunity. These companies offering services will need to constantly feed new data into their gateways," he said. "We feel this is a viable business model, finding the infrastructure that is out there and helping people understand where it lives and how it works."
Damballa, which takes it name from the realm of voodoo spirits, is already marketing its capabilities to both enterprises and carriers in a number of different models.
For instance, the company already offers three deployment options to enterprise customers: its Global Surveillance Network, a subscription service that alerts users if any of their machines are infected by known botnets; its Enterprise Protection package, which uses sensors placed on clients' networks to look for attacks; and its Extended Enterprise Protection offering, which utilizes sensors outside companies' firewalls to look for attempts by botnets to connect to users' computers.
It markets comparable services for carriers and other security OEMs.
Damballa leaders said that the key to earning a spot inside more companies' operations will be the continued evolution and maturation of the threats themselves, and the company's unique ability to chart botnet behavior.
"We definitely see a best-of-breed opportunity for fighting botnets. It depends on the customer, but most of the success we're finding is with organizations who already have a lot of security technologies in place but still find themselves dealing with this problem," said Tripp Cox, vice president of engineering at Damballa, which was founded in late 2006.
"These companies are getting green lights from other products telling them that everything is OK, but they are still finding out about compromises inside their networks," he said. "A lot of the larger security players will have to have something in their suite to address the problem, and there's definitely potential for consolidation at some point in this space, but if you look at a problem like spam, there's a history there of companies building a stand-alone business to solve problems like this."
The 451 Group's Selby said that there will likely be growth of the anti-botnet segment before any industry consolidation takes place, despite a wide number of companies --ranging from anti-virus vendors to massive carriers with managed security services -- who want to take on a broader piece of the market.
"It would seem to make sense for these [anti-botnet] companies to cut deals with ISPs to have better visibility into their networks and botnet activity in general, as they already have," the analyst said. "This is a market that should see expansion as botnets continue to become a bigger problem for everyone."
Instant messaging, banks top Chinese searches, Google says
Chinese banks and an instant messaging service topped the list of fastest-rising search terms on Google's Chinese Web site during 2007, the company said Wednesday.
The first release of Google China's Zeitgeist (in Chinese), which lists the fastest-rising search terms during 2007, was topped by QQ, an instant-messaging service that is immensely popular among Chinese Internet users. Two banks -- China Merchants Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China -- took the second and third spots, followed by searches for "stocks" and "games."
China Construction Bank was in the sixth spot on the list, followed by Google Earth, the Xunlei file-sharing service, antivirus vendor Kaspersky Lab, and MSN.
Google Zeitgeist doesn't reflect the most-searched for terms on Google's Web site. Instead, the list shows which search terms experienced the greatest jump in popularity during the year. Viewed in that light, the popularity of banking and financial terms on Google China's Zeitgeist list stand out against the list compiled by Google for worldwide searches.
The worldwide Zeitgeist list was topped by Apple's iPhone, and is populated by the names of popular Web sites, like Badoo (No. 2) and Facebook (No. 3). None of the 10 terms on the worldwide Zeitgeit list were related to finance. Conversely, the Chinese Zeitgeit list did not name any video-sharing sites, while the worldwide list had two: Dailymotion (No. 4) and Google's own YouTube (No. 6).
The first release of Google China's Zeitgeist (in Chinese), which lists the fastest-rising search terms during 2007, was topped by QQ, an instant-messaging service that is immensely popular among Chinese Internet users. Two banks -- China Merchants Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China -- took the second and third spots, followed by searches for "stocks" and "games."
China Construction Bank was in the sixth spot on the list, followed by Google Earth, the Xunlei file-sharing service, antivirus vendor Kaspersky Lab, and MSN.
Google Zeitgeist doesn't reflect the most-searched for terms on Google's Web site. Instead, the list shows which search terms experienced the greatest jump in popularity during the year. Viewed in that light, the popularity of banking and financial terms on Google China's Zeitgeist list stand out against the list compiled by Google for worldwide searches.
The worldwide Zeitgeist list was topped by Apple's iPhone, and is populated by the names of popular Web sites, like Badoo (No. 2) and Facebook (No. 3). None of the 10 terms on the worldwide Zeitgeit list were related to finance. Conversely, the Chinese Zeitgeit list did not name any video-sharing sites, while the worldwide list had two: Dailymotion (No. 4) and Google's own YouTube (No. 6).
CES: Asus unveils terabyte laptop
Asus will unveil a laptop that should satisfy the storage needs of all but the biggest of power users: the M70S comes with 1T byte of storage space.
The machine, due for release at next week's Consumer Electronics Show, is targeted at the fast-expanding multimedia sector of the laptop market and packs dual 500G-byte drives from Hitachi, expected to be announced later Thursday. The drives can be organized in a RAID 0 configuration, where data is distributed between the two drives to provide a performance boost on a single drive, or as RAID 1, where data is mirrored on each drive to provide redundancy in case of drive failure. In the latter case the storage space visible to the user drops to 500G bytes.
The Asus M70 comes optionally equipped to make use of the extra storage space with a digital/analog TV tuner and video recording capability. An optional remote control is also available. The explosion in digital video is one of the main reasons why consumers are increasingly demanding as much storage space on their laptops as on desktop computers.
To watch all that video, the laptop comes with a 17-inch widescreen display at either WXGA+ (1,440 by 900 pixels) or WUXGA (1,920 by 1,200 pixels) resolution depending on the model. It should be noted that the former screen won't be able to show a high-definition image, which is 1,920 by 1,080 pixels, at full resolution.
An Intel Core2 Duo processor lies at the heart of the laptop and models will be available with the T7700, 7500, 7300 or 7100 versions of the chip. Other features include an ATI 3650 graphics card, web cam, fingerprint reader and 1G byte of memory.
Asus will also launch the M50S laptop at CES. The computer is targeted at the same multimedia segment of the market, but attempts to satisfy a niche for a high-performance laptop that's slightly smaller than the typical 17-inch models.
The M50S machine comes with the same processor selection but has a 15.4-inch widescreen display at either WXGA (1,366 by 768 pixels), WXGA+ or WSXGA+ (1,680 by 1,050 pixels) resolution.
The machine, due for release at next week's Consumer Electronics Show, is targeted at the fast-expanding multimedia sector of the laptop market and packs dual 500G-byte drives from Hitachi, expected to be announced later Thursday. The drives can be organized in a RAID 0 configuration, where data is distributed between the two drives to provide a performance boost on a single drive, or as RAID 1, where data is mirrored on each drive to provide redundancy in case of drive failure. In the latter case the storage space visible to the user drops to 500G bytes.
The Asus M70 comes optionally equipped to make use of the extra storage space with a digital/analog TV tuner and video recording capability. An optional remote control is also available. The explosion in digital video is one of the main reasons why consumers are increasingly demanding as much storage space on their laptops as on desktop computers.
To watch all that video, the laptop comes with a 17-inch widescreen display at either WXGA+ (1,440 by 900 pixels) or WUXGA (1,920 by 1,200 pixels) resolution depending on the model. It should be noted that the former screen won't be able to show a high-definition image, which is 1,920 by 1,080 pixels, at full resolution.
An Intel Core2 Duo processor lies at the heart of the laptop and models will be available with the T7700, 7500, 7300 or 7100 versions of the chip. Other features include an ATI 3650 graphics card, web cam, fingerprint reader and 1G byte of memory.
Asus will also launch the M50S laptop at CES. The computer is targeted at the same multimedia segment of the market, but attempts to satisfy a niche for a high-performance laptop that's slightly smaller than the typical 17-inch models.
The M50S machine comes with the same processor selection but has a 15.4-inch widescreen display at either WXGA (1,366 by 768 pixels), WXGA+ or WSXGA+ (1,680 by 1,050 pixels) resolution.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Holiday e-tail sales up, satisfaction down
As the holiday season wound down, U.S. residents kept on shopping significantly more than they did in 2006, particularly on the day after Christmas, but they also reported being less satisfied with e-tailers, according to a pair of studies.
Between Nov. 1 and Dec. 27 -- the first 57 days of the holiday season -- U.S. shoppers spent almost US$28 billion in online retail purchases, up 19 percent compared with the same period in 2006, according to comScore.
Shoppers spent $545 million on Dec. 26, more than doubling the spending on that day in 2006, as they took advantage of "late-season" offers and discounts, according to comScore.
Still, it looks like online spending growth for the 2007 holiday season will fail to meet comScore's 20 percent forecast, and fall way below the 26 percent growth registered during this period in 2006.
ComScore chalks up the smaller-than-expected growth to several factors, including warm weather in early November and various economic challenges this year, including higher gas prices, the real estate crunch and a "jittery" stock market, the company said Sunday.
Another important metric that dropped this holiday season compared with 2006's was customer satisfaction, according to ForeSee Results, a provider of online customer-satisfaction measurement services.
A survey of more than 11,000 shoppers revealed that, on a 100-point scale, customer satisfaction with the largest 40 e-tailers dropped, in aggregate, to 74 points, down 1 point from the 2006 holiday season, according to ForeSee. It conducted the survey in conjunction with FGI Research using the methodology of the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index.
Still, the spending growth in online shopping this holiday season, even at 19 percent, would greatly outpace the growth of overall U.S. retail holiday spending, forecast at 4 percent by the National Retail Federation.
That 4 percent growth rate -- which would put 2007 holiday season retail spending in the U.S. at almost $475 billion -- would fall below the 10-year average of 4.8 percent and be the slowest since 2002, according to the National Retail Federation.
Between Nov. 1 and Dec. 27 -- the first 57 days of the holiday season -- U.S. shoppers spent almost US$28 billion in online retail purchases, up 19 percent compared with the same period in 2006, according to comScore.
Shoppers spent $545 million on Dec. 26, more than doubling the spending on that day in 2006, as they took advantage of "late-season" offers and discounts, according to comScore.
Still, it looks like online spending growth for the 2007 holiday season will fail to meet comScore's 20 percent forecast, and fall way below the 26 percent growth registered during this period in 2006.
ComScore chalks up the smaller-than-expected growth to several factors, including warm weather in early November and various economic challenges this year, including higher gas prices, the real estate crunch and a "jittery" stock market, the company said Sunday.
Another important metric that dropped this holiday season compared with 2006's was customer satisfaction, according to ForeSee Results, a provider of online customer-satisfaction measurement services.
A survey of more than 11,000 shoppers revealed that, on a 100-point scale, customer satisfaction with the largest 40 e-tailers dropped, in aggregate, to 74 points, down 1 point from the 2006 holiday season, according to ForeSee. It conducted the survey in conjunction with FGI Research using the methodology of the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index.
Still, the spending growth in online shopping this holiday season, even at 19 percent, would greatly outpace the growth of overall U.S. retail holiday spending, forecast at 4 percent by the National Retail Federation.
That 4 percent growth rate -- which would put 2007 holiday season retail spending in the U.S. at almost $475 billion -- would fall below the 10-year average of 4.8 percent and be the slowest since 2002, according to the National Retail Federation.
US-CERT warns of flaw in latest RealPlayer
The US-CERT is warning computer users of a possible problem with the latest version of RealPlayer after a Russian security company claimed to have found a way to exploit a critical flaw in the multimedia software.
US-CERT (United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team) published its warning on Wednesday, the day after Gleg Ltd. Chief Technology Officer Evgeny Legerov announced the exploit code in a posting to the Daily Dave security discussion list.
The flaw affects the latest version 11 of RealPlayer running on Windows XP, service pack 2, according to Gleg. A Flash demonstration of the vulnerability has been posted to the Gleg Web site, but the company has not released its attack code or any technical details of the flaw.
Legerov discovered the flaw, called a stack overflow bug, during an audit of the RealPlayer source code, he said via e-mail.
Gleg sells "penetration testing" software that can be used by security professionals to find holes in computer networks. The RealPlayer flaw was added to Gleg's VulnDisco SA software on Dec. 16, which means that subscribers have had access to the code for more than two weeks. VulnDisco SA is sold as an add-on to Immunity's Canvas penetration testing platform.
There have been no reports of the code being released to the general public so far. US-CERT has not been able to study the exploit code and confirm that it works, said Art Manion, vulnerability analysis team leader at US-CERT.
Real is working to confirm whether the exploit code actually works, a company spokesman said Wednesday.
US-CERT is doing the same thing, Manion said. In the meantime, RealPlayer users should be cautious. "If one wants to assume the most cautious possible stance, you don't use it," Manion said.
In October, criminals exploited another flaw in RealPlayer in order to sneak unauthorized software onto victim's computers. That bug has been patched.
US-CERT (United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team) published its warning on Wednesday, the day after Gleg Ltd. Chief Technology Officer Evgeny Legerov announced the exploit code in a posting to the Daily Dave security discussion list.
The flaw affects the latest version 11 of RealPlayer running on Windows XP, service pack 2, according to Gleg. A Flash demonstration of the vulnerability has been posted to the Gleg Web site, but the company has not released its attack code or any technical details of the flaw.
Legerov discovered the flaw, called a stack overflow bug, during an audit of the RealPlayer source code, he said via e-mail.
Gleg sells "penetration testing" software that can be used by security professionals to find holes in computer networks. The RealPlayer flaw was added to Gleg's VulnDisco SA software on Dec. 16, which means that subscribers have had access to the code for more than two weeks. VulnDisco SA is sold as an add-on to Immunity's Canvas penetration testing platform.
There have been no reports of the code being released to the general public so far. US-CERT has not been able to study the exploit code and confirm that it works, said Art Manion, vulnerability analysis team leader at US-CERT.
Real is working to confirm whether the exploit code actually works, a company spokesman said Wednesday.
US-CERT is doing the same thing, Manion said. In the meantime, RealPlayer users should be cautious. "If one wants to assume the most cautious possible stance, you don't use it," Manion said.
In October, criminals exploited another flaw in RealPlayer in order to sneak unauthorized software onto victim's computers. That bug has been patched.
Company suing OLPC asked for $20 million
A company suing the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Association for patent infringement has asked for US$20 million to settle claims that the nonprofit had copied its keyboard.
Lagos Analysis Corp., or Lancor, is still trying to settle after filing the patent lawsuit in Federal High Court, Lagos Judicial Division in Nigeria, said Adé Oyegbola, Lancor's CEO. Lancor, now based in Natick, Massachusetts, has offices in Nigeria and owns a Nigerian patent for a four-shift keyboard, allowing computers to better handle multiple languages, Oyegbola said.
Oyegbola on Wednesday confirmed information published on the Groklaw blog saying that in August his company had asked OLPC for $20 million. That figure was based on OLPC information on potential distribution in Nigeria, Oyegbola said.
Nigeria, in July 2006, placed an order for 1 million of the laptops, but the Nigerian government is now reviewing that decision. Lancor's Konyin Multilingual Keyboards sell for $19.95, meaning 1 million of them would be worth approximately $20 million.
Lancor in December obtained a temporary injunction against OLPC distributing its laptop in the country.
"We didn't start the process because we're looking for the money," Oyegbola said. "It doesn't make sense for us not to protect our intellectual property."
Lancor, in its lawsuit, accuses OLPC of illegal reverse engineering its multilingual keyboard.
But OLPC had not yet begun selling its laptop at the time of the demand, OLPC's lawyer wrote in a letter published on Groklaw. "I feel obliged to note that, given the fact that OLPC has sold no multilingual keyboards, and that, according to Lancor's Web site, its multilingual keyboard sells for $19.95, your demand for $20 million is not well founded," lawyer Bruce Parker of the Foley Hoag law firm wrote.
Groklaw's Pamela Jones, a frequent critic of patent lawsuits against open-source projects, called the lawsuit "ridiculous."
"In short, they apparently jumped the gun, sending the dunning letter before OLPC had even shipped anything, not to mention that OLPC is a charity, not a business, and asking for money in a sum that doesn't match reality," she wrote.
A OLPC spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for a comment.
Oyegbola said he hopes his company can still settle with OLPC. "We're hoping it doesn't get to [a trial]," he said. "It's in the hands of the lawyers now."
The evidence against OLPC is sketchy, Jones wrote on Groklaw. She questioned Oyegbola's motives, saying his actions may aid a rival project by Intel.
"Maybe this doomed litigation effort will last just long enough for a Nigerian knock-off of the OLPC, or the OLPC on Intel, to become ready for release," she wrote. "Maybe it's just about money a couple of guys want. Who knows why people do things like this?"
The goal of the nonprofit OLPC, founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nicholas Negroponte, is to donate laptops to children in developing nations. Through Dec. 31, residents of the U.S. and Canada could donate $400 and get one laptop for themselves, while sending a second to a child overseas.
Lagos Analysis Corp., or Lancor, is still trying to settle after filing the patent lawsuit in Federal High Court, Lagos Judicial Division in Nigeria, said Adé Oyegbola, Lancor's CEO. Lancor, now based in Natick, Massachusetts, has offices in Nigeria and owns a Nigerian patent for a four-shift keyboard, allowing computers to better handle multiple languages, Oyegbola said.
Oyegbola on Wednesday confirmed information published on the Groklaw blog saying that in August his company had asked OLPC for $20 million. That figure was based on OLPC information on potential distribution in Nigeria, Oyegbola said.
Nigeria, in July 2006, placed an order for 1 million of the laptops, but the Nigerian government is now reviewing that decision. Lancor's Konyin Multilingual Keyboards sell for $19.95, meaning 1 million of them would be worth approximately $20 million.
Lancor in December obtained a temporary injunction against OLPC distributing its laptop in the country.
"We didn't start the process because we're looking for the money," Oyegbola said. "It doesn't make sense for us not to protect our intellectual property."
Lancor, in its lawsuit, accuses OLPC of illegal reverse engineering its multilingual keyboard.
But OLPC had not yet begun selling its laptop at the time of the demand, OLPC's lawyer wrote in a letter published on Groklaw. "I feel obliged to note that, given the fact that OLPC has sold no multilingual keyboards, and that, according to Lancor's Web site, its multilingual keyboard sells for $19.95, your demand for $20 million is not well founded," lawyer Bruce Parker of the Foley Hoag law firm wrote.
Groklaw's Pamela Jones, a frequent critic of patent lawsuits against open-source projects, called the lawsuit "ridiculous."
"In short, they apparently jumped the gun, sending the dunning letter before OLPC had even shipped anything, not to mention that OLPC is a charity, not a business, and asking for money in a sum that doesn't match reality," she wrote.
A OLPC spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for a comment.
Oyegbola said he hopes his company can still settle with OLPC. "We're hoping it doesn't get to [a trial]," he said. "It's in the hands of the lawyers now."
The evidence against OLPC is sketchy, Jones wrote on Groklaw. She questioned Oyegbola's motives, saying his actions may aid a rival project by Intel.
"Maybe this doomed litigation effort will last just long enough for a Nigerian knock-off of the OLPC, or the OLPC on Intel, to become ready for release," she wrote. "Maybe it's just about money a couple of guys want. Who knows why people do things like this?"
The goal of the nonprofit OLPC, founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nicholas Negroponte, is to donate laptops to children in developing nations. Through Dec. 31, residents of the U.S. and Canada could donate $400 and get one laptop for themselves, while sending a second to a child overseas.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Nokia Siemens to buy Apertio for €140M
Nokia Siemens Networks will buy Apertio, which specializes in network management applications for telecommunications operators, for €140 million (US$205 million), the companies said Wednesday.
Apertio, in Bristol, England, sells a software application suite with components for managing mobile phone subscribers. Features allow operators to authenticate and deliver applications to users, shut off lost handsets and collect real-time data on subscribers.
The management and consolidation of subscriber data is becoming more important, particularly as operators offer "converged" services, the term for offerings that combine mobile, fixed-line and Internet-based services, the companies said.
The deal is expected to close by May. When complete, Paul Magelli, Apertio's CEO, will head a new section within the Converged Core business of Nokia Siemens.
Apertio's software and equipment is used by operators such as Orange, T-Mobile, O2 and Vodafone. Apertio, a private company, estimates its 2007 revenue at €28 million.
Apertio, in Bristol, England, sells a software application suite with components for managing mobile phone subscribers. Features allow operators to authenticate and deliver applications to users, shut off lost handsets and collect real-time data on subscribers.
The management and consolidation of subscriber data is becoming more important, particularly as operators offer "converged" services, the term for offerings that combine mobile, fixed-line and Internet-based services, the companies said.
The deal is expected to close by May. When complete, Paul Magelli, Apertio's CEO, will head a new section within the Converged Core business of Nokia Siemens.
Apertio's software and equipment is used by operators such as Orange, T-Mobile, O2 and Vodafone. Apertio, a private company, estimates its 2007 revenue at €28 million.
Personal information record losses reach new heights
More than 120 million people in the U.S. had personal data exposed in 2007 as identity theft reached record heights. That's according to research from the nonprofit organization the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) which reported 446 separate breaches exposing 128 million records.
The data shows a more-than sixfold increase over its 2006 figures, when 312 incidents were recorded, involving more than 19 million individuals.
Another group, attrition.org, shows 319 personal information data loss incidents in 2007 in its database, both in the U.S. and other countries.
Criminals can fraudulently use other another person's identity data to buy goods, take out loans, take money from savings accounts, and hire cars. That person has to recover from the loss and endure badgering by debt-recovery organizations and bailiffs.
In the U.K. in 2007 we saw:-
- HMRC and Standard Life - 15,000 records exposed
- HMRC child benefit database - 25 million records lost
- HMRC and Countrywide Assured - 6,500 records leaked
- Northern Ireland Driving Agency - 6,500 records exposed
- Driving Standards Agency - 3 million records lost.
This means that U.K. government agencies alone lost over 28 million people's identity data in 2007. Additional medical data records were lost due to NHS errors.
The number of new identity fraud victims contacting credit reference checking agency Experian continues to grow: 2,570 victims of identity fraud contacted it for assistance in the first half of 2007; a 68 percent year-on-year increase.
Helen Lord, Experian's fraud and regulatory compliance director at Experian, said: "The rate of identity fraud growth continues to be scary."
Identity theft criminals are being caught and punished. However, ITRC founder, Linda Foley, herself an identity theft victim, said: "Identity theft is like the never-ending story. It acts like an oil spill that spreads in yet another direction with the ocean currents and wind despite best efforts to contain it."
The data shows a more-than sixfold increase over its 2006 figures, when 312 incidents were recorded, involving more than 19 million individuals.
Another group, attrition.org, shows 319 personal information data loss incidents in 2007 in its database, both in the U.S. and other countries.
Criminals can fraudulently use other another person's identity data to buy goods, take out loans, take money from savings accounts, and hire cars. That person has to recover from the loss and endure badgering by debt-recovery organizations and bailiffs.
In the U.K. in 2007 we saw:-
- HMRC and Standard Life - 15,000 records exposed
- HMRC child benefit database - 25 million records lost
- HMRC and Countrywide Assured - 6,500 records leaked
- Northern Ireland Driving Agency - 6,500 records exposed
- Driving Standards Agency - 3 million records lost.
This means that U.K. government agencies alone lost over 28 million people's identity data in 2007. Additional medical data records were lost due to NHS errors.
The number of new identity fraud victims contacting credit reference checking agency Experian continues to grow: 2,570 victims of identity fraud contacted it for assistance in the first half of 2007; a 68 percent year-on-year increase.
Helen Lord, Experian's fraud and regulatory compliance director at Experian, said: "The rate of identity fraud growth continues to be scary."
Identity theft criminals are being caught and punished. However, ITRC founder, Linda Foley, herself an identity theft victim, said: "Identity theft is like the never-ending story. It acts like an oil spill that spreads in yet another direction with the ocean currents and wind despite best efforts to contain it."
IBM buys Israeli storage startup XIV
IBM has bought XIV, an Israeli manufacturer of SAN (storage area network) equipment. XIV's main product is Nextra, a storage system based on a grid of standard hardware components.
Nextra's self-healing, self-tuning and dynamic scaling capabilities will give IBM new technology to address the growing requirement for high-performance storage for digital archives, digital media and Web 2.0 applications, IBM said.
Around 4 petabytes (4 million gigabytes) of Nextra storage are already in service, XIV said.
XIV employees will join IBM's system storage business unit, the companies said. Moshe Yanai, chairman of XIV, previously worked at EMC.
The companies would not put a price on the deal, but reports in the Israeli financial press earlier this week valued it at US$300 million to $350 million.
This is the latest in a line of storage-related acquisitions for IBM, which recently bought Softek, FileNet and NovusCG to beef up its storage offering.
Nextra's self-healing, self-tuning and dynamic scaling capabilities will give IBM new technology to address the growing requirement for high-performance storage for digital archives, digital media and Web 2.0 applications, IBM said.
Around 4 petabytes (4 million gigabytes) of Nextra storage are already in service, XIV said.
XIV employees will join IBM's system storage business unit, the companies said. Moshe Yanai, chairman of XIV, previously worked at EMC.
The companies would not put a price on the deal, but reports in the Israeli financial press earlier this week valued it at US$300 million to $350 million.
This is the latest in a line of storage-related acquisitions for IBM, which recently bought Softek, FileNet and NovusCG to beef up its storage offering.
Qualcomm maneuvers around court's chipset ban
Qualcomm is shipping four new wireless chipsets that do not infringe on a video encoding patent held by competitor Broadcom. Qualcomm expects the WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) handsets containing the chips to go on sale in the U.S. by April, it said Wednesday.
The announcement comes two days after a U.S. federal judge issued an injunction that stops Qualcomm from selling some wireless chipsets found to infringe on the Broadcom patent.
Under a special provision of the injunction, Qualcomm can continue to use Broadcom's patented technology in some existing QChat push-to-talk and 1xEV-DO (Evolution-Data Only) products through Jan. 31, 2009, as long as it pays royalties to Broadcom. New products, or existing products sold to new customers, are not covered by the automatic license.
Qualcomm is still developing workarounds for infringing technology included in the QChat and 1xEV-DO products, it said.
Broadcom won a patent infringement suit against Qualcomm in May and was awarded US$19.6 million in damages. However, Broadcom said the injunction -- which only applies to chipsets sold in the U.S. -- was far more important than the money.
Monday's injunction, issued in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, also prohibits Qualcomm from some marketing and customer support activities related to WCDMA and EV-DO chips.
Qualcomm said it still wants further clarification on some aspects of the injunction, saying it could affect the company's product development. The company said it is also considering filing an appeal or for a stay of the injunction.
The two companies still have other patent infringement and antitrust claims pending.
The announcement comes two days after a U.S. federal judge issued an injunction that stops Qualcomm from selling some wireless chipsets found to infringe on the Broadcom patent.
Under a special provision of the injunction, Qualcomm can continue to use Broadcom's patented technology in some existing QChat push-to-talk and 1xEV-DO (Evolution-Data Only) products through Jan. 31, 2009, as long as it pays royalties to Broadcom. New products, or existing products sold to new customers, are not covered by the automatic license.
Qualcomm is still developing workarounds for infringing technology included in the QChat and 1xEV-DO products, it said.
Broadcom won a patent infringement suit against Qualcomm in May and was awarded US$19.6 million in damages. However, Broadcom said the injunction -- which only applies to chipsets sold in the U.S. -- was far more important than the money.
Monday's injunction, issued in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, also prohibits Qualcomm from some marketing and customer support activities related to WCDMA and EV-DO chips.
Qualcomm said it still wants further clarification on some aspects of the injunction, saying it could affect the company's product development. The company said it is also considering filing an appeal or for a stay of the injunction.
The two companies still have other patent infringement and antitrust claims pending.
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