Financial Times – Google buys ReCaptcha to help with security
Google yesterday acquired online security group reCaptcha, which creates passwords based on distorted letters, saying the takeover would help its ongoing book digitisation plans. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Financial Times – Twitter gives traders virtual open outcry
Twitter is resurrecting in cyberspace the teeming trading pits of yesteryear as traders sign up with the the social networking site to reconnect with global counterparts. StockTwits is one of the most popular ways for traders to track relevant discussions on Twitter, including stock trends. Traders tweet their opinions about a stock with its ticker and a dollar sign which is then picked up and displayed by StockTwits’ own website.

CNN – Oracle’s sales dip but profit meets estimates
Shares in Oracle slipped yesterday after it posted first-quarter revenue down 5.1% at $5.05bn, greater than expectations, with net profit up 8% at $1.1bn.

Gartner – Gartner Outlines Four Risk Management Mistakes That Could Threaten the Security Budget
Enterprise security budgets have always been difficult to justify, and the global economic crisis is making this critical process even more difficult, according to Gartner, Inc. Corporate security professionals face a complex situation as they work with highly constrained financial and staffing resources to manage and mitigate a rapidly changing and expanding risk environment.

The Register – Mozilla catches half of Firefox users running insecure Flash
More than half of all Firefox users ran an unsafe version of Adobe’s Flash Player, according to statistics collected last week as users installed the latest release of the popular open-source browser.

The Register – Microsoft offers online tools for Swine Flu infected kids
Microsoft is leveraging this year’s pandemic to pitch its online storage and document sharing service for Office. Swine Flu means that infected tots must be kept away from the classroom. That’s why the software giant today launched the website microsoft.com/education/h1n1 encouraging teachers to use Office Live Workspace to hand out work and assignments to children suffering with swine flu.

Silicon.com -More of a whimper than a bang: Whitehall’s green tech drive
The government has trimmed the carbon footprint of its technology infrastructure – but questions remain about its plans to make its IT systems carbon-neutral by 2012.

BBC News – BBC looks to copy protect content
BBC plans to encrypt Freeview HD data have come under fire from critics, who say it will effectively copyright free BBC content.

Computer Weekly – Weaknesses in US IT infrastructure threaten national security
Weaknesses in the US technology infrastructure remains one of the greatest threats to national security, the US House Committee on Homeland Security has heard.

Total Telecom – Adobe to buy Web-tracking firm
Adobe Systems Inc. agreed to buy software company Omniture Inc. for $1.8 billion, a deal designed to help customers track and make money from Web sites that were created with Adobe’s programs. Adobe said it will pay $21.50 a share in cash for Omniture, a 24% premium to Tuesday’s

IT PRO – One in eight Brits hit by online ID fraud
One in eight Britons have been victims of online ID fraud, according to a report released today. The survey conducted by YouGov and commissioned by VeriSign, showed 12 per cent of the 2,000-plus people questioned in July had fallen foul of online ID fraud in the past 12 months, with an average of £463 stolen from each person.

IT PRO – Outdated security needs to be ripped up and thrown away
New approaches are needed to make sure both European governments and businesses are secure. So claims Steve Purser, head of the technical competence department for the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), speaking at its annual conference.

IT PRO – Government saves £7 million by going green
The government has saved millions of pounds over the past year by being greener with IT. Last year, the government unveiled its green IT plans, saying it wanted to be carbon neutral by 2012.

CBR – EU agency calls for Euro security exchanges
Enisa, the EU agency that coordinates information and network security policy, has called for the formation across Europe of public-private sector partnerships tasked with sharing intelligence on security incidents, vulnerabilities, threats and solutions. These so-called Network Security Information Exchanges are not intended to have any operational role or respond to a crisis but would work at a tactical and strategic level by allowing bodies to exchange information in a trusted environment.

CBR – Websense warns on social networking and search sites
Over half of the top 100 web sites have been found to host malicious content or contain a masked redirect to malicious sites. The sites tend to be either social networking web sites such as Facebook, Flickr or YouTube, or one of the popular search engine sites, according to a report released by Websense Security Labs on the State of Internet Security, Q1 – Q2, 2009.

Computer World UK – Security policy holes in Apple iPhone OS
It turns out that Apple’s iPhone 3.1 OS fix of a serious security issue, falsely reporting to Exchange servers that pre-3G S iPhones and iPod Touches had on-device encryption, wasn’t the first such policy falsehood that Apple has quietly fixed in an OS upgrade. It fixed a similar lie in its June iPhone OS 3.0 update. Before that update, the iPhone falsely reported its adherence to VPN policies, specifically those that confirm the device is not saving the VPN password (so

Computer World UK – Web servers and applications key targets for hackers
A dangerous combination of a massive increase in Web server attacks and poor patching practices is a major cause of concern for experts, according to a report issued today by several security organizations. In a groundbreaking study that matched attack trends with patching cycle data, some conclusions came as a shock, said Rohit Dhamankar, the director of security research at 3Com TippingPoint. TippingPoint contributed real-world attack information, acquired from its intrusion detection systems, to the report.

Computer World UK – Data collection fails to keep companies secure
Organisations love to collect data on people, often in the name of identity and access control. But more often than not, the information gathering fails to improve security. In fact, it often makes matters worse, according to security experts speaking Tuesday at CSO Magazine’s Digital ID World 2009 conference.

Computer World UK – End-to-end encryption: The PCI security holy grail
One of the fascinating things to do when in New York City is to visit the Federal Reserve gold vault. The vault lies 86 feet below sea level, resting on Manhattan bedrock, and holds approximately 5,000 metric tons of gold bullion. The Federal Reserve Bank does not own the gold but serves as guardian of the precious metal, which it protects at no charge as a gesture of goodwill to other nations.
The data stored within your IT infrastructure is also quite valuable. The challenge – how do you make your data like gold, so that it is difficult to illicitly move and use? The answer is, quite simply, encrypt it.

Computer World UK – New community opens for open source management tools
MonitoringForge.org launched Tuesday in beta and welcomes developers and users of open source network and systems management and monitoring applications to share their tools, experiences and plans for future work. GroundWork Open Source, a maker of open source applications offered as commercial software, started the online effort earlier this year after realizing how many projects specific to management exist. The site is meant to cull management tools – 1,700 have been verified for the site so far – and provide a venue for discussion, development and downloads.

ComputerWorldUK – Outsourcing turning to new payment models
As IT leaders focus on cutting costs, they continue to put pricing pressure on offshore outsourcers. Since suppliers who respond with repeated price cuts could be slitting their own throats, some are offering up new pricing models to soothe the savage customer. There are two well-established methods for pricing an outsourcing deal: time-and-materials (where the client pays for work on a cost-plus-margin basis) and fixed price, though variations on the two themes continue to emerge.

Computing – Procter & Gamble to build new web platform
Consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble (P&G) has hired Accenture to revamp its global web technology setup under a multi-year deal. Under the services agreement, the two firms will develop a digital platform focused on the consumer’s online experience. The technology is intended to analyse customer behaviour and preferences whilst presenting relevant content and information to improve web experience.

Computing – UK IT Industry Awards 2009: The IT professionals to watch
The awards programme merges the longstanding Computing Awards for Excellence and the BCS IT Industry Awards to create a platform for the entire UK IT profession to showcase and celebrate best practice, innovation and excellence. The winners will be announced at the lavish prize-giving ceremony, to be held at the Battersea Park Events Arena in London on Thursday 12 November 2009.

Computing – Technology chiefs must evolve into information leaders
Over the years, we have seen great change in the role of the IT leader. His job ¬ – and it was usually a man ¬ – has had various titles, from head of computer branch, data processing manager or head of computing to the more modern variants of IT director and chief information officer (CIO). More often than not, these roles were two levels down from the board, reflecting how senior executives viewed the importance of IT.