July 27th, 2010 by michael.frier

Daily News – 27/7

BBC – BlackBerry pose ‘security risk’ say UAE

The United Arab Emirates has said that it could move to restrict or monitor BlackBerry mobile phones, as they pose a “national security risk”.

ComputerWorldUK – Jailbreaking iPhones is deemed legal
Apple has lost its bid to criminalise “jailbreaking,” the practice of hacking an iPhone to install unauthorised apps on the smartphone, following a decision by the US Copyright Office and the Library of Congress.

CIO – Wikileaks and Guardian newspaper reveal Afghan War secret documents

The Wikileaks website has released its controversial ‘Afghan War Diary’ (AWD), a 91,000-file collection of reports detailing disturbing and previously unreported incidents involving US and other NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The Daily Telegraph – ‘Most people’s purchases influenced by social networks’

The majority of consumers now consult ‘friends’ or ‘followers’ on social networks, such as Facebook, before choosing to purchase a new item, according to research firm Gartner.

The Guardian – Ofcom: Broadband ISPs are pulling a fast one

Average speed 46% below that promised by ISPs. Mandatory code and clear penalties vital, experts say

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July 8th, 2010 by michael.frier

Daily News – 08/07

The Register – Amazon.co.uk takes on Tesco

Amazon’s UK tentacle is upping its range of goods for sale to include thousands of grocery and food items and lashings of lovely booze.

The Daily Telegraph – Mozilla unveils Firefox 4 beta

Firefox 4, the latest version of the popular internet browser, has been released as a public beta, and adopts some of Google Chrome’s features.

Computer Weekly – Marks & Spencer online sales grow 49 per cent

Marks & Spencer’s online business M&S Direct saw sales rise 49 per cent in the first quarter of the new financial year. Overall UK sales were up 4.4 per cent, with the online side of the business playing a strong role in the performance. The company has invested in its online business in recent months. It extended its Shop Your Way multi-channel ordering service to more than 400 stores and has launched a fully mobile-enabled website.

Total Telecom – Ridley Scott teaming up with YouTube on documentary
Google-owned YouTube described it as a “historic cinematic experiment” intended to “document one day, as seen through the eyes of people around the world.”

Management Today – £35m a year for the Business Link website? Really??

Opinion was split when new business minister Mark Prisk announced the Government was pulling the plug on Business Link: although many business owners have long considered it a total waste of taxpayers’ money, others sing its praises. However, it is now reported that the website cost the taxpayer an extraordinary £105m over the last three years.

The Guardian – Facebook applications requesting permission to steal your data

The world of Facebook can be a dangerous place, as two separate incidents this week have proven.

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June 21st, 2010 by michael.frier

Daily News – 21/06

The Guardian – George Osborne facing budget backlash

Budget plans attacked by unions and business leaders as chancellor warns UK is on ‘road to ruin’

Information Age – Government plans IT ‘skunk works’

Cabinet Office strategy document reveals plan for a flexible task force to improve IT projects, plus increased power for government CIO

The Register – Google’s Wi-Fi snoop nabbed passwords and emails

The Wi-Fi traffic collected by Google’s world-roving Street View cars included passwords and email, according to a report citing a preliminary study from the French data protection authority.

ZDNet – Vodafone joins iPhone 4 pricing fray

Vodafone has announced its pricing for the iPhone 4, with the 16GB version of the handset being available for free on two-year, £50-per-month contracts.

The Daily Telegraph – Facebook users turn their back on virtual friends

A survey by Facebook has revealed a sharp spike in the number of cases of ‘defriending’ – when a person revokes someone else’s friendship status on their social networking site. The surge in defriending appears to be linked to attempts by social network users to control more strictly who has access to their personal pages, updates and photographs online



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June 14th, 2010 by michael.frier

Daily News – 14/06

Vince Cable backs break-up of big banks

Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, has given official backing to recommendations that call for investment banks to be broken up.

The Daily Telegraph – Porn sites ‘easy target’ for cyber criminals

Visitors to porn websites are at serious risk from hackers and clickjackers, a security firm has warned. Researchers at International Secure System Lab analysed more than 35,000 pornographic domains, hosting 269,000 websites. They found that about 3.23 per cent of those websites were laced with adware, spyware and viruses, which visitors could inadvertently and unknowingly install on their computers, leaving them open to hackers and cyber criminals.

Computer Weekly – Will LinkedIn reshape the recruitment sector?

LinkedIn is already a recruitment tool for corporate’s looking for specialist IT staff, but will its increased focus on recruitment services leave a permanent scar on an industry still reeling from recession? The social networking site has appointed Ariel Eckstein as managing director of its Hiring Solutions service, with responsibility to expand LinkedIn’s European recruitment business and “increase the visibility” of its Talent Advantage Suite.

BBC – ITV HD viewers miss England’s first World Cup goal

ITV has apologised to its HD channel viewers after a “transmission problem” caused them to miss England’s first World Cup goal. Viewers did not see Steven Gerrard’s early strike against the USA in the 1-1 match. Some reported seeing an advert.

Computing.co.uk – Channel Five reveals intention to step up digital TV presence

UK TV channel Five has revealed plans to aggressively ramp up its online presence. Francois Chabat, the channel’s senior technology manager, exclusively told Computing that syndication of content is a key part of the strategy.

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June 7th, 2010 by michael.frier

Daily News – 07/06

The Register – Hack on e-commerce co. exposes records for 200,000

E-commerce company Digital River exposed data belonging to almost 200,000 individuals after hackers executed a “highly unusual search command” against its secured servers, according to a news report.

ZDNet – MEPs push for monitoring of internet search

Hundreds of MEPs have called for search companies to be obliged to retain customer data for scrutiny by law enforcement bodies.

The Daily Telegraph – Foursquare blocked in China

Reports suggest the Chinese government is restricting access to the Foursquare geo-location service, after players used the service to draw attention to the 21st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Computer Weekly – Lloyds uses technology to track oil spills and ash clouds

Insurance companies have always had high exposure to environmental disasters, and with BP’s oil spill and Iceland’s volcano 2010 has placed plenty of demands on their IT systems. Lloyds of London is using technology to help its insurers get updates as they come in, with an interactive map that uses geo-tagging and mines the company’s databases for relevant information every time something happens.

IT PRO – Government publishes public sector spending online
The UK Government has opened up public sector spending from its COINS database for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 fiscal years.

BBC – Bletchley Park WWII archive to go online

Millions of documents stored at the World War II code-breaking centre, Bletchley Park, are set to be digitised and made available online. Electronics company Hewlett-Packard has donated a number of scanners to the centre in Milton Keynes so volunteers can begin the ground-breaking task.

Silicon.com – Royal Mail gives stamp of approval to new CIO

Royal Mail has confirmed that it has chosen a new CIO to take over from outgoing incumbent Robin Dargue. Earlier this year Royal Mail told silicon.com that Dargue’s successor will take charge of Royal Mail’s £2bn technology modernisation project which encompasses new systems, software and equipment across virtually all divisions in the Royal Mail Group. Dargue was appointed to oversee the transformation project in November 2007.

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June 7th, 2010 by michael.frier

Daily News – 04/06

The Register – Vince Cable: Feel my mighty SME love

New Coalition government biznovation minister Vince Cable has set out his stall in a speech given yesterday at a business school in London. He pledged to cut the red tape stifling small businesses, and said he would compel banks to lend to SMEs.

SC Magazine - IT security professionals hack their own networks for penetration testing

Half of IT security professionals have admitted that they hack their own networks, with 73 per cent doing so to test the strength of their own network defences.

Computing.co.uk – Broadband customers buy on price, switch on speed

The main reason why consumers switch broadband supplier is because of disappointment with connectivity speed, but when they choose a new provider, they do so based on price, a recent survey has found.

The Daily Telegraph – Microsoft is ‘number five’ in the mobile market

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, has admitted that the technology giant is losing the battle in the smartphone space with its Windows Phone offering, saying its currently ranked fifth in the market.

IT Pro – BT gets go-ahead for watered down broadband unbundling

The European Commission has said it agrees with regulator Ofcom that BT should be able to offer only virtual unbundling for its fibre broadband networks for the time being.

ComputerWorldUK – PC is not dead, device form is changing

Apple CEO Steve Jobs may believe that the personal computer – Mac and Windows PCs – will diminish in importance in the near future, but Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer sees thing differently. Ballmer, during an interview at the Wall Street Journal’s D8 conference, told the Journal’s Walt Mossberg that PCs will continue to evolve but will remain popular, even in a world where more and more people carry smartphones and tablet devices like the iPad.

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June 1st, 2010 by michael.frier

Daily News – 01/06

The Register – Fraudsters limber up for World Cup themed scams

Football governing body FIFA has already warned supporters to be wary over various forms of scams that are likely to crop up in the run-up to the start of the tournament, which kicks off in ten days time.

SC Magazine – Importance of email retention clear after US bank is fined $700,000

A fine issued to a company for failing to retain emails demonstrates the importance of email retention as a compliance issue.

The Daily Telegraph – World Cup traffic could clog mobile networks

Analysts at consultancy firm Deloitte have suggested that the numbers of Britons watching TV on their phones could compromise mobile networks. The World Cup could lead to an increase in data usage on mobile phone networks and lead to the services becoming “oversaturated”, according to industry analysts at management consultancy firm Deloitte.

The Daily Telegraph – Google has mapped every WiFi network in Britain

Google has mapped every wireless network in Britain in order to use the information for commercial purposes, it has emerged. Every WiFi wireless router – the device that links most computer owners to the internet – in every home has been entered into a Google database. The information was collected by radio aerials on their Street View cars, which have now photographed almost every home in the country

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May 5th, 2010 by michael.frier

Daily News – 05/05

BBC – A decade on from the ILOVEYOU bug

For Paul Fletcher, manager of Star Labs security, 4 May 2000 started like any other day. By the end of the day nothing would ever be the same again.

The Times – Foursquare at right time, right place to be next big thing

Online social networks used to be about making virtual connections with your friends; now they are about meeting up with them.

Information Age – Google invests in wind power, 3D desktops and ‘time-based search’

Search giant Google has this week revealed a number of investments that concern such diverse technologies as wind power, 3D desktops, online payments and search.

The Daily Telegraph – Zettabytes overtake petabytes as largest unit of digital measurement

The size of the “digital universe” will swell so rapidly this year that a new unit – the zettabyte – has been invented to measure it. One zettabyte is equal to one million petabytes, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 individual bytes.

Management Today – MT Expert – Innovation: Use technology to keep customers happy

Technology is crucial to creating an engaging customer experience. And it doesn’t even have to cost you. There are currently strong links between good customer service and a good bottom line. The same applies to the relationship between technology use and improved customer service.

ComputerWorldUK – Amazon launches Virtual Private Cloud service in Europe
Amazon Web Services has launched VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) in Europe, the company said. The service lets companies connect their existing data centres to isolated computing resources in Amazon’s European cloud using an encrypted VPN (virtual private network) connection.

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April 26th, 2010 by michael.frier

Daily News – 26/04

The Guardian – Will Foursquare be the new Twitter?
An application that allows friends to track one another’s movements when they’re out and about could be the next big thing in social networking

Total Telecom – YouTube opens movie rental store
Google Inc.’s YouTube on Thursday opened a video rental store, the company’s latest step in its effort to transform the popular video Web site into a profitable business.

Information Age – SaaS set to boom in the UK

A new report from UK-based IT analyst company TechMarketView has predicted that software-as-a-service offerings will receive 15 per cent of all UK software and IT services spending by 2012, up from 5 per cent in 2009.

The Daily Telegraph – McAfee apologises for update fiasco

Antivirus company McAfee has apologised for issuing an update that crippled thousands of computers around the world. Writing in the company’s blog, Barry McPherson, executive vice-president of support and customer service, wrote “I want to apologize on behalf of McAfee and say that we’re extremely sorry for any impact the faulty signature update file may have caused you and your organizations.”

SC Magazine – Opportunities and challenges in social networking

The challenge of social networking in a business environment has been tackled in a new think tank from SC Studio.

The Times – Facebook sets up Google-war with vast expansion through Open Graph

Facebook has announced plans to spread its influence more widely across the internet by weaving its service into all websites.

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April 20th, 2010 by michael.frier

Daily News – 20/04

IT PRO – Worries over digital rights in anti-piracy plans
Countries negotiating a deal to curb trade in fake and pirated goods are close to reaching an agreement in talks that have raised concerns among digital rights advocates, US trade officials said.

IT PRO -Report: Google’s password servers were attacked
The December attack against Google’s computers – which it blamed on Chinese hackers – hit the company’s password system, according to a report in the New York Times.

The Daily Telegraph – Volcanic ash cloud: Trapped Norwegian PM ‘ran country on iPad’

Jens Stoltenberg, the Norwegian prime minister, who was stranded in New York because of Iceland’s volcanic ash cloud over the weekend, was using an iPad to run his government remotely, according to his press secretary.

The Daily Telegraph – Facebook’s new content-sharing button ‘will not track users’ web history’

Facebook is launching a new content sharing button this week, which other websites can embed onto their pages, but has denied that it will be used as a behavioural advertising targeting tool, as suggested in a report originally printed by The Financial Times.

BBC Tech – Microsoft debuts ‘fix it’ program

Microsoft has launched “Fix It” software that keeps an eye on a PC and automatically repairs common faults.

The Times – Facebook offers fee ads to child charities

Social networking site offers millions of pounds of advertising as part of a charm offensive after row over child safety.

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