Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Daily Highlights

The Associated Press reports an Ohio man trying to take down a power line to steal and sell the copper inside was electrocuted early Monday morning, July 16; copper thefts have increased across the nation as the salvage price for the metal has more than quadrupled since 2003. (See item 1)
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IDG News Service reports San Francisco offers subscribers a text−based emergency notification system for e−mail accounts and mobile devices called AlertSF, which can send warning alerts about flooding, power outages, and traffic disruptions, as well as tsunami alerts and other post−disaster information. (See item 25)
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Information Technology and Telecommunications Sector

27. July 16, IDG News Service — Powerful earthquake disrupts Japan communications. A powerful earthquake that struck northern Japan Monday morning, July 16, has caused disruption to communications services in the country. The earthquake just off the coast of Niigata prefecture, which is northwest of Tokyo. The magnitude 6.8 quake registered an intensity of 6+ on Japan's scale of 0 to 7, in three locations. As a result of the temblor, major telecommunications carriers have imposed restrictions on phone calls into and out of the affected area. NTT East Corp., the major fixed−line provider in the area, has activated its "disaster dial 171" service that allows people in the area to leave voicemail messages that can be checked by those in the rest of the country. The major cell phone carriers have similarly restricted calls and activated their own disaster message board services on wireless Internet sites.
Source: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9027082&intsrc=hm_list

28. July 16, IDG News Service — IBM nets real−time capabilities with DataMirror buy. IBM is looking to add real−time capabilities to its data integration software by buying Canadian firm DataMirror for about $162.3 million. DataMirror's Transformation Server software identifies and captures data that has been added, updated, or deleted, and it enables the changed information to be delivered in real time to processes, applications, and databases. Subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, the deal is set to close in the third quarter of this year.
Source: http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/07/16/IBM−DataMirror−buy _1.html

29. July 14, InformationWeek — IT security: The data theft time bomb. Despite the billions of dollars spent on information security products, the aggressive patching and repairing of operating systems and applications, and the heightened awareness of the need for computer users to guard against identity theft, most organizations aren't feeling any more secure than they were a year ago. InformationWeek Research's 10th annual Global Information Security survey shows that two−thirds of 1,101 survey respondents in the United States and 89 percent of 1,991 respondents in China are feeling just as vulnerable to security attacks as last year, or more so. Contributing to this unease is the perception that security technology has grown overly complex, to the point where it's contributing to the problem. The No. 1 security challenge identified by almost half of U.S. respondents is "managing the complexity of security." Yet a case can be made that respondents aren't worried enough, particularly about lost and stolen company and customer data. Only one−third of U.S. survey respondents and less than half of those in China cite "preventing breaches" as their biggest security challenge.
Source: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=RK2TUBBPEPSV0QSNDLPCKH0CJUNN2JVN?articleID=201001203

30. July 13, IDG News Service — After criticism, Sun fixes Java flaw. Just days after a security researcher blasted its Java patching system, Sun Microsystems has issued a critical update to the consumer version of its Java software. The Java Platform Standard Edition (SE) Version 6, Update 2 release was made available on Sun's Java.com Website Friday, July 13, and is being pushed out to Java users who use the software's automatic update system, said Jacki Decoster, a Sun spokesperson. Sun supports four different versions of its Java SE software for desktop computers, and the company had already patched the other versions before releasing the Version 6, Update 2 release, which is the latest version of the product for consumer users. That raised a red flag with security vendor eEye Digital Security, which said that the staggered release schedule gives criminals a chance to reverse−engineer the Java bug by looking at the patches that have been made public.
Source: http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/07/13/Sun−fixes−Java−flaw_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/07/13/Sun−fixes−Java−flaw_1.html

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