UK will not legislate on piracy

UK will not legislate on piracy

The UK's Intellectual Property minister David Lammy has said the government will not force internet service providers to pursue file sharers.

There had been mounting speculation about government legislation on the issue as the music industry steps up its fight against the pirates.

Other countries, such as France, have supported tough action on file-sharers, who the industry claims cost them dear.
But Mr Lammy said legislation would be too complex.

Full Story: Here

And yes, yes, I am fully aware of the name of the person in photo two.

Job website hit by major breach

Job website hit by major breach

Hackers are believed to have stolen the personal details of millions of people using the online job site Monster.

Users around the world have been affected, including the 4.5 million users of the UK site.

If all are affected it would make it the biggest data theft in the UK since the details of 25 million child benefit claimants went missing last year.

The recruitment giant has advised people to change their passwords and be on the lookout for phishing e-mails.

Recruitment sites have proved rich pickings for criminally-minded hackers in the past and it is not the first time Monster has fallen foul of cyber thieves.

Read the whole news article here.

Compliment to GiddyG for the find

-Ken

Microsoft steps up browser battle

Microsoft steps up browser battle

The US software giant says IE 8 is faster, easier to use and more secure than its competitors. "We have made IE 8 the best browser for the way people really do use the web," said Microsoft's Amy Barzdukas. "Microsoft needs to say these things because it continues to lose market share to Firefox, Chrome and Safari," said Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald. Recent figures have shown that Microsoft's dominance in this space has been chipped away by competitors. At the end of last year, data from Net Applications showed the software giant's market share dropped below 70% for the first time in eight years to 68%. Meanwhile Mozilla broke the 20% barrier for the first time in its history with 21% of users using its browser Firefox.

Go, Firefox Go! Uh...I mean, to read the rest of the story go to BBC.co.uk.

Practical BGP Security

Practical BGP Security

The vulnerabilities in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) have been widely known for many years now. The threats range from attacking the TCP port 179 connections between peers, injecting false information into the global routing database, trying to create a Denial of Service (DoS) condition, or reroute traffic to perform a Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attack. If you saw the cover of the recent Network World magazine on January 19th then you saw the story about the U.S. governments working toward securing their BGP connections. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recognizes these threats and what the consequences mean for the U.S. government. They are looking toward BGPSEC to help solve the problem. Unfortunately, BGP suffers from the same problem as IPv6 adoption. You can’t change the routed protocol or the routing protocol of the Internet over an evening...

The full article is at...

History repeating? Remembering the Vista 'upgrade'

History repeating? Remembering the Vista 'upgrade'

While much of the media is tripping over itself to mark the Second Coming of Windows (aka the Windows 7 beta), I recall the First Install of Vista. Though I have been running Vista without major incident since January of 2008, the initial switch in August of 2007 consigned me immediately to my own private Vista hell. Let's hope Microsoft makes the upgrade to Windows 7 easier this time. In a personal blog written back in August of 2007, I wrote: "As more people experience the fiasco that is Windows Vista, I thought I would pile on. With trepidation I upgraded to Windows Vista. My instincts were dead on."

Full story at CNET.com.

The Open Group signs Memorandum of Understanding with BCS

The Open Group signs Memorandum of Understanding with BCS

22-Jan-2009 » Training Press Releases » As part of the drive to create an international IT profession, The Open Group has signed a memorandum of understanding with the British Computer Society (BCS). The understanding will see the two bodies work more closely to promote professionalism across the industry on an international basis

Allen Brown, Chief Executive Officer for The Open Group, welcomes the understanding: "We are delighted to be working with the BCS on promoting vendor neutral IT certification programs for IT professionals. This collaboration will see both organisations sharing information and expertise to encourage and support IT practitioners across the world in their careers and their professional development."

Read the whole article here.

-Ken

Microsoft to cut up to 5,000 jobs

Microsoft to cut up to 5,000 jobs

Microsoft has said it will cut up to 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months, including 1,400 immediately.

The firm also reported a net profit of $4.17bn (£3bn) for the three months to 31 December, down 11% on last year and less than analysts' expectations.

Microsoft added it was "no longer able" to give a profit and revenue outlook for the fiscal year amid current volatile market conditions.

Shares in Microsoft fell 7.9%, dragging Wall Street lower.

...Microsoft said the announced job cuts would take place in research and development, marketing, sales, finance, legal, human resources and information technology...

Read the whole article here.

This is following rumours from early January, see the late news post here. Not quite the 15,000, but 5000 is bad enough......

Small firms put IT ahead of tea and biscuits when it comes to cutbacks

Small firms put IT ahead of tea and biscuits when it comes to cutbacks

Small businesses would rather slash their IT spending than get rid of the office tea and biscuits.
A survey commissioned by electricity supplier Opus Energy found nearly 40% of Britain's small businesses are planning to cut their budgets for advertising and business travel (37%) in order to weather the recession.

The YouGov survey polled over 500 small business owners and managers to discover where they would be cutting back during the current economic downturn.

Read the whole article here.

-Ken

Birmingham council makes £46m savings in corporate services

Birmingham council makes £46m savings in corporate services

Savings of £46m have been made in the last 12 months by Birmingham City Council's Corporate Services Transformation (CST) programme.

Over the next ten years, the programme, launched in October 2007, is on course to realise gross savings of £625m, said the council.

"After overcoming initial teething troubles, CST is now consistently ensuring that well over 90% of council invoices are paid on time, the best recorded performance the authority has ever enjoyed," the council said.

Read the whole article here.

-Ken

Ministry of Defence hit by computer virus

Ministry of Defence hit by computer virus

IT systems at the Ministry of Defence have been hit by a computer virus.

The virus hit on 6 January and has been affecting the systems since then, leaving some staff without regular access to e-mail or the internet.

The MOD said claims that information from its systems had been sent to a Russian internet server as a result of the virus were "absolutely unfounded".

A spokesman said the virus was not aimed exclusively at the MoD, but was unable to say how the virus entered the system. The department says there is "no impact on current operations".

Read the whole article here.

What Anti-virus are they running?

-Ken