IT Infrastructure - News

Next, erase all of your stored information, including your phone book, any stored incoming or outgoing text messages, and memory of incoming and outgoing phone numbers, e-mails and so on. You can do this manually, one by one, of course, but if you do, there's a good chance you might miss some. And it can also be exceedingly time-consuming. So check your phone's manual for how to do a complete reset. A reset will wipe your phone of data and restore it to its factory settings.

A superb resource for figuring out how to reset cell phone data is put together by ReCellular, which buys, recycles and refurbishes wireless devices. Its cell phone data eraser site gives detailed instructions on how to erase data from many different makes and models of cell phones. Just choose your make and model, and you'll be able to download specific instructions for resetting it.

Wiping PCs

Just deleting files isn't good enough when you are going to recycle your computer. It's quite simple for anyone to restore those deleted files, even if they're no longer in the Recycle Bin. In fact, even deleting files and reformatting your hard disk won't completely do the trick. Someone knowledgeable enough and dedicated to the task will be able to restore your files, even from a reformatted disk.

Think there's nothing to worry about? You couldn't be more wrong. In 2003, two graduate students at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science bought 158 used hard disks on eBay and other places. From those hard disks, they were able to discover 5,000 credit card numbers, personal and corporate financial records, medical records and personal e-mails.

Only 12 of the 158 hard disks had been properly cleaned of their data. Approximately 60% of the hard drives had been reformatted, and about 45% of the drives had no files on them (the drives couldn't even be mounted on a computer) -- yet the students were still able to recover data from them, using a variety of special tools.

What can you do? Get a disk-wiping program, preferably one that meets the U.S. Department of Defense's standards for disk sanitation. These programs will overwrite your entire hard disk with data multiple times, ensuring that the original data can't be retrieved. If you use them, be patient, because it can take several hours to wipe the hard disk.

If you've got a Mac, you can use Apple's built-in Disk Utility or download a third-party application like Mireth Technology's ShredIt X 5.8 ($25, free trial), which lets you shred single files as well as wipe your local hard drive, network hard drives and CD-RWs.

Janco's  Sarbanes-Oxley is a comprehensive solution centered around the management of event logs and the ability to interrogate events in real time; identify the events that are required for reporting and provide a means to automatically respond to events that require immediate attention. Additionally, Janco automates the process of archiving event logs from critical servers and workstations that contain financial data.

Janco's tools isolate the events that show specific interaction between data and the systems that protect that data. Events fall under the categories of:

• IT and Internet Management
• Space Management
• Log-on & Log-off
• System Events - such as ensuring the integrity of event logs by identifying and reporting when an event log is cleared by an unauthorized user or when a gap in the processing of events is detected

These rules identify the occurrences of the specific actions that must be monitored and recorded for compliance. When a specific event is identified, one or all of the following can take place: Notification can be sent via e-mail or pager, collected, and store event information.

Janco's Operational Control Productivity Tools for IT and Internet  for Sarbanes-Oxley provides the tool that management and auditors rely on to prove that “internal controls” are in place and effective.

The Operational Control Productivity Tools for IT and Internet  Software Bundle contains:

• DiskMonitor® -  the unlimited version

• Network Event Viewer - unlimited version

• Static HTML page generator using xml feeds (RSS) - Professional Edition

1.       Determine how the event will impact four key areas:

·         People: How will you notify, evacuate, transport and care for employees?

·         Property: What equipment will you need and how will you source it?

·         Systems: What portions of your computing and telecommunications infrastructure must be duplicated immediately? How much downtime can your operation tolerate?

·         Data: What data is critical to run your business, and how will you recover critical data that is lost?

2.       Determine which data, applications and systems must be restored and in what sequence. Prioritize systems as critical, vital, sensitive or noncritical, and talk to users at all levels to make sure youÂ’re not overlooking any crucial systems.

3.        Analyze the hardware and software configurations that support critical business functions and isolate possible points of failure.

4.       Quantify hourly costs based on interruptions of these systems.

Each of these is included in the Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity Template that can be found at http://www.e-janco.com/drp.htm

Police and a doctor who examined the body of a 33-year-old quarry worker had said on Thursday the victim was found dead with a burning mobile phone stuck to his chest and they were looking into whether he was killed by an exploding battery.

"The co-worker confessed to us that he had actually hit him by accident and lied about the mobile phone exploding," said an official with the Cheongju Heungdeok police station, about 60 miles southeast of Seoul.

The co-worker confessed to police that he pinned the victim to a rock face while backing up a construction vehicle.

Police are investigating whether the phone caught fire because of intense pressure or if the co-worker set it ablaze, local media reported.

The victim, who was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital, had burns on his chest, fractured ribs and internal bleeding, the doctor said.

In a statement, LG Electronics said earlier reports that the phone in the accident was made by LG "led to the unfair assumption by the media and the general public that an LG product was somehow the cause of this tragedy. This undeservedly damaged the company's reputation for more than a day," the cell phone maker said.

Moreover, even if you sign up for a three-year SA agreement, you might not actually receive a new release of desktop Windows because Microsoft innovation and development are so slow. (Five years passed between the release of Windows XP and Windows Vista.)

When you use Windows desktops, you are using software that lags behind the competition in innovation. For instance, Microsoft lagged way behind in added functionality to Internet Explorer (IE) to make it somewhat comparable to Mozilla Firefox*. When you consider the loss of business due to numerous Windows security flaws and the required System Management Server to manage your desktops, itÂ’s no wonder that IT managers worldwide are clamoring for a lower-cost alternative.

Our results show that telecommuting has an overall beneficial effect because the arrangement provides employees with more control over how they do their work, said a researcher at Pennsylvania State University.

Telecommuting seems to have some mildly positive effects on employee morale, on work-family balance, and on stress.

The findings were reported in the Journal of Applied Psychology, studied data on 12,833 telecommuters who spend time working away from the office.

Telecommuting has been a growing trend in the United States since about 2000. Last year an estimated 45 million Americans telecommuted, an increase of 4 million from 2003, according to the magazine WorldatWork.

The researcher at Pennsylvania State University believes the numbers will continue to grow as access to broadband increases.

Over the last couple of years there has been a spike, especially in the number of people who are regularly telecommuting. By regularly I mean people who are telecommuting at least once a month, he said.

Fear of credit card fraud keeps consumers from utilizing Web applications for financial transactions and results in reduced sales for retailers. Lack of trust in the Web requires direct human interaction for all sales, resulting in higher transaction costs. Fraud-related costs are a significant drag on profitability and productivity for financial institutions. Any way you look at it, credit card fraud erodes customer confidence, increases costs and diminishes the benefits of ubiquitous e-commerce.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) is a global standard governed by the major credit card companies. The standard comprises a set of directives for entities that handle credit cards, with the goal of reducing fraud. PCI-DSS presents the framework for protecting sensitive cardholder and authentication data, providing financial benefits to organizations that are in compliance.

The new service, planned for early next year, will allow travellers to log on and surf the Internet from their phones for a flat daily fee. Each carrier will offer its own specific terms, so some are likely to put a cap on the amount of data that can be sent and received, while others may offer an all-you-can-use option.

The carriers are part of a group called the Conexus Mobile Alliance, which was formed in 2006 and includes Hong Kongs Hutchison, Indonesias Indosat, Japans NTT DoCoMo, the Philippines Smart, Singapore's StarHub, South Korea's KT Freetel and Taiwan's Far EasTone. With the NTT DoCoMo stake in carriers in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands included, the alliance covers 11 territories and 160 million consumers.

The planned service, announced at the 3GSM Asia conference in Macau, helps the alliance to take a big step towards one of its key goals: improving WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) data roaming for travellers in Asia. Operators in the region are fast deploying WCDMA networks that offer data speeds several times that of current GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) networks.

The push to have unlocked phones that have many new features has been launched by Google and others.

A broad alliance of leading technology and wireless companies today joined forces to announce the development of Android, the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. Google Inc., T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, Motorola and others have collaborated on the development of Android through the Open Handset Alliance, a multinational alliance of technology and mobile industry leaders.

This alliance shares a common goal of fostering innovation on mobile devices and giving consumers a far better user experience than much of what is available on today's mobile platforms. By providing developers a new level of openness that enables them to work more collaboratively, Android will accelerate the pace at which new and compelling mobile services are made available to consumers.

With nearly 3 billion users worldwide, the mobile phone has become the most personal and ubiquitous communications device. However, the lack of a collaborative effort has made it a challenge for developers, wireless operators and handset manufacturers to respond as quickly as possible to the ever-changing needs of savvy mobile consumers. Through Android, developers, wireless operators and handset manufacturers will be better positioned to bring to market innovative new products faster and at a much lower cost. The end result will be an unprecedented mobile platform that will enable wireless operators and manufacturers to give their customers better, more personal and more flexible mobile experiences.

Thirty-four companies have formed the Open Handset Alliance, which aims to develop technologies that will significantly lower the cost of developing and distributing mobile devices and services. The Android platform is the first step in this direction -- a fully integrated mobile "software stack" that consists of an operating system, middleware, user-friendly interface and applications. Consumers should expect the first phones based on Android to be available in the second half of 2008.

The Android platform will be made available under one of the most progressive, developer-friendly open-source licenses, which gives mobile operators and device manufacturers significant freedom and flexibility to design products. Next week the Alliance will release an early access software development kit to provide developers with the tools necessary to create innovative and compelling applications for the platform.

Android holds the promise of unprecedented benefits for consumers, developers and manufacturers of mobile services and devices. Handset manufacturers and wireless operators will be free to customize Android in order to bring to market innovative new products faster and at a much lower cost. Developers will have complete access to handset capabilities and tools that will enable them to build more compelling and user-friendly services, bringing the Internet developer model to the mobile space. And consumers worldwide will have access to less expensive mobile devices that feature more compelling services, rich Internet applications

Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Audit Program works in concert with the Disaster Planning Template

Janco Associates announced the availability of its awaited Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity Audit Program. The CEO of Janco said, The Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity Audit Program is an additional component of the Business and Information Technology Infrastructure tools that Janco has developed for Chief Financial Officers (CFO), Chief Information Officers (CIO), and Chief Technology Officers (CTO). The Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity Audit Program contains over 30 areas of audit focus. This, in addition to the Security Audit Program is a tool which every Information Technology function needs to have. 

CEO added, Both of these audit programs are ones that either an external auditor, internal auditor can use to validate the compliance of the information technology function and the enterprise to ISO 17799, Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS.

The DRP/BCP audit program was created to work in concert with the Janco IT infrastructure tools including;

• Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity Template;
• Security Manual Template;
• Security Audit Program Template;
• Business and IT Impact Questionnaire;
• IT Service Management for Service Oriented Architecture Template; and
• Metrics for the Internet and Information Technology HandiGuide.

Google Targets Smartphones for Ads

(Reuters) -- Google Inc. is in active talks with No. 2 U.S. mobile carrier Verizon Wireless about putting Google applications on phones it offers, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

There are good useful talks going on and they could result in a deal, one of the sources said.

So far talks between the Web search leader and Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group PLC, revolve around technology and potential business models such as advertising-sponsored services, a source said.

Verizon Communications Chief Operating Officer said during an investor call that the operator talks to a lot of companies, including Google, but did not elaborate.

France Telecom denied its mobile business, Orange, was in talks with Google to introduce handsets running its software after it was named as a potential partner in a Wall Street Journal story earlier on Tuesday.

Google Plans to Announce an Unlocked Phone For US Market

Google plans to announce a new unlocked phone that will shake up the cellular telephone market.  U.S. cellular carriers severely restrict what consumers can do with their cell phones, especially when compared to the availability of plans, services and software available in Europe and Asia.  Most write or license specific applications that run only on phones running on their networks, and forbid the addition of third-party software.  In additon, they often disable the Wi-Fi networking capabilities many smartphones now come equipped with, forcing the use of their expensive data plans to access the Internet.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the search-engine giant plans a series of announcements over the next two weeks about Google mobile-phone software, which would bundle together most Google applications (search, maps, YouTube, instant-messaging) on a mobile platform.

The Google phone, sometimes called the gPhone in semi-mocking reference to the Apple iPhone, would not be an actual cell phone. Instead, it would be an operating system, possibly free, that would run on several different models of cell phone.

The Linux-based OS would be open to third-party developers, meaning that anyone could create applications for it.

Rumors are that the Google phone would have few, if any, such restrictions, and would support GPS tracking, Wi-Fi, high-speed 3G cellular networking and a still and video camera, depending on the hardware.

Unlocked phones may soon appear in the US

(Dow Jones/AP) — Verizon Wireless on Tuesday abandoned its legal challenge of the Federal Communications Commission’s rules for its auction of radio spectrum, removing a potential obstacle to the much-anticipated sale.

The company, jointly owned by Verizon Communications and the Vodafone Group of Britain, filed a notice in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that it was dropping its appeal.

The court earlier rejected an attempt by Verizon Wireless to have its appeal considered on an expedited schedule so it could conclude before the auction begins in January.

Legal experts had said that the challenge was unlikely to succeed because the courts generally defer to the F.C.C. in rule-making procedures.

The company sought to force the F.C.C. to abandon the open-access conditions it has attached to around a third of the spectrum being sold to the commercial wireless industry. The conditions are aimed at encouraging another provider of wireless broadband services to enter the American market, which a few companies dominate.

• Disaster Recovery Template
• Security Manual Template
• IT Salary Survey
• IT Salary Survey 10 year comparative study
• Functional Specification Template
• Safety Program Template
• IT Infrastructure, Strategy & Charter Template
• IT Service Management Template
• Practical Guide IT Outsourcing
• Client Server Management HandiGuide
• Internet & IT Position Descriptions HandiGuide
• Metrics for the Internet & IT HandiGuide
• Internet & PC Workstation Polices & Procedures
• Business & IT Impact Questionnaire
• Threat & Vulnerability Assessment Tool

Fallout from Data Breaches can Multiply

A compromised system, a lost backup tape, a stolen laptop, or a disgruntled employee can expose a company to legal, financial, and public relation problems if any customer data is breached.

The scope of the problem is enormous and growing, as hackers and thieves are targeting corporate data to commit ID theft as well as credit card and financial fraud. Some notable examples include:

• An unauthorized intrusion exposed some T.J. Maxx customersÂ’ credit- and debit-card information from transactions going back as far as 2003, according to a 2007 Boston Globe article.
• A laptop containing personal information of some 243,000 Hotels.com customers was stolen last year from the car of an Ernst & Young employee, according USA Today.
• Bank of America Corp. lost computer data tapes with Social Security numbers and account information of up to 1.2 million federal employees in 2005, according to eWeek.

Breaches of Note in 2006

Source: The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and Attrition.org