Think twice before you copy someone on an email or hit "reply all." Such practices have made today’s workers less productive, a research firm concludes. After years of naming a product or person of the year, Basex Inc. decided to forecast "informationoverload" as problem of the year for 2008.

"It’s too much information. It’s too many interruptions. It’s too much lost time," Basex chief analyst Jonathan Spira declared. "It’s always too much of a good thing." Information overload isn’t exactly new, but Spira said the problem has grown as technology increases societal expectations for instantaneous response. And more information available, he said, also means more time wasted looking for the right information, whether in an old email or through a search engine.

The criminals behind the Storm botnet waited until the last minute, but they’ve finally started delivering unwanted Christmas presents. Starting Monday, Storm-infected machines began sending out Christmas-themed spam in yet another attempt to trick victims into downloading malicious software. In this case, the site is named Merrychristmasdude.com, and the malware is a variation of the Storm Trojan horse program that has been plaguing systems around the world since January.

The emails contain titles such as "Find Some Christmas Tail," "Warm Up this Christmas" and "Mrs. Clause Is Out Tonight!"

IBM recently released its second annual set of "Next Five in Five" predictions, visions that sketch out a future where driving is a relative pleasure, eco-friendly devices save you money, and super doctors use advanced technology to probe your body’s innermost depths in search of disease.

IBM’s contention that driving will become safer and less aggravating may be particularly tantalizing for many. The company said that during the next five years, a "wave of connectivity" between vehicles and roadways will help keep traffic flowing smoothly, drive down pollution, and get you to your destination easier, "without the stress."

Security, it is often said, is only as strong as its weakest link: leave an opening and someone will find it. There is some truth to this, but if this were the whole truth then security would be an all-or-none proposition–luckily, it is not. Most breaches, especially large-scale ones, are the result of multiple failure points. A breach on the scale of TJX, which continued undetected for 17 months, did not occur because someone had forgotten to follow one rule or close one back door.

Therefore, the good news is that taking even some of the recommended measures can greatly reduce the risk of data breaches, or at least mitigate their impact if they do happen by enabling early detection and quick remediation. Here are some key elements that can help achieve this.

McAfee has taken two major steps toward closing the stock-option backdating scandal that has plagued the company for the past two years. On Friday, the security vendor filed 10 years’ worth of restated financial reports, a process that was set off by the scandal.

The company also said it had reached a tentative settlement in a class-action lawsuit relating to its accounting practices. Charges for the restatement will be $137.4 million. McAfee has also set aside $13.8 million to cover lawsuits filed in 2006 on behalf of McAfee shareholders, the company said in a statement released on Friday.

ROI is probably the most common term tossed around in any IT or business organization today. Large-enterprise CIOs can add value to the business by successfully projecting potential ROI for new technology investments. So what’s involved in calculating ROI, and how effective is this metric to the overall success of IT investments and implementations? This Executive Guide includes resources on measuring ROI, understanding the metric and more. This guide is part of the SearchCIO.com Executive Guide series, which is designed to give IT leaders strategic guidance and advice that addresses the management and decision-making aspects of timely topics.

IBM said on Friday it has agreed to buy in-memory database software provider Solid Information Technology from private owners for an undisclosed sum. Solid’s largest owners were private equity firms Apax Partners APAX.UL and CapMan.

Solid is expected to have 2007 sales of around $14.4 million, Vesa Wallden, a member of Solid board told Reuters. IBM said the acquisition is expected to be closed in the first quarter of 2008.

Google is often portrayed as the technology hipster, rolling out Web applications almost at whim. But unseen to the public, IBM is rolling out Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis, mashups and virtual reality technologies to help its employees be more productive. Inside its firewall, Big Blue looks pretty hip.

IBM’s Metaverse virtual reality software is one of these areas. Though still a bit rough around the edges–it won’t be mistaken for Second Life–some 2,200 IBM staffers are testing ways to collaborate with colleagues in the Metaverse, according to Mike Ackerbauer, innovation manager for collaboration development at IBM.

This article illustrates how IBM Lotus Connections and Microsoft SharePoint and Live Communications Server can be positioned side by side and demonstrates the ease of integration between IBM Lotus and Microsoft products.

Malware authors are beginning to nibble at Google’s text advertising money pie. According to a warning from antivirus vendor BitDefender, a new Trojan is making the rounds, hijacking Google text advertisements and replacing them with ads from a different provider.

The Trojan.Qhost.WU threat works by modifying the hijacked computer’s Hosts file to redirect the initial query to the Google AdSense servers to a malicious host.