Gwava, the developer of security software, plans to introduce a new product that lets enterprises easily track and find text messages and phone calls that BlackBerry users send and receive. The software should appeal to enterprises that need to comply with regulations that require them to track employee communications. Key to the Retain for BlackBerry Enterprise Server is that it doesn’t require any client software. That means an IT administrator can manage it fully from the back end.

A security consultancy in February will launch a portal to automate the infliction of faux spear-phishing attempts on one’s own work force–an educational tactic that experts are increasingly pointing to as one effective method to stem the tide of information being unwittingly handed to thieves. The site, PhishMe.com, will be launched by Intrepidus Group, a consultancy with offices in New York and Chantilly, Va. It will feature templates for crafting customized faux phishing attacks and WYSIWYG workflow. In addition, the service will provide educational error message warnings to employees who attempt to enter sensitive information.

Intrepidus will provide statistics on how many employees open the faux phishing messages, how many of them open links directly from the phony phishing email, how many copy and paste the URLs into their own browser windows (considered a safer method to check out an emailed link than clicking directly from the email), how many employees ignore the messages altogether, and how many attempt to enter sensitive information. No sensitive information will be collected or allowed to be entered, according to Intrepidus Managing Partner Aaron Higbee.

When office workers are asked to self-report anonymously on their work-related security behaviors and attitudes, a snapshot emerges that may make IT workers cringe. The research, conducted in on-the-street surveys in Boston and Washington by RSA in November and published in a report titled "The Confessions Survey," found that 53 percent of respondents who work for the private sector access work email via a public computer such as at an Internet cafe, airport kiosk, hotel or the like. The same is true of 51 percent of government employees.

Sixty-eight percent of enterprise workers leave work carrying a mobile device–such as a laptop, smartphone or USB flash drive–that holds sensitive job-related information, including customer data, Social Security numbers or company financials. That’s also true for 58 percent of government workers.

Computer skills are still undervalued in the UK board room, according to software giant Microsoft. It surveyed 500 UK business leaders and found that a knowledge of information technology was seen as the seventh most important workplace skill.

Instead, team working and interpersonal skills were seen as the core factors, followed by initiative. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said IT skills were needed from the shop floor to the chief executive.

IBM’s Data Studio is the industry’s first integrated data management environment. Unlike other client-side data management solutions that often only provide functionality for one aspect of the data lifecycle or focus exclusively on database administration, Data Studio unites these various aspects of data management and supports a heterogeneous data server environment.

Data Studio provides customers the ability to boost data-driven application development productivity and perform operational database administration functions from anywhere at anytime. Additionally, Data Studio allows customers to design, develop, deploy and manage their information throughout the entire data management life cycle using a common, Eclipse-based interface. Customers who license Data Studio will have additional functionality than previously offered as well as technical support.

At some point every network administrator and end user inevitably realizes that even email has a darker side. There’s no denying the benefits of email as a means of communication, set against these benefits however, are legal obligations and security-related challenges that can turn into a serious headache. It’s important to be aware of the statutory requirements concerning email, and that they are an unavoidable issue, yet one of vital interest.

Read this DominoPower article.

Opera Software said it is filing a complaint against Microsoft in the European Union alleging the software giant is abusing its power and tying Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system. Opera also has a beef about Microsoft’s support for Web standards.

IBM has launched a new version of its Tivoli Identity Manager with an eye toward easing deployment and delivering on its promise of end-to-end security. With Tivoli Identity Manager 5.0, IBM delivers a major addition to its identity management portfolio, which is an important element of its security strategy for 2008, IBM officials said.

Mail|Monitor Pro is a server monitoring tool specifically optimized for IBM/Domino shops that continually checks the status of every server or service your email users depend on. It provides support for Lotus Domino servers and clusters; Notes Databases; Lotus Sametime Servers; BlackBerry Enterprise Servers, Users, and Devices; standard Internet Mail Services such as POP3, IMAP, SMTP, and LDAP; DNS Servers; other Network Devices, and even URLs (for monitoring Webmail or key URLs). It is implemented as a client and requires nothing to be installed on the servers. It also outputs its status information as ordinary HTML for easy publishing to interested parties, such as the Help Desk Staff.

Japanese memory chip maker Toshiba said it would make flash-based solid state drives for notebook PCs, as it seeks to create new sources of demand for flash memory chips. The maker of NAND-type flash memory said its solid state drives would range in capacity from 32 gigabytes to 128 gigabytes, and that it will mass produce the 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch drives in May 2008.

Zippy, quiet, and boasting a faster boot time than hard disk drives, solid state drives are used in portable devices like tablet PCs and Ultra-Mobile PCs. But their high price has prevented them from going mainstream in the PC market.