Microsoft has tapped a former Sun Microsystems and IBM executive to lead its North American sales and marketing. Robert YoungJohns, who most recently was president and CEO of performance management software vendor Callidus, is now president of North America sales and marketing as well as a corporate vice president at Microsoft. In his new role, which begins Dec. 3, YoungJohns will manage an 8,500-person sales force and report to Microsoft COO Kevin Turner.

As part of a last-minute flurry of legislative activity before lawmakers returned home for the Thanksgiving holidays, the U.S. Senate approved legislation aimed at toughening the nation’s cyber-crime laws. The Identify Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act (S. 2168), approved late on Nov. 15, would make it easier for law enforcement officials to prosecute cyber-extortionists. Current law only permits the prosecution of those who seek to extort companies or government agencies by explicitly threatening to shut down or damage a computer.

If ultimately passed by the House and signed by President Bush, the new law would make it a crime punishable by up to five years in prison for threatening to steal or release information from a computer.

Security rivals Symantec and McAfee are hitting the market with competing products aimed at protecting mobile platforms. Symantec announced the launch of Norton Smartphone Security Nov. 20, which supports both Windows Mobile and Symbian OS and leverages Norton Antivirus technology and provides a firewall and anti-spam for SMS (Short Message Service). The move comes on the heels of the Nov. 19 announcement of McAfee’s VirusScan Mobile.

In a McAfee-sponsored study released in February, Informa Telecoms and Media reported that 83 percent of the 200 mobile operators surveyed have been hit by mobile device infections, and that nearly half of the operators that have experienced mobile malware outbreaks have had one within the last three months. However, the same study reported only five incidents where more than 100,000 mobile devices were affected by malware–a drop in the bucket compared to the number of mobile device users. Most of the incidents involved between 100 and 1,000 devices, according to the study.

Learn how to establish an IBM DB2 database connection using IBM Rational Functional Tester Java scripting. All you need to do is to follow these three simple steps and use the sample code provided.

Learn how to establish an IBM DB2 database connection using IBM Rational Functional Tester Java scripting. All you need to do is to follow these three simple steps and use the sample code provided.

You know retailers are ready for Black Friday–but so are hackers poised to launch a slew of Web-based attacks against consumers. Your money and personal information could be at risk. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is followed in marketing lingo by Cyber Monday. Both are big days for retailers and online fraudsters. Consumers should watch out for emails advertising incredible deals that seem too good to be true.

A common scam is to pick the hot toy of the season and send out a spam email blast offering it for much less than the typical price. Victims end up entering credit card information on malicious sites designed to look like well-known, trusted ones. They might also unknowingly download a keylogger that can steal personal information people type in when making any kind of Internet transaction.

Cybersquatters and phishers have beefed up their tactics for the holiday season making it difficult for online shoppers and frustrating for many businesses, according to analysts at MarkMonitor, a firm that tracks company brand abuse on the Internet. The company conducted a four week analysis in September to determine the state of brandjacking–a common problem brand names being abused on the Web.

Cybersquatting, the term used when a person hijacks a word or phrase using a Web domain to point to a site that isn’t owned by the trademark owner is among MarkMonitor’s top concerns headed into the holiday season. The practice rose 10% over the previous quarter and 20% year over year. It falls in line with expectations as the holiday season ramps up, said Frederick Felman, chief marketing officer of MarkMonitor.

With a new product on the way and the company’s acquisition now a few months old, Watchfire Chief Technology Officer Michael Weider has his eye on the future. Watchfire was acquired by IBM in July. On Nov. 19, the IT giant will officially release IBM Rational AppScan 7.7, a Web application security tool based on Watchfire’s flagship AppScan product. The product identifies, validates and reports on gaps in Web applications.

The latest version includes new features such as Scan Expert and State Inducer designed to make the product easier to use for IT professionals with less of a background in application testing. It also includes recorded Web-based training to educate users on application security and compliance to industry standards.

In the company’s ongoing effort to expand its blade business, IBM is introducing new management software that adds I/O virtualization to its BladeCenter portfolio. Open Fabric Manager, which IBM announced Nov. 19, will allow IT administrators to monitor and control I/O virtualization across 100 BladeCenter chassis, containing 1,400 individual blades, from a single console. The new tool supports a number of different I/O fabrics for network and storage, including Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, Ethernet, iSCSI and SAS (serial-attached SCSI).

The software automates the interaction between the blades, storage and the network. Once the connections, such as the MAC (media access control) address, are established, the management software then controls the interaction between the chassis and the network. If one blade is removed and another blade is plugged into the chassis to replace it, the software automatically makes the connection to the SAN (storage area network) or the LAN.

Notebook vendors should pay more attention to their enterprise customers, says Gabriel Vitus, IT director of the Vancouver, B.C.-based Certified General Accountants Association of Canada. "Not only on the big issues, but also on the little things," he says. "Like button placement." Even today, many CIOs feel that too many notebooks have batteries that conk out in the middle of a job, weigh too much, or fail to keep critical information secure. "There’s plenty of room for improvement," Vitus says.

As 2008 dawns, CIOs have some reason for optimism. Notebook makers are prioritizing improvements to design, storage, and displays that could make the notebooks of 2011 quite different than the workhorses of today. "Notebooks are rapidly evolving and improving," says Rob Enderle, principal analyst of the Enderle Group consultancy. Does a three-pound laptop that runs some 8 hours sound good to you? Then you may like the machines of 2011.