Nine Web sites IT pros should master in 2009 — Keeping up with the latest Internet innovations

By Carolyn Duffy Marsan, Network World

Here’s a time-saver for IT executives swamped by last-minute budget cuts and end-of-the-year performance reviews: We’ve written your 2009 goals for you, with our list of nine Web sites you need to study during the next 12 months.

This list is not for geeks. It’s for IT professionals of a certain age, who don’t spend every waking hour online but need to keep up with the latest innovations on the Internet.

Master these Web sites, and you’ll prove you can innovate during the most trying economic times. And you’ll do it more efficiently than your 20-something employees, who waste too much time chasing the new, new thing on the Internet that may not survive the downturn.

1. LinkedIn
Forget Facebook. In the last six months, LinkedIn has become the de rigueur Web 2.0 site for IT professionals. LinkedIn has 30 million members, almost double what it had a year ago. And it raised more than $75 million in venture capital during 2008, so it has staying power. It has a host of new features that make it the most productive networking site on the Web. Spend some time updating your LinkedIn profile and reaching out to current and former colleagues. You can show your boss that you’re well connected, and you’ll be ready in case you’re on the next layoff list. In 2008, LinkedIn made our list of the 20 most useful social networking sites on the Web.

2. Google Apps for Business
Call it what you like — software as a service or cloud computing — but it’s the future of enterprise IT departments, and you need to get on board with it. You’ll be under more pressure than ever in 2009 to find cheaper ways to deliver IT services. One way to do that is to pilot a Google Apps project, such as document sharing via GoogleDocs or video sharing via Google Video. Your staff can build one of these collaboration projects in a jiffy, and the information will be available to employees from any location on any computer. Among Google Apps proponents: The District of Columbia government.

3. VMware Communities
Chances are you’ve already embarked on a server virtualization project, and continued consolidation of your servers is a key money-saving goal for 2009. Most of you are using VMware for your server virtualization projects, and our product reviewers recommend you stick with VMware over Microsoft’s Hyper-V for the foreseeable future. To get the best real-world feedback on how best to deploy VMware, keep your eyes on the VMware Communities Web site. It’s got user groups in your community and lots of tips from other VMware developers that can help you solve problems faster.

4. Secunia
Security will continue to be a top priority for 2009, but you’ll need to figure out how to do it on the cheap. That’s where Secunia.com comes in. This site aggregates security vulnerability information from leading vendors, providing you with one-stop shopping for the latest news about security bugs and the software patches available to fix them. The site has an active community of IT security folks who can help you fix operating systems and applications before you get attacked. Secunia made our list of 20 useful IT security Web sites in 2008.

For more see networkworld.com.

10 tips to preserve data for the long haul — A better model for preserving data is needed and it requires worldwide collaboration, according to a task force on digital preservation and access

The growth of digital data is threatening to spiral out of control. More than 452 exabytes of information have been created and replicated this year — an amount higher than the world’s available storage capacity , according to IDC.

Not all data should be preserved, but efforts to save important information are being stymied by many factors: complacency, fear that the problem of long-term digital access and preservation is too big to take on, inadequate funding, confusion, and lack of alignment among stakeholders, a new report says. A better model for preserving data is needed, and it requires worldwide collaboration, says the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access, which consists of experts from universities, major libraries, and one tech company ( Microsoft ).

“The long-term accessibility and use of valuable digital materials requires digital preservation activities that are economically sustainable — in other words, provisioned with sufficient funding and other resources on an ongoing basis to achieve their long-term goals,” task force co-chairman Brian Lavoie of the Online Computer Library Center said in a press release.

Although the task force says an industrywide solution is needed, there obviously are many steps individual IT shops can take to implement a better data preservation plan. The task force’s second co-chair, Fran Berman, director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, offered a list of 10 tips for preserving data in a recent article.

For a look at Berman’s advice, see infoworld.com.

Court Enforces Clawback Agreement, Denies Motion to Compel

Bro-Tech Corp. v. Thermax, Inc., 2008 WL 5210346 (E.D. Pa. Dec. 11, 2008)

On the eve of trial in this case in which plaintiffs alleged trade secret theft, the court granted an extension “on urgent party request” so that additional discovery could be accomplished.  The discovery proved to be complex, and the court appointed a special master to manage the electronic discovery issues.  Thereafter, the parties negotiated a stipulation, approved by the court, which included a clawback procedure (“the Clawback Agreement”) to handle the return of privileged documents.  The Clawback Agreement provided that in the event of disclosure of a privileged document, the document was to be returned upon written demand.  If the recipient of the document wished to challenge the privilege claim, they were required to do so in writing, within five days of receipt of the demand for the document’s return.  The special master would then resolve the dispute following an in camera review.

For more see ediscoverylaw.com

Desperate IT workers who have been laid off will go rogue in 2009, selling corporate data and using crimeware, reports have predicted

The credit crunch will drive some IT workers to use their skills to steal credit-card data using phishing attacks, and abuse their privileged corporate computer access to sell off valuable financial and intellectual information, forensic experts have warned.

Both PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and security vendor Finjan are forecasting that the recession will fuel a significant rise in insider fraud and cybercrime in 2009.

A PwC forensic expert claimed the financial-services sector is already investigating a rising number of staff frauds, while Finjan cited evidence of a trend in 2008 for unemployed IT staff in Eastern Europe and Asia to use crimeware toolkits to launch phishing attacks and seed malware to steal financial details.

For more see Zdnet.com.

Lack of policy adds to e-discovery cost and complexity — Large percentage of companies lack legal holds

IT and legal teams must work together to establish e-discovery policies. In fact, one-third of companies lack formal policies and procedures for legal holds, according to a recent poll of attorneys and executives conducted by Deloitte. A legal hold is the process by which companies preserve evidence subject to discovery for lawsuits and other legal and regulatory matters. In this increasingly litigious society, it’s likely IT will have to hand over e-mails and backup files.

“Given the relatively low cost of establishing a policy framework and processes to address legal hold issues, it is surprising to see such a large percentage of corporate America lacking in this area,” says Jeff Seymour, a principal with Deloitte Financial Advisory Services analytic and forensic technology practice.

Respondents indicated responding to discovery requests has become significantly more complicated and costly. And less than one-third indicated their companies are very or extremely effective in managing the readiness aspect of the discovery process. Worse, 5% said the guidance provided to IT on litigation hold polices was unclear and 35% said it was only somewhat clear.

For more see NetworkWorld.com.

Technology Predictions for 2009

By The CMS Watch Analyst Team
16-Dec-2008

It’s that time of year again. The CMS Watch analyst team ponders what to expect next year, and offers 12 predictions that we think will shape content technologies in 2009.

Clearly, the economic downturn will have a substantial impact on buyers and vendors alike, and economic concerns underpin several of our predictions. But we also foresee some organic developments (new SharePoint version, social tagging) and ripening technology (mobile analytics, application search) having at least as much impact.

For more see CMSwatch.com.

Football player files missing – Fingers point to Rodriguez

By Dave Hickman
Staff writer

MORGANTOWN ­- West Virginia officials are wondering if assistant coaches aren’t all that Rich Rodriguez took with him to Michigan. They believe he may also have destroyed all or most of the paperwork files relating to every player on the current Mountaineer roster and virtually all of the activities conducted by the program over the past seven years.

Soon after returning to work after the Fiesta Bowl a little more than a week ago, the staff at the Puskar Center found that most of the files ­ including all of the player files ­ that had been stored in Rodriguez’s private office were missing. In addition, all of the players’ strength and conditioning files in the weight room were gone.

“It’s unbelievable. Everything is gone, like it never existed,” said a source within the athletic department, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Good, bad or indifferent, we don’t have a record of anything that has happened.”

According to the source, the files in Rodriguez’s office that are now missing included everything from records regarding summer camps ­ financial and otherwise ­ to data on boosters, recruiting and most everything related to activities within the program during Rodriguez’s seven years at WVU.

Most disturbing, though, is the absence of all of the players’ personal files, which included, among other things, contact information, scholarship money awarded, class attendance records and records on personal conduct and community service, be it positive or negative.

“If a player spoke to a school or did public service, we don’t have a record of it,” said the source. “If he broke a rule or missed class, we don’t have a record of that, either. We don’t have anything. All the good things these kids have done over the years, there’s nothing ­ not a picture of somebody speaking to a class, nothing. Why would somebody do that?”

West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong did not return a message seeking comment Monday night. Neither could Rodriguez be reached for comment.

The files went missing sometime between when Rodriguez resigned on Dec. 16 and the time the team and staff returned from the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 3. It could have happened as early as the first days following Rodriguez’s resignation because his old office was largely ignored by the support staff and the coaching staff between the time he left and Dec. 26, when the team and support staff all went to Arizona for the Fiesta Bowl.

According to multiple sources, several people in the Puskar Center reported seeing Rodriguez and at least one member of his inner circle, video coordinator Dusty Rutledge, in Rodriguez’s private office shredding paperwork on Dec. 18.

That’s the day he returned to clean out his office after being introduced as the Michigan coach at a press conference in Ann Arbor the day before. At the time, those who say they witnessed it either did not know what was being destroyed or paid it little attention to it until the files were discovered missing more than two weeks later.

While the files in Rodriguez’s office held a wide range of information, those that were discovered missing from the weight room office were more specific.

Those included every aspect of strength and conditioning progress made by players under former strength and conditioning coordinator Mike Barwis, who along with most of his immediate staff followed Rodriguez to Michigan after the Fiesta Bowl. Those files included the progression made by each player in every specific area, from bench-press totals to 40-yard dash times. The files even included pictures of the players at different points in their careers.

While a source within the athletic department said the department itself wasn’t launching any type of investigation into the missing files ­ “Our plate is pretty full right now with trying to put together a staff and everything else,” the source said, “and we don’t have time to deal with [stuff] like this right now.” ­ it has apparently drawn the interest of the university’s legal counsel.

WVU lawyers are in the process of trying to recover $4 million from Rodriguez as a condition of breaking his contract with six years remaining to become the coach at Michigan. While Rodriguez has maintained that West Virginia breached the contract by not fulfilling all of its terms ­ an argument the university denies ­ the school filed suit in Monongalia County Circuit Court last month detailing what it claims are breaches by Rodriguez above and beyond simply breaking the contract. Those include calling recruits to tell them of his decision to switch schools before he told his own team. It certainly would not help Rodriguez’s case if the school can prove that he also destroyed what WVU officials consider state files on his way out.

Data Loss Prevention Trends To Watch In 2008

By Stefanie Hoffman, CMP Channel

No doubt about it, 2007 was the year that high profile data breaches splashed across the front pages with as much sensation as paint on a Jackson Pollock canvas. TJX kicked off 2007 with the largest data breach in history — a whopping 45.7 million records lifted when hackers infiltrated the company’s network over a period of 18 months. And other large-scale losses, such as a phishing scam at a military research lab and the misplacement of two unencrypted U.K government disks — followed in its wake.

Experts say this is just the tip of the iceberg. Since January 2005, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has identified more than 215 million records belonging to U.S. residents that have been compromised due to a security breach.

The costs of these and other breaches have weighed heavily on the organizations that are impacted. A recent study conducted by the Ponemon Institute determined that the total average costs for lost or exposed data grew to $197 per compromised record, representing an increase of 8 percent since 2006 and 43 percent since 2005. Currently, the average total cost for companies is more than $6.3 million per breach, which accounts for increased legal and public relations costs as well as lost business. And experts warn that the amount of lost revenue a company experiences in the wake of a data breach will only continue to grow.

For the rest of this story see Chanel Web Network.

Database admin to plead guilty in theft of 8.5M consumer records

November 27, 2007 (Computerworld) — A senior database administrator at a subsidiary of Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) who was accused of stealing about 8.5 million customer records and selling them to data brokers is expected to plead guilty tomorrow to felony fraud charges in U.S. District Court in Tampa, according to court documents.William G. Sullivan has also agreed to pay court-ordered restitution to victims, cooperate with ongoing investigations and forfeit the more than $105,000 he still has remaining from selling the stolen data. In exchange, according to a plea agreement also filed with the court, federal prosecutors are expected to recommend a reduction from the maximum five-year sentence that Sullivan could have gotten.

For more see ComputerWorld.com.