October 2004 Archives

In the thousands of meetings that Microsoft employees have with customers around the world every day, many of the same questions consistently surface: Does an open source platform really provide a long-term cost advantage compared with Windows? Which platform offers the most secure computing environment? Given the growing concern among customers about intellectual property indemnification, what's the best way to minimize risk? In moving from an expensive UNIX platform, what's the best alternative in terms of migration?

Customers want factual information to help them make the best decisions about these issues. About a year ago, a senior Microsoft team led by General Manager Martin Taylor was created to figure out how we could do a better job helping customers evaluate our products against alternatives such as Linux/open source and proprietary UNIX. This team has worked with a number of top analyst firms that have generated independent, third-party reports on cost of acquisition, total cost of ownership, security and indemnification. Some of the studies were commissioned by Microsoft, while others were initiated and funded by the analysts. In each case, the research methodology, findings and conclusions were the sole domain of the analyst firms. This was essential: we wanted truly independent, factual information.

Russia definitely supports a new U.S. initiative to curb intellectual property piracy and counterfeiting, officials said Wednesday after bilateral talks.

The Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy (STOP) initiative, announced earlier this month, is a collaboration between the U.S. Departments of Justice, Commerce and Homeland Security and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. It aims to thwart international criminal piracy and counterfeiting by crushing criminal networks, protecting U.S. businesses overseas and stopping such goods at U.S. borders.

SEOUL - South Korea's high-tech companies are protecting themselves against possible industrial espionage after prosecutors announced they had begun investigating allegations of a leak of cellular phone technology from Hyundai Syscomm Co to UTStarcom Inc in China, an industry source said Wednesday.

Beginning next month, Hynix Semiconductor Inc, the world's second-largest maker of memory chips, will introduce digital rights management (DRM) technologies to prevent unauthorized access to and duplication of intellectual property on its computer systems.

By John Ribeiro -

India, eager to preserve its outsourcing industry, is scrambling to demonstrate that it takes foreign intellectual property seriously. But just because the country has established intellectual property laws, does not mean that the laws will be enforced.

That's what Sandeep Jolly, president of labeling software maker Jolly Technologies in San Carlos, Calif., realized after he discovered on July 19 that an employee at his three-month-old software development center in Mumbai had allegedly uploaded and shipped files that contained some source code and design documents for a key product to her personal Yahoo e-mail account.

ORLANDO — The economic rebound might be sluggish, but technology investments matter more than ever. That's what three of the industry's biggest CEOs told 6,500 attendees last week at the Gartner Symposium and Information Technology Expo, one of the biggest annual gatherings of tech professionals. Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers, Intel CEO Craig Barrett and Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy also met with USA TODAY reporter Michelle Kessler to sound off on new technologies, stock options and globalization.

Here's what they had to say, edited for clarity and space.

by Rebecca Trela -

The Beastie Boys are planning a concert featuring hip-hop and rock artists Outkast and Linkin Park. Of course, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and some intellectual property felons should be there, too. The guys just have to decide whether to hold it on the National Mall or at the MCI Center.

Washington, D.C. - Scripps Howard Foundation Wire - If Ashcroft at a concert sounds like every teenager's worst nightmare, think again. At the Department of Justice on Wednesday, Washington-area teens brainstormed for ways to raise awareness about intellectual property theft. Holding a concert was an idea from the focus group assigned to the "Beastie Boys" table.

By Dawn Kawamoto -

President Bush and Sen. John Kerry have both responded to a questionnaire on technology policy from the Computing Technology Industry Association, weighing in on such pressing issues as Internet telephony and intellectual-property protection, the trade group said Thursday.

Voters can view the candidates' answers on the association's Web site.

Bush and Kerry, both looking to gain an edge in the extremely close race, expressed their views on 12 topics, which also included spam, privacy and unlicensed wireless spectrum.

SecureRisks is the Only Security Management Consulting Company Currently Licensed in the UAE to Provide a Full Range of Corporate Security Services

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Oct. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Universal
Guardian Holdings, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: UGHO), a full service provider of
security products and services to protect against terrorist, criminal and
security threats to governments and businesses worldwide, announced today that SecureRisks Ltd., a wholly owned Subsidiary of Universal Guardian, has opened SecureRisks UAE in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

By Tom Spring -

President George W. Bush is a busy juggling a re-election campaign and running the country. That's why I don't blame the President for not responding sooner to questions submitted to him earlier this year for our story, Tech 2004: Where the Candidates Stand.

The Bush camp promised us a reply and eventually delivered. Here are the questions and President Bush's written responses.

By John Soat -

The general public probably can be forgiven for having something of a schizophrenic attitude toward information technology. The convenience and productivity gains are at this point a given, but the security and privacy implications are only now getting widespread attention. Also, the offshore outsourcing debate has created a haves-versus-have-nots attitude about the IT industry. And it doesn't help when the federal government metaphorically speaks out of two sides of its mouth, on the one hand blessing an IT development that many people react to with horror, on the other hand demonizing a technology that most people have experienced through the enthusiasm of their children. I'm not saying either pronouncement is wrong, just that together they represent something of an unintended dichotomy.

By Alan Boyd -

SYDNEY - Washington has finally admitted what every backstreet counterfeiter in Asia has known for years: It is losing the war against the pirating of goods because no one has been taking the threat seriously enough.

A damning study by the US justice department has called for sweeping changes in investigation procedures, closer cooperation among the various enforcement agencies, and a regulatory shakeup that could lead to prosecutors being posted abroad. A six-month task force was set up in response to what the department
termed an increase in "the scale, scope, and sophistication of international theft and counterfeiting", especially in Asia and Eastern Europe.

By Len Ramirez -

Like a lot of college students, Jason Mendencelles of San Jose State downloads a lot of music to his iPod -- a whole lot of music.

"There's about 1700 songs on it," he said.

But when asked if he paid for each one, he said, "Yeah. Um, some of them I did."

Songs are considered the intellectual property of the artists who created them, but millions of people are still downloading them for free from file swapping websites. Attorney General John Ashcroft calls that "theft," and says it adds up to a body blow on the U.S. economy.

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Oct. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Universal Guardian Holdings, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: UGHO - News), a full service provider of security products and services to protect against terrorist, criminal and security threats to governments and businesses worldwide, announced today unaudited revenue of $2 million for the 3rd Quarter 2004.

"We are expanding corporate operations and generating revenue opportunities in key markets around the world," stated Michael Skellern, Chairman and CEO of Universal Guardian Holdings, Inc. "Our strategy of driving top-line revenue from expanding global security operations while we establish non-lethal product distribution channels in these markets is proceeding as planned," continued Mr. Skellern.

NEW DELHI Oct. 12, 2004 — A top U.S. official urged India to tighten its laws to protect intellectual property rights and ensure that sensitive information stays out of the hands of tech-savvy criminals.

U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce Kenneth Juster said India must protect the privacy of personal and financial data as an increasing number of American companies rely on Indians to handle their technical operations and other software work. He cited Europe's efforts as a good example.

"We believe that the Council of Europe's Convention on Cyber Crime provide a useful model to follow, as it sets forth principles for strengthening national laws concerning cyber crimes and encouraging international cooperation on investigation of such crimes," Juster said.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TippingPoint Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: TPTI), the leader in intrusion prevention, today announced it has teamed up with Tenable Network Security, Inc., a leading developer of security management solutions, to reduce time and support costs associated with research and remediation. Through collaborative efforts, Tenable's Lightning Console now correlates events and blocked attack notifications from TippingPoint's UnityOne Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) for simplified and integrated security management.

Tenable's flagship product, the Lightning Console, has many powerful features which include extremely robust vulnerability scanning; reporting and scheduling; asset management; real time aggregation of IDS events and correlation with vulnerabilities; tracking the network security remediation process; strong separation of roles and security information; and organizational view of network security. By integrating with UnityOne, administrators can correlate blocked attacks with other network events, reducing research time and eliminating the need for remediation by stopping attacks before they occur.

By John Ribeiro -

IP THEFT India, eager to preserve its outsourcing industry, is scrambling to demonstrate that it takes foreign intellectual property seriously. But just because the country has established intellectual property laws, does not mean that the laws will be enforced.

That's what Sandeep Jolly, president of labeling software maker Jolly Technologies in San Carlos, Calif., realized after he discovered on July 19 that an employee at his three-month-old software development center in Mumbai had allegedly uploaded and shipped files that contained some source code and design documents for a key product to her personal Yahoo e-mail account.

The United States has released $1.19 million to fund training programmes to combat intellectual property theft in Pakistan, Brazil, Korea, Malaysia and Panama.

This is in addition to another tranche of funding amounting to $1.31 million, announced in August, for projects in Paraguay, Thailand and Mexico, as well as Apec and Asean nations, as well as countries in the Central American Free Trade Agreement, State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli said.

By Gregory M. Lamb -

For years, they worked in shadowy corners of the electronic world. Spammers tried to get around filters and other network defenses to plant their junk e-mail. Virus writers exploited computers to take them over. Now, they're starting to work together.

Their emerging alliance is straining already embattled spam and virus defenses. For users, it means the Internet has grown more risky.

"They're learning from each other," says John Pironti, a security consultant at Unisys, the multinational information technology company. "The collaboration has begun."

By Roy Mark -

WASHINGTON -- The White House, the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Homeland Security and Justice and U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Zoellick will carry out a multi-prong initiative to fight the global trade in pirated and counterfeited goods.

According to the Business Software Alliance (BSA), a major special interest group representing the software and Internet industry, an estimated 36 percent of the software installed on computers worldwide last year was pirated, representing a loss of nearly $29 billion.

Taipei, Oct. 3 (CNA) Having made significant contributions to cybercrime prevention efforts around the world, Taiwan deserves more feedback in this regard in return, according to a senior U.S. Justice Department official. Richard W. Downing, a senior counsel in the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the U.S. Justice Department's Criminal Division, said in Taipei Saturday that the fact that Taiwan is "giving much more than taking" in cybercrime prevention efforts has been noticed and that this unfair situation should be addressed. Downing, co-chair of the APEC e-Security Task Group, was in Taipei Sept. 27-Oct. 2 to meet with Taiwan law enforcement authorities to discuss the Cybercrime Legislation and Enforcement Capacity Building Project