Microsoft exec says Safe Harbor framework is ‘alive and well’
Privacy advocates have expressed concern about Brussels' Commissioner Viviane Reding's decision to leave in place the Safe Harbour framework used by some companies to transfer data from Europe to the US.
The EC's vice president tabled her draft bill for the overhaul of the EU's 1995 data protection law on Wednesday.
However, critics have questioned how the Safe Harbour scheme can remain workable within the wider context of the commissioner's DP legislation proposals.
EU data protection laws currently state that organisations must tell people when they are asked to disclose their personal information. Some companies that meet the requirements of Europe's DP directive are allowed to transfer EU data to the US.
Microsoft is one of them.
Reding's proposals state:
Article 41 sets out the criteria, conditions and procedures for the adoption of an adequacy decision by the Commission, based on Article 25 of Directive 95/46/EC. The criteria which shall be taken into account for the Commission’s assessment of an adequate or not adequate level of protection include expressly the rule of law, judicial redress and independent supervision. The article now confirms explicitly the possibility for the Commission to assess the level of protection afforded by a territory or a processing sector within a third country. Read more...
Enterprise gets social: Twitter-style data streams, engagement ‘apps’
Enterprise software developers are just as talented as their free-wheeling consumer-facing peers, but are shackled by the need to prioritise enterprise security over personal utility, and by the fact that IT buyers differ significantly from IT users, as 37 Signals' Jason Fried has pointed out. But a new breed of enterprise software seeks to overlay and augment crufty old systems with dynamic, user-friendly social software, and may well become a $4bn market within the next five years, according to Wells Fargo analyst Jason Maynard.
Data, not surprisingly, is both the engine behind this shift and the glue sticking it all together.
Enterprise software systems, new or old, throw off immense amounts of data, or "digital exhaust". With the rise of programmable interfaces, or APIs, getting access to that exhaust is easier than ever, but data is only useful if harnessed, made comprehensible, and turned to business value.
Unfortunately, most data is "exhaust" in the traditional sense of the word: waste. If enterprises collect data they do so in data warehouses that sit largely untapped. This is a shame given the potential of data to transform the way we work.
Enter the data stream. Read more...
SOPA’s big brother signed by EU nations amid widespread protests
The European Union signed up to the controversial Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on Thursday despite widespread opposition, particularly in Poland, where people took to the streets in protest.
The agreement was officially signed in Tokyo by 22 European member states. Cyprus, Estonia, Slovakia, Germany and the Netherlands did not sign, but committed to do so in the near future, according to the European Parliament's Green party.
The agreement seeks to enforce intellectual property rights and combat online piracy and illegal software. But opponents of ACTA claim it goes far beyond the U.S.' doomed SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) legislation and encourages ISPs to police the internet without any legal safeguards. SOPA is being revised after receiving broad criticism.
The ACTA agreement, meanwhile, has been mired in controversy from the beginning due to secrecy imposed by the U.S. and worries that it may not uphold E.U. rules on data privacy. The most controversial paragraph in the final text leaves the door open for countries to introduce the so-called three-strikes rule, which would require Internet users to be cut off if they continue to download copyright material after receiving two warnings, as national authorities would be able to order ISPs to disclose personal information about customers. Read more...
Apple customers voice mixed reaction to reports of poor working conditions
Amid renewed reports of poor working conditions at factories making Apple products in China, it's unclear whether customers will demand change.
Some Apple customers at the Macworld/iWorld show in San Francisco Thursday seemed to react with a shrug to a lengthy New York Times story alleging poor working conditions at Chinese factories operated by Apple contractors. The story described fatal accidents at some plants, long work hours and crowded living conditions in dorms near work.
The report is unlikely to change Apple customers' buying habits, said Steve Hathaway, a show attendee from Hercules, California.
"Most all companies are getting their stuff made and shipped from elsewhere 'cause it's cheaper," he said.
Hathaway was asked if Apple customers would pay more for products from companies that ensure safety. "Apple already has a premium price, you'd think they should be doing something on their end of it to make it right, you know?" he said. "It isn't like they're passing on a huge savings to us compared to other PC makers." Read more...
Google says privacy change won’t affect government users
Google today dismissed concerns by a former senior federal IT official that the company's controversial new privacy policy would create problems for customers of Google Apps for Government (GAFG).
In a statement, Google said the new policy will not change existing contracts that define how it handles and stores data belonging to government users of its cloud services. "Enterprise customers using Google Apps for Government, Business or Education have individual contracts that define how we handle and store their data," Amit Singh, vice president of Google Enterprise said in a statement.
"As always, Google will maintain our enterprise customers' data in compliance with the confidentiality and security obligations provided to their domain," he said.
According to Singh, Googles contractual agreements have always superseded its privacy policy for enterprise customers.
All core productivity and collaboration applications that a government, business or educational institution pays for are covered by contract, a Google spokesman today said. However, if an administrator were to turn on a Google application not covered by the contract, that application would be subject to Googles new privacy rules, he said. Read more...
Researchers unearth more Chinese links to defense contractor attacks
Researchers with Symantec have uncovered additional clues that point to Chinese hacker involvement in attacks against a large number of Western companies, including major U.S. defense contractors.
The attacks use malicious PDF documents that exploit an Adobe Reader bug patched last month to infect Windows PCs with "Sykipot," a general-purpose backdoor Trojan horse.
According to findings published Thursday by Symantec's research team, a "staging server" used by the attackers is based in the Beijing area, and is hosted by one of the country's largest Internet service providers, or ISPs.
Symantec did not identify the ISP. Read more...
The top 10 H-1B visa users in the U.S.
Offshore outsourcing companies continued to make up the majority of the top 10 H-1B visa users in 2011, according to new government data. These offshore firms have been adding employees by the thousands as their revenues increase.
Cognizant, a New Jersey-based IT services provider with major operations overseas, led the list. The company had 4,222 initial or new visas approved and 1,493 renewal petitions.
Google was last on the list, with 383 new H-1B visas and 232 renewals.
Offshoring is showing signs of being a major political issue this year, but opinions remain divided.
President Barack Obama highlighted it in his State of the Union address on Tuesday. But he hasn't coupled offshore outsourcing with visa usage. One of the leading Republican candidates, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, has called for eliminating the H-1B cap and says the cap policy is wrong.
The data for this story comes from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. One list shows new applications for H-1B visas; the second list shows the combined totals for new visas and renewals. A H-1B visa must be renewed every three years. Read more...
IT groups grapple with managing fast-growing iOS devices
Apple recently has improved its mobile device management features, but IT groups are discovering a new set of challenges when they start to move to larger numbers of iOS devices, MacIT conference attendees are confirming this week.
Marin County Day School, in Corte Madera, Calif., ran a pilot program of about 60 iOS devices for students in 2011. From an IT viewpoint, it was a continuous discovery of the current limitations of Apple's tools. The small staff was backing up each iPad individually, says IT director Robert Bardenhagen.
"Scaling is a problem," he says. That's daunting because the K-8 school, like many enterprises, is eager to expand the population of iOS devices.
Another issue was Apple's model of users pulling apps individually from the iTunes App Store. Bardenhagen, with an IT manager's viewpoint, is looking at a push model, which would let IT create, maintain and update an institutional software image on the devices. Read more...
How to prevent thumb drive security disasters
For such a small device, the plastic, handheld USB flash drive can cause big security headaches. Even if you have robust end-point security and establish rigid policies about employee use of these drives, employees still find a way to copy financial reports and business plans for use at home. While other security breaches are more traceable, a flash drive is more difficult to monitor, especially after the employee leaves work.
Some security professionals suggest a radical approach to locking down USB flash drives. Sean Greene, a security consultant at Evidence Solutions, advises his clients to use a clear silicone caulk and fill every USB port on every PC to prevent USB attachments. He says the only way employees can transmit sensitive business documents is by email, a method that his clients can easily monitor.
Chris Harget, a spokesperson for security vendor ActivIdentity, adds that many military organizations don't allow the drives at all, and they have resorted to gluing USB ports closed to prevent breaches.
Yet, in the modern IT climate, CIOs know they have to provide the services employees need to do their jobs, and that can include using a USB drive. For example, in a sales organization, employees often need to load PowerPoint slides, which may contain company financials, onto a USB flash drive. Read more...
Drive-by-download attack exploits critical vulnerability in Windows Media Player
Security researchers from antivirus vendor Trend Micro have come across a Web-based attack that exploits a known vulnerability in Windows Media Player.
"Earlier today, we encountered a malware that exploits a recently (and publicly) disclosed vulnerability, the MIDI Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2012-0003)," Trend Micro threat response engineer Roland Dela Paz said in a blog post on Thursday.
The security flaw can be exploited by tricking the victim into opening a specially crafted MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) file in Windows Media Player.
Microsoft released a security fix for it on Jan. 10, as part of its monthly patch cycle. "An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system," the company said at the time. Read more...