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IDC sees IT rebound in Europe

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According to research from analyst firm IDC, nine million IT workers and their companies in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region are already generating more than $200bn in tax receipts. And that number is expected to grow.

“We are in the midst of an IT rebound in EMEA,” said Thomas Vavra, software and consulting manager for IDC. “Western Europe was hit hard, but emerging markets have mitigated losses and are expanding. “That’s a benefit for government because it will have less unemployment expenses and there will be a number of new people in IT.”

IDC surveyed 19 countries in the EMEA region. It predicted that IT spending is set to improve — the company said that by 2008 spending would reach a value of $360bn.

“We expect that over four years we will see a representation of new jobs connected with software,” said Vavra. “In many of the emerging markets, countries are moving away from infrastructure IT to software.” Vavra added that more than a third of 2004 tax revenues came about because of ‘the vast Microsoft ecosystem’. He said that for every dollar of Microsoft revenue in the region, another seven and a half were generated by companies, which sell technology to run on the company’s operating systems.

Countries examined in the study included: the Czech Republic; Hungary; Israel; South Africa; Austria; Denmark; France; Germany and the UK among others.

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/0,39020645,39168980,00.htm

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IBM, Cisco tackle security’s weak link

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The two companies announced that they have integrated IBM’s Tivoli network management software with Cisco’s networking products to help businesses protect their networks from worms and viruses before employees get on the network. The combined offering sets criteria for users and devices logging on to the network. IBM and Cisco first announced their partnership in February.

When someone tries to log on to the network, IBM’s Tivoli software scans the machine to ensure that it has all the required security patches, antivirus updates and other software running on it. The update is sent to Cisco’s Access Control Server through the Cisco Trust Agent, software that is pre-installed on every user’s machine. If the device connecting to the network complies with all the security policies that have been previously set, the person is allowed to log on. If it doesn’t, the device is quarantined on a separate virtual LAN (local area network) link and the Tivoli software prompts the person to download the necessary software.

Cisco has similar partnerships with makers of antivirus software through its Network Admission Control (NAC) program. Network Associates, Symantec and Trend Micro have been working with Cisco since NAC was announced last year. Earlier this week, Cisco announced that Computer Associates also joined the NAC alliance.

Cisco’s NAC initiative is part of a broader effort to help protect networks from worms and viruses before they propagate throughout the network. As the work force becomes more mobile, many workers are inadvertently exposing their companies to security threats. For example, employees who take their laptops with them when they travel may pick up viruses and worms while they are connected to another network on the road. When they return to headquarters and plug into the corporate network, they can infect the entire company.

Cisco is not the only company that has developed a strategy to address this issue. Microsoft also has proposed a plan it calls Network Access Protection, or NAP. Both architectures work in similar ways, but they are not interoperable.

Other networking vendors also have developed similar security strategies, including Enterasys and Alcatel. A consortium of vendors called the Trusted Computing Group is already working on an architecture that will use open standards.

So far, Cisco’s NAC architecture is only supported on its IP routers. The company plans to add the functionality to its Ethernet switches sometime next year.

The integrated Cisco and IBM offering will be available in December.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5409537.html?tag=default

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Symantec Wants To Be Security’s Microsoft

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The vendor will expand its data backup-and-recovery play with a line of disk-to-disk products called Symantec LiveState Recovery.

Updated and rebranded, Symantec’s LiveState Recovery line will be available in October in three versions: Advanced Server 3.0 ($1,194 per server), Standard Server 3.0 ($835 per server), and Desktop 3.0 ($70).

Backup and recovery is a “natural fit” for Symantec, says Rob Enderle, principal with the Enderle Group, an IT consulting firm. “We see security, network and systems management, and storage all coming closer together,” says Enrique Salem, senior VP of Symantec’s network and security gateway products and former CEO of Brightmail.

Symantec is also beefing up its service and consulting capabilities, which accounted for just 2% of overall revenue in its most recent quarter.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=49400240&tid=6004

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Viral movies possible with RealPlayer flaw

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The problem means that fake movie files could be created that, when played by vulnerable Real software, would run a program instead.

The flaw appears in RealPlayer 10 for Windows and Mac OS X, the RealOne Player for Windows and Mac OS X and the Real Helix Player for Linux.

“Anyone who has RealPlayer is affected, and there are many people with RealPlayer,” said Marc Maiffret, chief hacking officer at software security company eEye Digital Security, the company that discovered the security issue.

RealNetworks could not be reached for comment.

The flaw occurs in a component of Real’s software that handles Real movie files with the .rm extension, according to eEye’s advisory.

Similar to the recent flaw in Windows applications that handle the JPEG image format, this vulnerability affects a widespread piece of software and could be used to create a virus.

“It’s similar to the JPEG flaw in the sense that just by viewing the file, or having the file ‘force viewed’ through a Web browser, your system can be compromised,” Maiffret said.

“I think both this JPEG vulnerability and the RealPlayer vulnerability are good examples of a type of threat that is becoming more prevalent: client-side vulnerabilities.”

Rather than finding a security hole in the operating system and gaining direct access to a computer, attackers are now increasingly looking at exploiting widely used applications.

Latest Bagle variant attempts download of potentially infected JPEG file alternatives other than patching,” Maiffret said.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5393139.html?tag=default

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A Seven-Step Plan For Protecting Corporate Data

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Enterprise Rights Management (ERM) is an umbrella term for products that mix elements of intellectual property protection with document control.

Unlike digital rights management technologies that strive to manage consumer use of published media, ERM focuses on business documents and data, seeking to control their creation, use and distribution. Rights management systems typically rely on servers operating in the background performing such functions as applying policies to content, authenticating users and granting rights. Rights management vendors and products have differing approaches and architectures.

In a nutshell, rights products can:
– Encrypt content;
– Assure that only the intended recipient can open the content;
– Control the recipient’s ability to copy, print, forward, alter or otherwise tamper with the information;
– Revoke access rights or expire the content itself to prevent further access; and
– Log all of the above to an audit trail.

Rights management vendors and products have differing approaches and architectures. SealedMedia, for example, works on the premise that content sent to external users gets returned to the sender once the sharing process is done. Liquid Machines sees rights management as enabling collaboration among trusted parties and focuses on usability — the idea that policy application and consequent document access should be as unobtrusive to processes as possible.

Some products — usually those that require server connectivity — allow rights to be changed even after the recipient has accessed the content.

Rights management shouldn’t be confused with records management. Although access rights to content can be expired using a rights management system, the content itself isn’t always destroyed, as it can be by a records management system. Losing the encryption key on a rights-protected document, for example, disables the recipient’s access to it, but the document itself may stay on the recipient’s drive.

Vendors such as PSS Systems offer a records management foundation and concentrate on applying company policy to internal documents so they can be controlled from creation to disposition, regardless of where they reside.

The Plan:
– Define the risks;
-Determine what content is worth protecting;
-Identify levels of trust and appropriate controls;
-Prescribe appropriate security for the content and the situation;
-Determine what assurance must be provided that content reaches only the intended recipient(s);
-Determine what should happen when content should no longer be shared; and
-Describe who has the authority to apply policies and what happens if policies conflict.

http://www.securitypipeline.com/49400427

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Botnet-related crime is beginning to indicate to the experts what they might expect next

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“When you see the creation of zombie networks, you can almost see the life cycle of a spam and virus attack,” said Malcom Seagrave, head of security strategy for Energis. “It’s the same with DDoS [denial-of-service] attacks and those who steal data. We can’t prove it, but we think they are related. The attacks are well-organised and they are beating the security industry.”

Seagrave said combined threats, such as keystroke-logging Trojans embedded in spam, were causing serious damage to company networks. “Some of their methods, we just can’t work out,” he said. “But the most important way to stop this is user education.”

Botnets are readily available for hire on the Internet. According to anti-spam campaigner Steve Linford of Spamhaus, botnets are first set up for spammers to hire and then sold on — often for DDoS attacks – when they have been blocked by anti-spam firms.

Seagrave said he thought that online retailers needed to beef up their security in time for Christmas: “You’ll almost certainly see a DDoS attack coming before Christmas. Retailers will have to be wary as you can expect a growth in attacks this year”. The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit agreed that retailers face a security challenge this winter.

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/networks/0,39020345,39168639,00.htm

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