Stories by: Frank Hayes

Heard about a competitor's security being breached? Then you're probably next. In fact, you may already be owned.

If you're a hard-core IT security wonk, you already know about this. If not, go to Doxpara.com right now and click on the button that says "Check my DNS." That will run a simple test to tell you whether your name server appears to be vulnerable to DNS cache poisoning.

Let's talk about RFID. But first, let's imagine the Internet as it might be. Suppose every ISP required its users to buy only its own brand of modem. And use only its own proprietary Web browser. And connect only to Web sites certified by the ISP to work with that modem and Web browser.

OK, try to follow this: Microsoft has spent the past two years slamming its Open XML file format through the process to make it an international standard. Along the way, there's been arm-twisting, committee-packing, bribery and other chicanery. But by last week, Microsoft was one step away from success.

How many heads will roll at EDS? That's the obvious question, now that Hewlett-Packard is buying the company. A back-of-the-envelope calculation says that at least half the employees of HP+EDS are in services, but they generate only one-third of the revenue. Conclusion: Up to 50 per cent of them will get the chop.

Gartner says Windows is "collapsing." Well, sure. Strictly speaking, Windows itself isn't in a state of collapse -- Windows XP is still useful to a huge population of customers. But for Vista and the Windows franchise as a whole, things do not look good.

Well, that was quick. Last week, consumer electronics giant Toshiba announced it was pulling the plug on its high-definition video disc format, HD DVD. Within days, Toshiba's partners announced that they were now Blu-ray shops, and HD DVD players and movies were reduced to fire-sale prices.

The mess at Societe Generale is still unravelling. The big French bank took a $US7 billion loss last month because of a rogue trader, and government investigators are continuing to spot new problems in the bank's story that it was all the fault of one greedy computer genius, financial trader gone wrong. Think this has nothing to do with corporate IT? Think again.

Merrill Lynch says we're already in a recession. Is that relevant? Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs say a US recession this year is now unavoidable. Is that relevant?

Ready for 2008? Budgets may tighten up, but IT's challenges will just keep growing: security problems, virtualization technology, legal issues, users who can't be stopped and that worrisome baby-boomer brain drain. Here are eight hot-button issues to watch out for in the coming year:

Facebook's social, Prince goes local