Opinions

If you are running a Debian-based Linux system and haven't already caught up with the announcement [1] that there was a major flaw with the generation of SSH, OpenVPN, DNSSEC, SSL/TLS session keys and X.509 certificate key material, you might want to update your system to address the problem.

One of the interesting things that's been happening over the past few years is that just as workforces have become less centralized, IT departments have gotten more so. The vast majority of companies I work with consider themselves virtual, meaning that employees work together on teams from widely distributed geographies. Yet fewer IT teams are virtual in the same sense -- in many cases IT teams are increasingly consolidated into a few central sites.

Sun Microsystems is trying to rejuvenate Java, using the JavaOne conference last week to position the 13-year-old Java platform as a foundation for next-generation technologies in such spaces as rich Internet applications and cloud-based services.

Many Information Security practices have outcomes that are difficult to quantify. How do you prove that your measure is effective at preventing whatever malicious activity is out there from being effective against your system?

Hardware upgrades can be a blast. Slide 2GB more RAM in your machine and everything just works faster and smoother. Updating a laptop or desktop with an SSD (solid-state drive), however, can be tricky and not so rewarding, as I am finding.

Back in the day, wireless data was a neatly self-contained niche technology used by folks such as field force workers and logistics companies, but virtually ignored by everyone else.

Travel has become the bane of many companies' existence, thanks to escalating fuel and travel costs, unpredictable and increasingly frequent air travel delays and metropolitan gridlock. A face-to-face meeting can cost thousands of dollars and several hassle-filled days, yet small businesses often have customers at great distances.

It took the United States just 45 months to defeat the combined forces of Germany, Japan, and Italy. It has taken SAP 48 months to get Business ByDesign, its SaaS (software as a service) play for the SMB market, off the ground. And it still isn't ready for prime time.

Measure, measure, measure: It's one of the pieces of advice repeatedly doled out to companies looking to make their datacenters more energy-efficient. Without question, it's a sound suggestion; if you don't know where you're starting from, how do you know where you should go or whether you've made any progress?

Unintentional exposure of sensitive data through Word files is a has caused problems for companies in the past, especially when people forget that Track Changes can easily allow document recipients to view information that has been deleted or sanitised for release.

At the company's recent Partner Summit, Cisco's John Chambers painted a picture of collaboration driving a second wave of the Internet. But although increased uptake of video technology as part of broader unified communications has great potential, the Internet is facing a couple of serious challenges in the next few years that could greatly impact on its ability to define the way we work and play.

Dell's decision to appoint Officeworks as its inaugural Australian retail partner sends a clear signal to its PC rivals that the vendor is serious about winning back marketshare. The question is, can Dell be as successful with a channel as it was without.

I had to go to the bank recently for the first time in months and, although it was the day before a public holiday, I was still amazed to see how many people were queuing up to talk to a teller. It felt like I'd stepped into a time warp.

Flashy new technology always gets attention. But after the chatter fades, users are often left with frustration over products' failure to do basic, common-sense functions.

Corporate IT executives need to beware the seven dirty secrets of the security industry that can undermine the safety of business networks, a security expert told attendees at Interop Las Vegas.