ITEC

Get Microsoft’s Newest OS To Play Nice With Your Existing Applications & Systems

Key Points:

• Although Windows 7 is a very reliable OS, enterprises may still face considerable application compatibility issues
• Without planning or testing, a Win7 migration will quickly run aground. Planning is essential to success
• Win7 may require significant upgrades to system hardware such as RAM
• After the poor reception Windows Vista received, Microsoft badly needed a hit to get back in the game. Fortunately for Microsoft, Windows 7 has turned out to be a reliable OS that is garnering minimal bad press and much praise.

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David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan

For the past four months, I have been quietly working on a book with my friend Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot on a book project: Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History

The book came off the printer July 16 and will begin shipping from online bookstores this week. It will be in stores throughout North America first week of August....

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We live in the age of the customer. Customers are more empowered than ever and marketing and IT must be on the same page or customer experience will suffer. Many companies recognize the need to be more customer centric. Many have tried, most have failed.

Why?

I think the answer is simple, but the solution is anything but.

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The pros and cons of different approaches to network access control

One important piece of a multilevel security defense for companies of almost any size is network access control (NAC), which lets you enforce policies for end-user machines.

The basic idea behind NAC -- which can include hardware, software or a combination -- is deceptively simple. Before any end user's computer -- an endpoint -- is allowed on the corporate network, a NAC makes the computer prove that it complies with the company's security policies. For example, you could set up a NAC to refuse to let a user's PC on the company LAN until the PC reports that it has all the latest patches for its operating system and office software and that it has the latest updates for the corporate antivirus program. If it doesn't have the goods, the device is not getting on the network.

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Dell has warned that a small number of its server motherboards may be harboring malicious software. The issue came to light after a customer wrote on a Dell support forum about being contacted by a service technician for a rather unusual procedure: Dell wanted to cleanse a malware from the server motherboard that was recently replaced.

Essentially, malware has been found on the embedded server management firmware of some of its server motherboards. While Dell insisted that the number of effected server motherboards is small, the company was forced to publicly acknowledge the issue, and that it is working to rectify the problem.

It wasn't clear from the limited information how the malware could be spread, it is established that certain unpatched versions of the Windows OS would have been affected, assuming that no antivirus software with an updated definition file is present. Huh, a virus spreading from a motherboard? With the goalposts constantly changing, it is no wonder that those with lower IT inclinations are confused over what constitutes a virus.

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Pulls Mozilla Sniffer for being bad, and CoolPreviews for being buggy

Mozilla on Tuesday warned users that a password-stealing add-on slipped into Firefox's extension gallery more than a month ago had been downloaded nearly 2,000 times before it was detected.

The malicious "Mozilla Sniffer" add-on was yanked from Mozilla's servers Monday, and added to the Firefox "blocklist," a last-resort defense that uninstalls potentially-dangerous browser extensions from users' machines.

Mozilla also notified users of a critical security vulnerability in another add-on, the popular "CoolPreviews," which currently sits at No. 21 on the Firefox most-downloaded list, saying it had temporarily yanked that plug-in, too.

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Some existing wireless LANs, based on 802.11abg gear, already "are buckling under video applications," says Andrew Borg, senior research analyst for wireless and mobility at Aberdeen Group, a technology research and consulting firm based in Boston. And the surge in sophisticated mobile devices is making it worse.

In higher education, Borg says, those applications include distance learning, online collaboration and social media; in healthcare, remote medicine and large diagnostic imaging; in physical security, video surveillance; and in offices, media streaming, videoconferencing, online meetings and more.

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You can upload your files to a 'virtual hard drive' and access them from your other devices

"Syncing to the cloud" may sound like marketing-speak, but it's actually a convenient thing to do: Upload your important files to an online server and access them from any of your other computers and mobile devices.

Cloud-based syncing services usually use a virtual drive that exists on your desktop in some manner, and it is linked directly to your online storage space. The contents of this virtual hard drive remain in sync across all of the desktops, notebooks and mobile devices on which you have installed the client software.

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We are excited to introduce you to The Pulse Network, the new home of ITEC this Week (previously known as ITEC TV).  The Pulse Network is the first network that combines live streaming video and social media conversation - TPN is Social TV. 

Our goal at The Pulse Network is to serve up the day's most compelling content in an innovative and entertaining format in the worlds of sports, business, and politics in a rich multi-media environment. Our hosts provide smart and insightful analysis on the biggest stories of the day and use the timeliness of social media to advance the dialogue while providing a three hundred and sixty degree perspective to keep you informed.

The Pulse Network, it's what's next - NOW.

Subscribe Today!

From July 13th – August 3rd, every Tuesday during ITEC this week (2:00 PM – 3:00 PM) we will be picking one newsletter subscriber to win a $25 iTunes gift card.  Subscribe to The Pulse Network Newsletter today and tune in to ITEC next week on August 3rd to find out if you are our lucky winner.

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A Look At What’s Happening In The Security Field, From Technology To Strategy

Key Points

• Data loss prevention technologies are being used more often, providing stronger protection for enterprises.

• Specific policies for application and device usage are on the rise and help to address security issues that crop up when the line between personal and professional gets blurred.

• Companies are now leaning toward a layered, centralized approach with multiple security points within the network instead of just around the network.

Just as threats are ever-evolving, so are security technologies and strategies to combat them. Enterprises face new foes every day (for more on the biggest enterprise security threats, see “Today’s Biggest Security Threats” on page 10); fortunately, security experts are continually working to provide better protection for enterprises facing security-related problems. Here’s a glimpse at the latest in the security field.

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