Panasonic outsources email to IBM
January 15, 2010
Source:  REUTERS

BOSTON: Panasonic Corp has hired IBM Corp to run a web-based email system for the Japanese electronics giant’s entire 380,000 strong workforce, the industry’s largest cloud computing contract to date. It is an important win for IBM, which has lagged behind rivals Amazon .com, Google, Microsoft Corp and Salesforce.com in developing cloud computing products.

Cloud computing refers to the fast-growing field of delivery of software and other services from remote data centres over the internet. Research firm Gartner estimates sales of cloud-based applications, including email programmes, will soar 47% this year to $9.6 billion. “This is kind of a litmus test that allows IBM to go forward in the market,” said Gartner analyst Robert Anderson.

Panasonic’s chief information officer for the Americas Cassio De Oliveira said in an interview on Wednesday that Panasonic was replacing in-house email systems in the Americas that run Microsoft’s software and systems in other parts of the world running on IBM’s Lotus email systems.

He said Panasonic intends to sign other large deals to outsource key parts of its technology infrastructure , although he declined to be more specific. The deal with IBM includes its Lotus web-based email along with new cloud software for calendars, web meetings, file sharing, social networking and other collaboration tools.

Microsoft not to exit China: Ballmer
January 15, 2010
SOURCE : REUTERS

WASHINGTON: Microsoft Corp has no plans to pull out of China, its chief executive said on Thursday, playing down concerns about recent cyber-attacks and censorship raised by rival Google Inc.

The company's stance indicates the world's largest software maker is not likely to support its fierce rival in its battle with China and rebuffs broad U.S. political backing for Google. "There are attacks every day. I don't think there was anything unusual, so I don't understand," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told Reuters after a meeting on modernizing government services at the White House.

"We're attacked every day from all parts of the world and I think everybody else is too. We didn't see anything out of the ordinary." On Tuesday, Google threatened to pull out of China -- the world's biggest Internet market by users -- citing censorship and cyber-attacks on rights activists' email accounts there.

Google claimed more than 20 other large companies had been the target of cyber-attacks originating in China, but Microsoft has said it has no evidence any of its e-mail services or corporate networks being specifically attacked.

When asked if Microsoft had any plan to pull its business out of China, Ballmer answered "No." "I don't understand how that helps anything. I don't understand how that helps us and I don't understand how that helps China," Ballmer said.

Microsoft has high hopes for its Bing Internet search engine in China, which has only a small share of the market, but could benefit if Google, the No. 2 player behind dominating local rival Baidu Inc, pulls out. Ballmer's comments run counter to broad political support for Google.

The White House said on Thursday it is backing Google's decision to no longer support China's censoring of searches. A group of Republican lawmakers on Thursday called for tech heavyweights Cisco Systems Inc, Yahoo Inc and Microsoft to speak out against censorship, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged tech companies on Wednesday not to assist China's attempts to prohibit free exchange of ideas.

Attack on Google exploited Internet Explorer flaw: McAfee
January 15, 2010
SOURCE: REUTERS

BOSTON: Recent cyber attacks on Google Inc and other businesses exploited a previously unknown flaw in Microsoft Corp's Internet Explorer browser, according to security firm McAfee Inc. McAfee's report came as authorities struggle to crack one of the most sophisticated hacking cases in history.

Google said on Tuesday that in mid-December, it detected an attack on its corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of its intellectual property. It eventually found that more than 20 other companies had been infiltrated.

McAfee said on Thursday that those who engineered the attacks tricked employees of the companies into clicking on a link to a website that secretly downloaded sophisticated malicious software onto their PCs through a campaign that the hackers apparently dubbed "Operation Aurora."

"We have never seen attacks of this sophistication in the commercial space. We have previously only seen them in the government space," said Dmitri Alperovitch, a vice president of research with McAfee. Microsoft has yet to patch the flaw in its browser, which is used on hundreds of millions of PCs around the globe, he said. Microsoft said that using Internet Explorer in "protected mode" would limit the impact of the vulnerability on machines running Windows Vista and Windows 7.

"We need to take all cyber attacks, not just this one, seriously," said Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer in an interview on CNBC. "We have a whole team of people that responds in very real time to any report that it may have something to do with our software, which we don't know yet." The programs allowed the hackers to take control of the PCs without the knowledge of their users, according to McAfee, which has been researching the matter on behalf of several companies involved in the attacks since late last week.

McAfee's Alperovitch declined to say which companies had hired McAfee, saying they had signed confidentiality agreements. So far the only other victim to come forward is design software maker Adobe Systems Inc, which has said that it is still investigating the matter.

Some researchers have speculated that the attackers may have exploited flaws in Adobe's Acrobat software and its widely used Reader program for opening PDF documents. McAfee's researchers said that they found no evidence that was the case. Still, they said that the hackers may have used other types of malicious software to break into Google and the other companies. Internet Explorer is vulnerable on all recent versions of the Windows operating system, including Windows 7, according to McAfee.