The Week’s Top IT News Stories; Microsoft Releases Backup, Recovery Software

1. Microsoft Releases Backup, Recovery Software, Network World, 9/28.

Microsoft took the wraps off its take on the hottest technology in the storage software market, continuous data protection (CDP), which enables users to speed up the process of backing up and recovering data. Although the software giant’s offering, Data Protection Manager (DPM), is probably most the least feature rich, the fact that Microsoft is trumpeting CDP helps to validate the technology, according to analysts.

2. Experts: U.S. Electronic Health Records Still a Ways Off, InfoWorld, 9/29.

While the U.S. government definitely has a clear vision for digitizing its health records, the country’s still got an enormous challenge to actually implementing anything resembling that vision, according to the author of a government report. Much more work needs to be done to create standards for e-health records. Lack of electronic health records is contributing to medical errors resulting in tens of thousands of deaths.

3. DOD Revamps Troubled Procurement Software, Computerworld, 9/27.

The U.S. Department of Defense is working to move its procurement system from a client/server model to an online version allowing it to support nearly double its current number of users. The client/server project was plagued with problems, with development being halted for a year in 2002 after a government agency report revealed the system appeared not to have benefited users since development work kicked off in 1994. The Web version should appear in the middle of next year and has drawn on user input in its development.

4. IT and Wireless Still Separated, but Talks Ongoing, InfoWorld, 9/27.

U.S. corporates are being slow to adopt wireless communications due to concerns over security, a lack of standard IT policies to handle the devices, and poor understanding of the benefits of the technology, according to experts in the field. Meanwhile, employees are sneaking wireless devices into corporations and using them at work without the knowledge of IT managers.

5. Execs Describe Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Lessons, Computerworld, 9/28.

If they could have their time over again, managers who’ve dealt with SOX compliance would do things differently, particularly in the area of better educating more of their staff on what they need to do to help the compliance process. The executives would also recommend dedicating workers to handle all the work required by the regulations.

6. Novell Server Hacked, Used to Scan for Vulnerable Computers, Computerworld, 9/28.

One of the software company’s servers was compromised this week after workers had apparently used it to host computing gaming. The server was hacked into and then used for a number of days to scan for vulnerable ports on potentially millions of computers around the globe, a security expert said. Novell admitted the breach but said the machine wasn’t part of its corporate network and it wasn’t a production server.

7. Google, NASA Join Hands on Research, Silicon Valley Mercury News, 9/29.

After years of discussion, Google and NASA have committed to work with each other on large-scale data management, massively distributed computing and nanotechnology projects. The search engine company will build a research complex at NASA/Ames Research Center. More details on the pair’s alliance weren’t forthcoming but Google will gain access to NASA’s space data and imagery, suggesting Google Moon and Google Mars a la the company’s Google Earth satellite image software won’t be far off.

8. MIT Readies $100 Laptop Prototype, PC World, 9/28.

The MIT Media Lab’s project to create a cheap laptop for children around the world is coming closer to becoming a reality. The notebooks should start shipping in the millions in late 2006, according to the lab’s chairman and co-founder Nicholas Negroponte. The machines have many innovative features so they can be operated in remote locations, including a crank in the laptop hinge which can be used to power the device and two modes of viewing the screen, one designed to work in bright sunlight.

9. Chips Catalog Katrina Dead, Wired, 9/28.

As the waters recede, the grim task of retrieving bodies goes on. Some morgue workers are using radio frequency ID chips to help keep better track of unidentified remains, whether of those who fell victim to the hurricane or those bodies already buried or in caskets that were disturbed in Katrina’s wake.

10. Hackers Advise Microsoft on IE, PC World, 9/29.

At the Hack in the Box Security conference in Malaysia this week, Microsoft executives detailed how they’ve been working with the hacker community. For the first time, Gates Inc. presented a beta version of its upcoming Internet Explorer 7 web browser to the hacker community and awaited its comments. The feedback proved very useful, according to the Microsoft executives, who admitted the company’s previous relationship with hackers had been adversarial.

—China Martens