Two major events — the RSA Conference and the annual Cebit extravaganza — dominated the IT headlines this week. In other news, all eyes were on Chile as the after-effects and aftershocks continued following a devastating 8.8 earthquake last Saturday. Taiwan also was hit by a major temblor, and given the prevalence of technology companies based there, the effects are rippling into IT.
1. Cloud security, cyberwar dominate RSA conference, FBI embeds cyber-investigators in Ukraine, Estonia and RSA 2010: Cloud-computing security and cyber warfare were chief issues at the RSA Conference, where a top U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation official said that the agency has embedded agents with law enforcement agencies in other nations, including Ukraine and Estonia, in an effort to fight cybercrime.
2. Cebit 2010 preview: sparks, smoldering Not whom they expected: SAP’s McDermott opens Cebit and Cebit 2010: mega tech show, day one: The annual Cebit trade show took over Hannover, Germany, this week.
3. Taiwan earthquake may send LCD, chip prices higher, Taiwan earthquake damages undersea Internet cables, UN, Iridium rush satellite links to quake-hit Chile and Tsunami brought on a wave of Tweets: The 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck southern Taiwan early Thursday could affect chip and LCD prices, analysts said. Meanwhile, restoring communications has been a top priority in Chile after the enormous earthquake there, which set off tsunami warnings across the Pacific Ocean.
4. Apple sues HTC for patent infringement, HTC says it uses own technology, not Apple’s, Google supports HTC in Apple lawsuit and Will Apple’s patents banish HTC phones?: Apple filed a patent infringement lawsuit in U.S. federal court and with the U.S. International Trade Commission against HTC, which makes phones that run Google’s Android OS. HTC countered that it uses its own technology, not Apple’s, and Google backed HTC in the dispute.
5. Update: Attacks on Google may have been work of amateurs: Relatively unsophisticated hackers using outdated botnet tools were behind the cyberattacks on Google, according to a security firm.
6. Internet hit by wave of ransom malware: Cyberthugs dusted off a 2009 attack to smack victims with malware that demands a ransom to restore access to applications and data on infected PCs.
7. FCC broadband czar defends national plan: The primary author of the U.S. National Broadband Plan defended it against criticism. Blair Levin, the executive director of the Omnibus Broadband Initiative, spoke to Computerworld’s Matt Hamblen to offer a defense of the plan, whose final version is to be released March 17. Parts of the plan have already been released piecemeal, provoking critics to contend that it is too broad and too ambitious.
8. Apple iPad goes on sale April 3: If you want an iPad and you haven’t started saving, you ought to get to it — the breathlessly anticipated device will go on sale April 3 in the U.S.
9. iPhone lessons from Google’s Nexus One and Why I like Windows Phone 7 (so far): Macworld’s Jason Snell offers his thoughts on what lessons Apple can take from Google’s Nexus One phone, while InfoWorld’s Galen Gruman has been pondering Windows Phone 7 software.
10. 10 Twitter types to know, love and hate and 5 LinkedIn groups to boost your social media savvy: CIO magazine has put together some interesting, and entertaining, stories about how to use social media for networking involving your work, as opposed to using social media to reconnect with all of the elementary school buddies you lost touch with decades ago.