I’ve always liked the idea of maximizing anonymity when it comes to storage of people’s Web searches. Jeremy Kirk’s IDG News Service piece brought some good news about Yahoo Inc. Apparently they’ve decided they’re going to drastically cut down the amount of time they retain people’s Web search data; they’ll anonymize the data after three months instead of their previous 13-month retention.

You should have seen the grin spread across my face when I saw Gregg Keizer’s Computerworld article, "Businesses double down on Apple; 68% say they'll add Macs in '09."  My family, friends and much of my readership know I'm a huge Mac fan. And while Apple has been making some gains in the home market over that past few years with their funny ads and by word of mouth, apparently more businesses are now hungry enough to take a bite, too. Why?

I know I’m gonna get some flak for this, but when I heard about it, I just had to share. I read Larry Copeland’s USA Today article "Technology may help police halt hot pursuits" and I had to laugh.  Apparently, GM is doing something right during this otherwise turbulent time for car producers. OnStar, GM’s GPS manufacturing unit now offers Stolen Vehicle Slowdown technology. What an uncanny technology.

There has been some "chatter" lately about Apple pulling its advice that users install antivirus software on their Macs. Remember that Apple originally contended that Macs were secure and largely immune to the malware circulating the information superhighway. Nevertheless they recently decided it is better to be safe than sorry and went so far as to suggest that running AV would offer that ounce of prevention our mothers would recommend.

This was a new one to me when I read about it in Robert McMillan’s "FTC Has a Message for Vishing Victims". Vishing is much like phishing, but instead of urging e-mail recipients to click on a link (to a bogus website) this message instructs the reader to call a telephone number to rectify a problem with your account.

The recent attacks in Mumbai were carried out by assailants using high tech methods. It’s just another way in which technology can be used not only for good, but for evil, as well.

Before anybody gets their feathers ruffled, I'm not against religion; I feel that everybody has the right to practice and believe in whatever religion they choose - as long as it doesn't break any laws. My siblings and I grew up in a Roman Catholic household (the religion of our mother) because my mother and father agreed to raise us in that faith. My father was neither a Catholic nor even a Christian, but a Jewish Holocaust survivor, so I was exposed to Judaism, too.

I’m usually on the side of protecting civil privacy rights, but for some reason I can’t readily find fault with police officers using cameras to find stolen automobiles.

I can understand how the government is seeking to have vendors verify that the equipment they’re selling the government is authentic. According to Gautham Nagesh’s article, hundreds of pieces of hardware being used by the government (and later seized) was in fact, counterfeit. Those products are usually inferior and can wind up being very costly – especially when they result in network failures and data loss. Nagesh notes for example, that the FBI seized over 400 pieces of bogus Cisco network hardware.

We've all heard the mantra that security is a process and not a product. In tough economic times, careful selection of the right types of tools and techniques can go a long way toward helping folks stay within their budgetary constraints. One way to save money is via open-source software. But is open-source really less costly in the long run? What about the staff needed to maintain it? The savvy talent needed to maintain open-source systems is easier to find these days and with more able applicants competing for jobs, you may not have to pay premium prices to keep them.

While we may not have much to boast about when it comes to our economic situation, at least we can appreciate the latest trend in cyber security. Just last week I wrote about the inroads the U.S. has been making in stopping and apprehending spammers – a huge U.S. based spamming operation (the world’s largest) in particular.

I wasn’t surprised when I heard that a major player in the world’s spam operations had its Internet connection severed. It’s no coincidence that my wife was just telling me how her email inbox was uncharacteristically “light” all day yesterday. When I read Brian Krebs’ washingtonpost.com article "Host of Internet Spam Groups Is Cut Off" I learned that a U.S.

read more | 4 comments

Today is Veteran’s Day. For readers from abroad, Veteran’s Day is a federal holiday here in the USA. That means most post offices, schools, many businesses and all government offices are closed. For some residents that just means a day off from work, but for some of us, it means more.

Cloud computing is the latest trend in data storage. If you want, you can opt to forget about where you've put that important document your boss entrusted to you. Maybe you can even toss your trusty old finger drive because you can just send up all your data to the big warehouse in the sky.

As far as federal departments go, the Department of Homeland Security is so new that it will experience its first presidential transition when the administration takes office.