Bangalore – world's largest IT employer

Submitted by Karthik on 23 July, 2004 - 21:43

Bangalore, India's home-grown silicon valley, now boasts around 160,000 employees in the IT & BPO sector.

At present, Bangalore has 1,60,000 professionals working in the technology sector and the number is the largest in one place on the planet.

While about 1,00,000 professionals work in IT companies, the remaining 60,000 are working in the ITES-BPO sector. The number of working professionals is expected to cross 2,00,000 during the year 2004-05 with many IT and ITES-BPO companies rapidly expanding their manpower.

CIOL has this article.

Microsoft to Enforce Antispam Plan

Submitted by Karthik on 23 July, 2004 - 13:28

Microsoft will soon check e-mail messages sent to its Hotmail, MSN, and Microsoft.com mail accounts to see if they come from valid e-mail servers, as identified by the Sender ID.

With Microsoft as one of the largest e-mail providers, the company's decision to enforce SPF record checking will ripple throughout the Internet. However, administrators at e-mail providers and ISPs ultimately decide whether to validate incoming messages' PRAs, and what to do with messages that fail the check, according to Webb. Mail Transfer Agent vendors, which make e-mail servers, must also design their products to act on the Sender ID authentication information, he says.

Microsoft is reaching out to major ISPs through the Global Infrastructure Alliance for Internet Safety, an international ISP working group, informing them of its plans and encouraging them to publish SPF records. The company is also working with leading MTA makers, including Sendmail and IBM, Webb says.

PC World is carrying this article.

Trojan poses as bin Laden suicide pics

Submitted by Karthik on 23 July, 2004 - 12:48

The Register and others are carrying stories on the deluge of messages on Usenet and IRC which claim that journalists found Osama Bin Laden's hanged body earlier this week.

The messages direct users to a website where a file can be downloaded, purporting to contain photographs but in reality containing the Hackarmy Trojan horse. Hackarmy gives virus writers control over infected machines. The Trojan has been around for some months so users with up-to-date AV software should be protected.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at AV firm Sophos, said: "It looks like virus writers are trying to give it a new breath of life by targeting Usenet."

Click here for the full story.

McAfee opens antivirus centre in Bangalore

Submitted by Karthik on 23 July, 2004 - 12:39

McAfee has announced plans to set up a centre in the Indian technology hub of Bangalore to monitor and counter virus attacks on computer networks worldwide.

California-based McAfee employs 100 researchers worldwide to identify virus attacks, develop software to prevent their spread and to monitor networks for possible threats.

Their job is like a commando operation and often gives them less than an hour to stop a virus from destroying computers, Mr Bolin said.

He said the new centre will improve McAfee's ability to monitor the internet and other networks round-the-clock, as Bangalore is located in the long time zone between the company's existing centers in Western Europe and Singapore.

Australian IT is carrying this AP story.

IIM-A plans Cairo campus

Submitted by Karthik on 22 July, 2004 - 22:16

Indian's premier B-school, IIM-A, has been invited by the Egyptian government to set up a campus in Cairo.

"On invitation from the government of Egypt and subsequent discussions, the IIM, Ahmedabad, board is expected to approve the proposal for setting up a campus in Cairo when land and other infrastructure facilities are made available," said a source close to the institute's board on Friday.

The government of Egypt has been pursuing the proposal for some months but the institute could not apply its mind to it because of the drawn out controversy over fees.

Rediff is carrying this story. A related article can be seen here.

'Infosys world's best in employee training'

Submitted by Karthik on 22 July, 2004 - 22:04

The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) has rated Infosys Technologies Ltd as the world's best in employee training and development.

In recognition of training practices at its Global Business Foundation School, ASTD has honoured Infosys with the "Excellence in Practice Award 2003".

The Global Business Foundation School is a structured programme to enhance technical and behavioural competencies of fresh engineering graduates.

The one-year programme equips freshers for the challenging software career ahead of them.

This is the second consecutive year that Infosys has won the first annual ASTD BEST Award, which recognises organisations demonstrating enterprise-wide success.

Sify has this article.

Florida Hacker Faces 144 Charges

Submitted by Karthik on 22 July, 2004 - 21:41

Scott Levine, the main accused in the Acxiom hacking case, has been charged in "a 144-count indictment of conspiracy, unauthorized access of a protected computer, access device fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice".

Levine is accused of hacking into the systems of Little Rock-based Acxiom Corp., a company that manages personal, financial, and corporate data for its clients. According to the indictment, Levine and others at his Snipermail.com firm stole megabytes of data over a 16-month period during 2002 and 2003 and caused about $7 million in damages to Acxiom.

According to the Department of Justice, Levine "effectively controlled" Snipermail.com, a spam-sending company which has since unplugged its Web site.

Internet Week has this report.

Bug Me Not!

Submitted by Karthik on 21 July, 2004 - 22:17

Wired is carrying an article on the success of sites like bugmenot, which stores a database of usernames and passwords of sites that require the user to register and login to access content.

BugMeNot.com is a site that generates login names and passwords for registration sites. The site is a boon to those who want to keep online anonymity or stamp out spam. According to the site's homepage, 14,000 websites have been "liberated" from registration bondage, and it's clear many people are doing whatever they can to avoid really logging in.

According to the site's creator, an Australian who wants to remain anonymous for fear of lawsuits, the site is getting about 10,000 hits each day. In an e-mail interview, BugMeNot's creator said he started the site in November 2003 after being annoyed for some time with forced registration on some sites.

There are a couple of browser plug-ins available for Mozilla and IE as well. However, I get the feeling that this is going to be a short-lived fad.

Microsoft to share its wealth with investors

Submitted by Karthik on 21 July, 2004 - 14:11

Microsoft said Tuesday that it will boost its dividend, buy back shares and offer a $3-per-share one-time payout as part of a plan to return up to $75 billion to shareholders over the next four years.

The one-time payout is conditional on shareholders approving changes to Microsoft's employee stock compensation plans that would adjust the plans to reflect the $3-per-share drop in value that will come from the payout, Anderson said. Assuming that shareholders approve the plan, the payout would be made on Dec. 2 to shareholders of record as of Nov. 17.

"We are confident in our long-term ability to grow revenue, profits and shareholder value through our innovation and execution," CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement. "We have been successful in addressing a significant portion of our ongoing legal exposure, and all seven of our businesses are growing."

News.com has this story. Related Links : here and here.

BTG sues Apple and MS over software downloads

Submitted by Karthik on 21 July, 2004 - 11:36

The Register is carrying a story on the latest in the line of asinine patent suits. A British IP firm named BTG has claimed that Microsoft and Apple have infringed on its patents on "web-enabled software update technologies".

BTG claims Microsoft's and Apple's operating systems, and MS Office products, infringe patented technologies. The suit was filed in the Federal Court of Northern California.It seeks unspecified royalty payments for past infringements and injunction against future uses of its software.

A second suit against Microsoft alleges that Active Desktop and parts of its offline browsing technology are in breach of Teleshuttle Technologies patents, according to Reuters.

Here we go again..

Pages

Subscribe to internet.quillem.com RSS