http://twitter.com/

Lets you text message groups of people for free. Limited to 140 characters a time.

Measuring (IT) Performance

http://www.it4communities.org.uk

• Helping charities and community/voluntary groups to find volunteers to help with their IT needs
• Helping IT professionals to find suitable IT volunteering opportunities
• Providing support for volunteering projects from project definition to project completion

Virus - Spreads by attaching itself to something and requires human interaction to replicate. Usually can mutate in attempt to avoid detection.

Worm - Can self-replicate. Can exploit networks to replicate quickly. Email worms most common - spread as file attachments which the user is tricked into running, or embedded in HTML email or just as a direct link to malicious code.

Trojan - Hides within another container, but can't self-replicate. Often used as the first stage of an attack (eg. used to download and install a stronger threat like a backdoor to your PC - known as remote access trojan or RAT)

Blended Threats - Combine worst aspects of the above - stealth, replication and payload. Using server and internet application vulnerabilities, can self-replicate quickly and cause great damage.

Drive-by Download - Injection of malicious code into otherwise innocuous web pages. Typically, the hacker adds iFrames to the page which invisibly load content which tries to exploit browser vulnerabilities in order to infect the victim's PC.

Rootkit - Modifies parts of the operating system or installed as drivers or kernel modules. They are a method of hiding running processes.

Spyware - Software that collects personal data without consent.

Phishing - Using a couple of simple tricks to send users to what they believe is a genuine site but is in fact a clone set up to steal their login details

Link

Answer depends on what kind of company, but still is likely to be unclear...

Rules need to be spelled out
http://wapurl.co.uk/?NMQL525
"The Data Protection Act DPA says that data should be kept for as long as is necessary for the purpose it was obtained," explained James Mullock, a lawyer with law firm Osborne Clarke. And you can't get much more vague than that."

Systems to resolve the e-mail crunch
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2007/09/03/2906686.htm
"There are a number of UK regulations that enforce the retention of e-mail.

The Freedom of Information Act dictates that public sector bodies must be able to supply copies of "recorded information" on request, even if generated before the act came into force in 2005.

Through the Data Protection Act, a member of the public can request information held about them.

And there are also industry-specific controls, such as those enforced by the Financial Services Authority, which require all e-mails be held for six years.

In addition, there are the increasingly onerous evidential requirements of court proceedings, which require a verifiable e-mail audit trail from "reliable" systems to be admissible."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_continuity_planning

or "How to give managers sleepless nights"

Retrieving purposefully deleted files

Why web developers will need to know their RSS

"RSS is a lightweight XML format, used to standardise news and other material so that updates on website content can be sent to end-users who have requested them. RSS also enables content to be syndicated to other websites.

Effectively a mini-database of headlines and other summaries of new content, RSS is also being explored as a mechanism for content distribution services, which Microsoft’s Simple List Extensions will support. Money is being invested in medical and financial applications.

How difficult is it to master?

RSS is straightforward for those with a basic grasp of XML and/or HTML/XHTML. Most tutorials involve just a few hours’ work."

Link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_21CN

"The 21st Century Network (21CN) programme is the network transformation project of the UK telecommunications company BT Group plc. It will see the UK incumbent's telephone network move from the present AXE/System X Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to an Internet Protocol (IP) system."

Cabling Best Practice

"In spite of its disadvantages, Cat 6 is the recommended requirement in the US-based TIA-942 ­datacentre cabling standard. However, experts recommend using the next grade of standards as they become available."

Link

"A failure to meet user demands is resulting in the growth of unauthorised, parallel IT, known as "shadow IT", where users adapt unauthorized tools for corporate and personal tasks.

Common examples include the use of social networking sites to replace secure shared discussion areas and the use of instant messaging rather than e-mail.

This ultimately results in the reduction of a CIO's control over the use of information and security within the business. And given the increasing pressure for security and compliance in today's business environment, there is a need for this to be resisted."

via http://www.living-it.co.uk/pages.asp?id=316

"Virtualisation is a way of using your IT resources more effectively. With servers, this means splitting the operating system and applications from the physical hardware used to run them. This creates a “virtual machine” which acts just like a physical one, but it is separate from the server it is running on. Each virtual machine contains the operating system, applications and data in a single ‘container’. Multiple virtual machines can then be run on a single piece of server hardware, with each machine isolated from one another and running independently. This means that the server does more work and spends less time standing idle."

"The biggest benefit is not having to buy a server every time you require a new application."

http://www.living-it.co.uk/pages.asp?id=305
LivingIT aug 07

via http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,2191677,00.html

"Resistance is a signpost
Resisting a task is usually a sign that it's meaningful - which is why it's awakening your fears and stimulating procrastination. You could adopt "Do whatever you're resisting the most" as a philosophy of life. As Steven Pressfield says in his pompous but interesting book The War Of Art , "The more important [something] is to our soul's evolution, the more resistance we will feel toward pursuing it."

full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/nov/24/idcards.homeaffairs

"...here's the final nail in the coffin. Your fingerprint data will be stored in your passport or ID card as a series of numbers, called the "minutiae template". In the new biometric passport with its wireless chip, remember, all your data can be read and decrypted with a device near you, but not touching you.

What good would the data be, if someone lifted it? Not much, insisted Jim Knight, the minister for schools and learners, in July: "It is not possible to recreate a fingerprint using the numbers that are stored. The algorithm generates a unique number, producing no information of any use to identity thieves." Crystal clear, Jim.

Unfortunately, a team of mathematicians published a paper in April this year, showing that they could reconstruct a fingerprint from this data alone. In fact, they printed out the images they made, and then - crucially, completing the circle - used them to fool fingerprint readers.

Ah biometrics. Such a soothingly technical word. Repeat it to yourself."