Symantec Announces October 2011 Symantec Intelligence Report


Symantec Announces October 2011 Symantec Intelligence Report

 

Spammers operates spam-friendly URL-shortening services using free, open-source software;

Eastern Europeans targeted by premium-rate SMS dialer app

 

TORONTO, ON. – October 25, 2011– Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced the results of the October 2011 Symantec Intelligence Report. This month’s analysis reveals that for the first time, spammers have established a genuine URL shortening service that is publically available and will generate real shortened links. These have so far only been found in spam emails.

 

Click to Tweet: October Intelligence reports shows spammers using open source URL shortening scripts to operate malicious sites http://bit.ly/o27jGg

 

During 2010, 92% of spam emails contained URLs and the use of shortened links makes it harder for traditional anti-spam countermeasures to block the messages based on fingerprinting the URL. Legitimate services are much quicker to respond to abuse, and spammers are preying on the knowledge that many people are familiar with shortened links through their use in social media, and have developed a false sense of security about them.

 

Symantec Intelligence reported earlier this year that spammers had set up their own URL shortening services to better conceal their spam sites and make them harder to block. This month’s analysis indicates that a spam gang with at least 80 URL shortening sites have been operating, all using a similar naming pattern, and used the .info top-level domain. However, unlike the URL shortening sites uncovered earlier this year, these sites are effectively public URL shortening sites. Anyone can create a shortened URL on these sites; the form to do so is also publically available.

 

“Spammers are using a free, open source URL shortening scripts to operate these sites. After creating many shortened URLs with their own service, the spammers then send spam including these URLs. These particular spammers use subjects designed to attract attention, like "It's a long time since I saw you last!", "It's a good thing you came" and so on. This is a common social engineering tactic, and is designed to arouse curiosity, particularly if they have a false sense of security around the safety of shortened links” said Paul Wood, Senior Intelligence Analyst, Symantec.cloud.

 

It is possible that spammers are setting up their own URL shortening sites since legitimate URL shortening sites, which have long suffered with abuse, have slightly improved their detection of spam and other malicious URLs. It's not fully clear why the sites are public. Perhaps this is simply due to laziness on the spammers' part, or perhaps an attempt to make the site seem more legitimate,” Wood said.

 

During October, Symantec Intelligence also discovered a premium rate SMS dialer targeting users in Eastern Europe. The dialer app attempts to pass itself off as a legitimate application by imitating the brand of a popular VoIP/messaging application.

 

“Premium SMS dialers have started appearing on the mobile threat landscape more often, especially in Eastern Europe. It is no surprise that the authors responsible for using this lucrative revenue source appear to be evolving their tactics and moving to newer platforms,” Wood said.

 

 

Other report highlights:

 

Spam: In October 2011, the global ratio of spam in email traffic declined slightly to 74.2 percent (1 in 1.35 emails), a decrease of 0.6 percentage points when compared with September 2011.

 

Phishing: In October, phishing email activity diminished by 0.07 percentage points since September 2011; one in 343.1 emails (0.29 percent) comprised some form of phishing attack.

 

E-mail-borne Threats: The global ratio of email-borne viruses in email traffic was one in 235.8 emails (0.42 percent) in October, a decrease of 0.11 percentage points since September 2011.

 

Web-based Malware Threats: In October, Symantec Intelligence identified an average of 3,325 Web sites each day harboring malware and other potentially unwanted programs including spyware and adware; a decrease of 4.3 percent since September 2011.

 

Endpoint Threats: The most frequently blocked malware for the last month was W32.Sality.AE[1], a virus that spreads by infecting executable files and attempts to download potentially malicious files from the Internet.

 

Geographical Trends:

 

Spam

  • Saudi Arabia remained the most spammed geography; with a spam rate of 80.5 percent.
  • Russia remained the second most-spammed at 79.9 percent.
  • In the US, 73.8 percent of email was spam and 73.2 percent in Canada.
  • The spam level in the UK was 74.8 percent.
  •  In The Netherlands, spam accounted for 75.6 percent of email traffic, 74.8 percent in Germany, 75.7 percent in Denmark and 72.8 percent in Australia.
  • In Hong Kong, 73.4 percent of email was blocked as spam and 72.2 percent in Singapore, compared with 70.8 percent in Japan.
  • Spam accounted for 74.8 percent of email traffic in South Africa and 77.7 percent in Brazil.

 

 

Phishing

  • The UK became the country most targeted geography for phishing in October, with one in 178.3 emails identified as phishing.
  • South Africa was the second most targeted country, with one in 203.8 emails identified as phishing attacks.
  • Phishing levels for the US were one in 646.0 and one in 272.8 for Canada.
  • In Germany phishing levels were one in 897.4, one in 631.8 in Denmark and one in 518.3 in The Netherlands. 
  • In Australia, phishing activity accounted for one in 267.0 emails and one in 359.5 in Hong Kong; for Japan it was one in 3385 and one in 500.1 for Singapore.
  • In Brazil one in 547.3 emails was blocked as phishing.

 

 

E-mail-borne threats

  • The UK climbed to the top of the table with the highest ratio of malicious emails in October, with one in 146.4 emails identified as malicious.
  • Hong Kong was the geography with the second highest rate, with one in 180.3 emails identified as malicious in October.
  • The previous month’s top spot belonged to South Africa, which dropped to eleventh position in October, with one in 326.0 emails blocked as malicious.
  • Virus levels for email-borne malware in the US reached one in 330.2 and one in 211.7 in Canada.
  •  In Germany virus activity reached one in 330.9, one in 457.1 in Denmark and in The Netherlands one in 319.4.
  • In Australia, one in 193.4 emails was malicious. For Japan the rate was one in 1048, compared with one in 272.4 in Singapore.
  • In Brazil, one in 421.7 emails in contained malicious content.

 

 

Vertical Trends:

  • Despite a small drop in spam, the Education sector overtook the Automotive industry to become the most spammed industry sector in October, with a spam rate of 76.4 percent. The spam rate for small businesses was 73.9%, compared with 74.1% for large enterprises.
  • The Public Sector remained the most targeted by phishing activity in October, with one in 86.0 emails comprising a phishing attack. 
  • Phishing levels for the Chemical & Pharmaceutical sector reached one in 543.3 and one in 500.5 for the IT Services sector, one in 562.7 for Retail, one in 150.9 for Education and one in 304.4 for Finance. Phishing attacks targeting small businesses accounted for one in 303.5 emails, compared with one in 319.6 for large enterprises.
  • With one in 62.0 emails being blocked as malicious, the Public Sector remained the most targeted industry in October. 
  • Virus levels for the Chemical & Pharmaceutical sector reached one in 180.9 and one in 257.3 for the IT Services sector; one in 355.4 for Retail, one in 99.3 for Education and one in 332.9 for Finance.
  • Malicious email-borne attacks destined for small businesses accounted for one in 260.2 emails, compared with one in 214.5 for large enterprises.

 

 

The October 2011 Symantec Intelligence Report provides greater detail on all of the trends and figures noted above, as well as more detailed geographical and vertical trends.

 

Related

·         SlideShare Presentation: October 2011 Symantec Intelligence Report

·         May 2011 MessageLabs Intelligence Report (PDF)

·         Symantec.cloud Global Threats

·         Symantec.cloud Intelligence Reports

·         Symantec.cloud In the News

·         Symantec.cloud Podcasts

 

 

Connect with Symantec

 

About Symantec Intelligence Report                                

 

The Symantec Intelligence report combines the best research and analysis from the Symantec.cloud MessageLabs Intelligence Report and the Symantec State of Spam & Phishing Report. The new integrated report, the Symantec Intelligence Report, provides the latest analysis of cyber security threats, trends and insights from the Symantec Intelligence team concerning malware, spam, and other potentially harmful business risks. The data used to compile the analysis for this combined report includes data from September and October 2011.

 

About Symantec

Symantec’s Canadian operations are headquartered in Toronto with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver.  For more information on Symantec products or current promotions, access Symantec’s Canadian Web site at www.symantec.ca. Symantec is an active member of the Business Software Alliance (BSA).


Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world.  Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at www.symantec.com.

 

###

 

NOTE TO EDITORS: If you would like additional information on Symantec Corporation and its products, please visit the Symantec News Room at http://www.symantec.com/news. All prices noted are in U.S. dollars and are valid only in the United States.

 

Symantec and the Symantec Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Forward-looking Statements: Any forward-looking indication of plans for products or programs is preliminary and all future release or delivery dates are tentative and are subject to change. Any future program plans, or release of the product or planned modifications to product capability, functionality, or feature are subject to ongoing evaluation by Symantec, and may or may not be implemented and should not be considered firm commitments by Symantec and should not be relied upon in making program participation or product purchasing decisions.

 

Symantec and the Symantec Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.



CA Technologies and GreenPages Partner to Help Customers Maximize the Benefits of Virtualization and the Cloud

CA Technologies and GreenPages Partner to Help Customers Maximize the Benefits of Virtualization and the Cloud

Joint Solutions to Incorporate CA Technologies Service Automation and Capacity Management Solutions, and GreenPages’ Integration and Managed Services

ISLANDIA, N.Y., October 24, 2011 – CA Technologies (NASDAQ: CA) and GreenPages Technology Solutions, a national consulting firm, today announced a partnership in which GreenPages will offer its customers CA Technologies service automation and capacity management solutions to drive the benefits of virtualization and the cloud.

The partnership will also help customers to accelerate their adoption of virtualization and cloud computing by leveraging CA Automation Suite for Clouds and CA Virtual Placement Manager and GreenPages Integration and Managed Services.

“Our partnership with GreenPages enables us to reach more companies with the technology solutions that make their information work as a business asset and revolutionize the way they do business,” said David Bradley, senior vice president, Global Channel Sales, CA Technologies.“When companies leverage the power of the cloud, they’re able to transform and optimize their infrastructure, operations and service to improve business agility, increase cost savings and ultimately, customer satisfaction.”

VMware recently named GreenPages its “Solution Provider of the Year” in the Americas for excellence in virtualization and cloud computing integration and delivery. In addition, CRN Magazine awarded GreenPages its “Virtualization Elite” title, as well as singled out the company as one of the “Top 30 Cloud VARs” in the U.S.

“Customers rely on GreenPages to help guide them through the complexities of modern IT by analyzing their business model and building agile, high performing infrastructures,” said John Ross, CTO, GreenPages. “Combining our services with CA Technologies software, will give customers visibility and management capabilities to help make crucial IT resource allocation decisions, which will then allow them to more efficiently add IT services and speed up their return on investment.”

About GreenPages Technology Solutions

GreenPages is a national IT consulting and integration organization that helps clients fully virtualize their environments and transform their datacenter and IT operations to strategically leverage the power of cloud computing. The company’s deep technology expertise, broad engineering certifications, and vendor agnostic business model offer clients a strategic, cross-platform, proactive approach to designing, deploying, and supporting modern IT environments. www.greenpages.com and www.JourneyToTheCloud.com.

About CA Technologies

CA Technologies (NASDAQ: CA) is an IT management software and solutions company with expertise across all IT environments – from mainframe and distributed, to virtual and cloud. CA Technologies manages and secures IT environments and enables customers to deliver more flexible IT services. CA Technologies innovative products and services provide the insight and control essential for IT organizations to power business agility. The majority of the Global Fortune 500 relies on CA Technologies to manage evolving IT ecosystems. For additional information, visit CA Technologies at www.ca.com.

New Canadian Survey: Malware Attacks Up Because of Social Media; Organizations Lagging on Proper Protection

New Canadian Survey: Malware Attacks Up Because of Social Media; Organizations Lagging on Proper Protection

from Websense Community by Matthew Mors

New Canadian Survey: Malware Attacks Up Because of Social Media; Organizations Lagging on Proper Protection

Social media helps business, but real-time content protection is needed  

SAN DIEGO—October 18, 2011— A new “Canadian Survey on Social Media Risks” released today reveals a dangerous gap in corporate social media security. 70 percent of more than 400 IT and IT security respondents in Canada said that social media in the workplace represents a serious security risk—yet only 31 percent report having the necessary security controls in place to mitigate it. More than 51 percent of Canadian respondents report an increase in malware due to social media use.

The research, conducted by the Ponemon Institute© and sponsored by content security provider Websense, Inc.® (NASDAQ: WBSN), was part of a global survey of more than 4,640 IT and IT security practitioners with an average of 10 years’ experience in the field. These practitioners were located in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Mexico, Singapore, United Kingdom, and the United States.

The dynamic social web is qualitatively different from the older, static web. It requires an IT security defense that goes beyond signature and fixed-policy web technologies (like antivirus and firewalls), because while they are necessary defenses, they are not sufficient. Technologies considered by respondents to be most important to reducing or mitigating social media threats are anti-virus/anti-malware (79 percent), endpoint security (79 percent), and identity and access management (76 percent). But only secure web gateways with real-time content analysis and data loss prevention can block advanced malware and data theft attacks, many of which seek entry through social media.

For example, imagine a new link is posted to a popular social network and it directs users to a site that downloads or leads to data-stealing code via obfuscated JavaScript. Organizations need security technology that can analyze these links as they appear, because the link path is new and doesn’t have a recognizable signature or known payload. New technologies like social media, cloud services, and mobility require real-time content security, which analyzes information on the fly, as it’s created and consumed.

Even with the risks, social media presents a large business opportunity for collaboration, reduced expenses, and more efficient processes. While organizations believe that bandwidth has been diminished due to social media, Canadian companies that block social media are in real danger of being left behind.

Key findings

 

  • The rapid spread of social media may have caught many organizations off guard. 70 percent agree that employee use of social media puts their organizations’ security at risk. In contrast, only 31 percent say that they have the necessary security controls—such as secure web gateways—in place to mitigate or reduce the risk posed by social media.
  • Malware attacks have increased because of social media usage, and it’s growing. 51 percent of organizations experienced an increase in malware attacks as a direct result of employee use of social media.
  • To mitigate the risks created by social media, certain technologies are preferred. Technologies considered by respondents to be most important to reducing or mitigating social media threats are anti-virus/anti-malware (79 percent), endpoint security (79 percent), and identity and access management (76 percent). But only secure web gateways with real-time content analysis and data loss prevention can block advanced malware and data theft attacks, many of which seek entry through social media.
  • Even if they have a policy that addresses the acceptable use of social media in the workplace, 37 percent say that their organizations do not enforce it. Many organizations (36 percent) do not have a policy that informs employees about the acceptable use of social media in the workplace or are unsure if such a policy exists (25 percent). Of those, organizations that do have a policy, only 37 percent of the respondents say the policy is enforced.
  • Organizations believe that IT bandwidth has been diminished as a result of social media use. The top two negative consequences of an increase in social media use were diminished productivity (96 percent) and reduced IT bandwidth (68 percent), which increase costs. 53 percent worry about exposure to inappropriate content and 46 percent are concerned about an increase in virus or malware infections.
  • Social media in the workplace is used primarily for non-business purposes. 64 percent of respondents say that employees spend more than 30 minutes each day on non-business social media activities. In contrast, 49 percent estimate that more than 30 minutes is spent on social media for business purposes each day.

Quotes

“The use of social media in the Canadian workplace is growing. More and more businesses are using blogs, social networks, wikis and other social media outlets to collaborate, gather feedback, and quickly share information with key audiences,” said Fiaaz Walji, Websense Canadian Country Manager. “However, the social web is dynamic and demands a new approach to security beyond just antivirus and firewalls to mitigate the increased risk this technology brings to the workplace. Real-time content analysis, data loss prevention, and advanced threat blocking are necessary.”

He continued, “Businesses today need to combine employee education on proper social media practices with a content security solution that examines the content and context of social media sites in real time. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn change too rapidly to rely on traditional background analysis and security software update cycles. That’s why Websense developed the TRITON™ real-time content security solution that can analyze individual pieces of content on these social media sites and protect your business from modern malware and data theft, plus policy controls to preserve bandwidth.”

“We asked hundreds of Canadian IT security professionals and most respondents agree that the use of social media in the workplace is important to achieving business objectives,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute. “However, they believe social media puts their organizations at risk and they do not have the necessary security controls and enforceable policies to address the risk. It’s also clear that malware attacks are increasing as a result of social media use.”

Multimedia Elements:

A full copy of the Websense “Canada Survey on Social Media Risks” can be downloaded at http://www.websense.com/content/ponemon-institute-research-report-canada-2011.aspx

Click to share on Twitter:      

New survey finds Canadian malware attacks up because of social media http://ow.ly/6XTs5 @Websense

Websense Links:

Facebook: “Like” Websense.

Twitter: Follow @Websense.

About Websense, Inc.

Websense, Inc. (NASDAQ: WBSN), a global leader in unified web security, email security, and data loss prevention (DLP) solutions, delivers the best content security for modern threats at the lowest total cost of ownership to tens of thousands of enterprise, mid-market and small organizations around the world. Distributed through a global network of channel partners and delivered as appliance-based software or Security-as-a-Service (SaaS), Websense content security solutions help organizations leverage web 2.0 and cloud-based communication, collaboration, and social media, while protecting from advanced persistent threats and modern malware, preventing the loss of confidential information, and enforcing internet use and security policies. Websense is headquartered in San Diego, California with offices around the world. For more information, visit www.websense.com.

 

Follow Websense on Twitter: www.twitter.com/websense

Join the discussion on Facebook: www.facebook.com/websense

Symantec Helps Enterprises Confidently Adopt Virtualization and Significantly Reduce Storage Costs with Scale-out NAS Solution

Symantec Helps Enterprises Confidently Adopt Virtualization and Significantly Reduce Storage Costs with Scale-out NAS Solution

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Oct. 19, 2011 – Today at VMworld 2011 Europe, Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) announced enhancements to Symantec FileStore N8300, the latest version of its clustered, network attached storage appliance, designed to help customers build virtual environments and cloud storage, manage large volumes of data and control the costs of associated storage. Certified for VMware environments, FileStore N8300 is integrated with VMware vCenter Server. FileStore N8300 enables organizations to optimize storage costs associated with virtual machine sprawl and rapidly provision servers and virtual desktops through efficient cloning and de-duplication of virtual machine images.


Read more detailed blog post:

Complete VMware Storage Platform

As organizations scale their virtual environments, they find themselves looking for ways to optimize their ever increasing storage requirements and maintain performance associated with retaining hundreds or even thousands of virtual machine images on traditional storage. FileStore N8300 enables organizations to fully benefit from their virtualization investments with a clustered NAS solution that scales servers and storage independently, efficiently provisions virtual machines with nearly instant, space-optimized cloning, and delivers advanced storage optimization capabilities for VMware environments. With FileStore N8300, organizations can manage from within VMware vCenter Server or with a VMware View plug-in. With this release, organizations can now:

  • Optimize storage consumption in a VMware environment with space-efficient cloning and deduplication of VMDKs
  • Provision thousands of servers and virtual desktops in minutes with nearly instant, space-optimized cloning of VMDKs, via VMware vCenter Server or VMware View plug-in
  • Increase VMware performance and remove controller bottlenecks with scale-out storage technology
  • Overcome boot-storm challenges with page caching capabilities.

Manage Data Growth

Organizations struggle to manage an ever increasing amount of data, systems and applications due to the amount of information created each year, which The Economist estimates is growing at 60 percent each year. IDC reports similar growth by predicting that the ‘digital universe’ will grow from 1.8 zettabytes in 2011, to more than 7ZB by 2015. Unfortunately for most organizations, unstructured data is an increasing amount of information they must try to manage.


FileStore N8300 helps organizations meet the demands of digital content growth and optimize their storage investments with primary storage de-duplication that is based on Veritas Storage Foundation File System technology . Organizations can control their storage savings with a flexible deduplication solution that allows them to set the schedule and the granularity of deduplication detection, and run deduplication on full or incremental data sets.


The ever-growing unstructured data also presents storage, management and accessibility challenges for organizations. FileStore N8300 natively integrates with other Symantec products to provide a holistic solution for effective storage and management of data. FileStore N8300 provides automatic storage tiering with Veritas Storage Foundation SmartTier feature, malware protection with Symantec Anti-Virus and faster backup through integration with Symantec NetBackup. In addition, FileStore and Symantec Enterprise Vault provide an ideal storage infrastructure for end-to-end archiving.


Click to Tweet: Symantec Helps Organizations Manage Data Growth, Strategically Adopt Virtualization & Build Cloud Environments http://bit.ly/nFH1jW


Scalable, Highly Available, File-based Storage Services

Symantec FileStore helps organizations meet the demands for a range of workloads from file serving to emerging web-based services. FileStore can be configured to survive multiple node failures, ensuring the high availability of data and continued uptime of data operations with redistribution of workloads across clusters. FileStore N8300 is modularly scalable and can scale up to 16 active-active nodes, up to 256 TB of file system capacity, and supports 1.4 PB of total storage on the backend. The fully redundant connections between clustered nodes and back-end storage arrays help to avoid performance bottlenecks. The system may grow, shrink, or be reconfigured, all online and without downtime or interruption to business operations and built-in replication ensures the non-disruptive operations in case of a disaster.


Quotes

  • “Organizations are faced with the difficult tasks of managing data growth and controlling storage costs as they more widely adopt virtualization,” said Yogesh Agrawal, vice president of Symantec’s FileStore Product Group. “With Symantec FileStore N8300, we are making it easier for customers to store and manage large volumes of data, and provide advanced storage optimization capabilities to cost-effectively store virtual machine images and address the performance challenges as they scale their virtual environments.”
  • “We’re delighted that Symantec FileStore is now a VMware-certified NAS storage device,” said Parag Patel, vice president, Global Strategic Alliances. “As more organizations deliver desktops as a managed service with VMware virtualization and cloud solutions, FileStore is an excellent storage target, because it utilizes deduplication technology for VMDK files.”

Pricing and Availability

FileStore N8300 5.7 is now available in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Italy and the Middle East. Pricing starts at $50,000.


Downloads

Resources

Connect with Symantec

About Storage from Symantec

Symantec helps organizations secure and manage their information-driven world with storage management, email archiving, backup & recovery solutions.


About Symantec

Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world. Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at www.symantec.com.


Note to Editors: If you would like additional information on Symantec Corporation and its products, please visit the Symantec News Room at http://www.symantec.com/news. All prices noted are in U.S. dollars and are valid only in the United States.


Symantec and the Symantec Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.


Forward-looking Statements: Any forward-looking indication of plans for products is preliminary and all future release dates are tentative and are subject to change. Any future release of the product or planned modifications to product capability, functionality, or feature are subject to ongoing evaluation by Symantec, and may or may not be implemented and should not be considered firm commitments by Symantec and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions.


TECHNORATI TAGS: Symantec, Veritas, Storage Foundation, FileStore, VirtualStore, Veritas Cluster Server, cloud, cloud storage, cloud computing, virtualization, business continuity, storage management, enterprise storage software, storage and availability management, NAS appliance, storage appliance

Microsoft and Compal Electronics Sign Patent Agreement Covering Android and Chrome Based Devices

News Press Release
Microsoft and Compal Electronics Sign Patent Agreement Covering Android and Chrome Based Devices
Agreement provides broad coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio.

REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 23, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. and Compal Electronics, Inc. have signed a patent agreement that provides broad coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio for Compal’s tablets, mobile phones, e-readers and other consumer devices running the Android or Chrome Platform.  Although the contents of the agreement have not been disclosed, the parties indicate that Microsoft will receive royalties from Compal under the agreement.  

“We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Compal, one of the leaders in the original design manufacturing, or ODM, industry.  Together with the license agreements signed in the past few months with Wistron and Quanta Computer, today’s agreement with Compal means more than half of the world’s ODM industry for Android and Chrome devices is now under license to Microsoft’s patent portfolio,” said Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel, Intellectual Property Group at Microsoft.  “We are proud of the continued success of our licensing program in resolving IP issues surrounding Android and Chrome.”

Microsoft’s Commitment to Licensing Intellectual Property

The patent agreement is another example of the important role IP plays in ensuring a healthy and vibrant IT ecosystem. Since Microsoft launched its IP licensing program in December 2003, the company has entered into more than 700 licensing agreements and continues to develop programs that make it possible for customers, partners and competitors to access its IP portfolio. The program was developed to open access to Microsoft’s significant R&D investments and its growing, broad patent and IP portfolio.

More information about Microsoft’s licensing programs is available at http://www.microsoft.com/iplicensing/.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

NEC Strengthens Lineup of Energy Saving SAN Products

NEC Strengthens Lineup of Energy Saving SAN Products - Cloud support reinforced with accelerated processing and enhanced virtualization -


M300 Disk Array (2.5-inch drive model)

M300 Disk Array (2.5-inch drive model)

M300 Disk Array (3.5-inch drive model)

M300 Disk Array (3.5-inch drive model)

M500 Disk Array

M500 Disk Array

Tokyo, October 20, 2011 - NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) announced today the sales launch in Japan of the "M300 Disk Array" and the "M500 Disk Array," two new additions to the "NEC Storage M Series" of storage area network (SAN) products that save energy and support virtualization. NEC also aims to roll out these products in markets that include North America, South America, Asia and Europe.

These new products are based on NEC's "common platform" concept where components are shared with server products, including CPUs and power supplies, to enable horizontal use of technologies that were cultivated through server development, to save power and to improve performance.

Operability and reliability were also improved through the advancement of internal storage virtualization, making these products ideal for mission-critical enterprise system storage and private cloud computing storage.

Key features of the M300 Disk Array and M500 Disk Array are as follows:

1) As much as 50% more power savings and 4 times the processing performance of existing products

  • Both of these new products are positioned higher than the "M100 Disk Array," recipient of the Chairman's Award from the "Green IT AWARDS 2011" (*1) sponsored by the Green IT Promotion Council. Adoption of the 80 PLUS PLATINUM (M500, *2) and the 80 PLUS GOLD (M300) power units and power control technologies enable these new products to save as much as 50% (*3) more power than existing models.

  • Operations were realized in a 40°C environment and power consumption was significantly reduced thanks to optimized placement of internal components, enabled by original designs, and control over the number of times cooling fans rotate.

  • As much as 4 times (*3) the performance of existing models realized through the adoption of high-performance CPUs, the acceleration of internal buses, the adoption of high-speed-processing RAID accelerators with multiple input-output (I/O) processing and the multiplexing of internal storage processing.

2) Strengthened support for virtualization

VMware's "VMware vSphere(TM)" virtualization platform improves system performance by offloading to these new products some of the specific storage functions that formerly took place on the server, which enables support for the "VAAI" (*4) application programming interface (API) for disk arrays. This strengthens the ability to link to virtualization software in addition to improving the system performance and operability of virtualization environments.

3) Improved performance and reliability utilizing SSD

  • In order to handle such issues as performance degradation from hot-spots (*5) that arise from connecting to multiple virtual servers, solid-state-drives (SSD) (*6) can perform as a secondary cache instead of using costly cache memory. This is enabled by using "PerforCache" software (optional).

    These new products utilize the SSD to minimize the performance degradation that arises when a controller failure occurs and to ensure that data is not lost. This is accomplished with protective persistent write functions (*7) and newly installed functions that capitalize on SSD to improve the reliability and flexibility for customers' performance change requirements.

  • The new products utilize SSD to optimize management costs and to automatically transfer data to the most appropriate device according to data access frequency and data characteristics (optimal data deployment) by using "PerforOptimizer" software (optional).

NEC will exhibit these new products at the "C&C User Forum & iEXPO 2011" from 10 to 11 November at the Tokyo International Forum (Yurakucho).
URL: http://www.nec.co.jp/uf-iexpo/e/

***

Notes
*1)

Prize awarded to a product that is recognized for its contribution to energy conservation and selected from all IT products shipped domestically in Japan in 2011.

*2)

The power supply unit of the M500 controller is 80 PLUS PLATINUM, the power supply unit of the disk enclosure is 80 PLUS GOLD.

*3)

NEC measurements when comparing the current "D4 Disk Array" to the new "M300 Disk Array" as well as the current "D8 Disk Array (1 node)" to the new "M500 Disk Array.

*4)

VAAI: vStorage API for Array Integration. A linking API that offloads specific storage functions to storage hardware.

*5)

A phenomenon that significantly worsens the performance of an entire system by concentrating multiple I/O into some spots of a storage system.

*6)

Solid State Drive: Drive equipment that utilizes flash memory as a storage medium.

*7)

A function where upper applications can continue to write operations by duplicating and continuously maintaining write data with SSD.



About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation is a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies that benefit businesses and people around the world. By providing a combination of products and solutions that cross utilize the company's experience and global resources, NEC's advanced technologies meet the complex and ever-changing needs of its customers. NEC brings more than 100 years of expertise in technological innovation to empower people, businesses and society. For more information, visit NEC at  http://www.nec.com.

NEC is a registered trademark of NEC Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Other product or service marks mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners. (C)2011 NEC Corporation.

HP Helps Enterprises Transform Mobile Computing Environments

HP Helps Enterprises Transform Mobile Computing Environments

PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 24, 2011

HP Enterprise Services today announced new and enhanced mobile application services that help clients extend key enterprise information and business processes – anywhere, any time and through any mobile device. 

Mobile solutions can transform the way an enterprise conducts its business by linking information among customers, operations and suppliers. However, developing mobile applications, extending existing applications to mobile devices and supporting mobile users is complex and costly, tying up valuable IT resources.

HP Mobile Application Services are designed to integrate technology components properly to deliver secure, seamless, context-aware experiences. With highly reliable access to information and applications when and where they are needed, clients can improve customer relationships, enhance competitive advantage and increase user productivity.

To enable mobility, HP helps clients build new innovative mobile applications, simplify existing applications and extend them to mobile devices. HP uses a write-once, deploy-anywhere architecture to support multiple device types and operating systems.

HP Mobile Application Services span the mobility life cycle, from roadmap planning and applications design to development, customization, installation and management. The portfolio includes:

  • Mobile Opportunity Workshop – offers a structured analysis process that helps clients identify which processes or ideas are best suited to become mobile applications based on their business value and ease of implementation.
  • Mobile Enterprise Strategy Assessment – helps clients develop enterprise-level mobility strategies, plans and solutions to drive added value.
  • Mobile Application Development Services – provide custom, packaged and hosted client, client/server and cloud-based solutions with support for all leading operating systems.
  • Mobile Enterprise Solution Architecture Consulting – supports business-to-business, business-to-consumer, business-to-employee and system-to-system solution architectures and designs from both a technical and business perspective.
  • Application System SOA and Integration Services – accelerate the implementation of the mobile strategy and solutions through a practical transformational approach using proven engineering methods, reusable assets and technology to enable a service-oriented architecture (SOA).  
  • Mobile Application Testing – helps mobile applications work across multiple platforms and the desired user experience is achieved.

“The consumerization of IT is changing the way people work and interact with the companies with which they do business,” said Srini Koushik, vice president, Worldwide Applications Development Services, HP. “HP offers a complete suite of mobile services to help clients realize the full potential, and address the challenges, of this emerging environment.”

HP Mobile Application Services are available worldwide to clients in all industries and government agencies. More information is available at www.hp.com/services/es-mobile-apps.

In a world of continuous connectivity, the Instant-On Enterprise embeds technology in everything it does to serve customers, employees, partners and citizens with everything they need, instantly. Learn more about how organizations can get started on an Instant-On Enterprise journey at HP’s premier client event, HP DISCOVER, Nov. 29 - Dec. 1 in Vienna, Austria. 

About HP

HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure at the convergence of the cloud and connectivity, creating seamless, secure, context-aware experiences for a connected world. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.


This news advisory contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations, including execution of growth strategies, transformation initiatives and restructuring plans; any statements concerning expected development, performance or market share relating to products and services; any statements regarding anticipated operational and financial results; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include macroeconomic and geopolitical trends and events; the competitive pressures faced by HP’s businesses; the development and transition of new products and services (and the enhancement of existing products and services) to meet customer needs and respond to emerging technological trends; the execution and performance of contracts by HP and its customers, suppliers and partners; the protection of HP's intellectual property assets, including intellectual property licensed from third parties; integration and other risks associated with business combination and investment transactions; the hiring and retention of key employees; expectations and assumptions relating to the execution and timing of growth strategies, transformation initiatives and restructuring plans; the resolution of pending investigations, claims and disputes; and other risks that are described in HP’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2011 and HP’s other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to HP’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2010. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

© 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

Bell Canada Selects Juniper Networks' Single Tier Data Center Solution to Deliver Next Generation Cloud Services

Bell Canada Selects Juniper Networks' Single Tier Data Center Solution to Deliver Next Generation Cloud Services

from Juniper by Juniper Networks
Bell Canada Selects Juniper Networks' Single Tier Data Center Solution to Deliver Next Generation Cloud Services

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 20, 2011 — Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR), the industry leader in network innovation, and Bell Canada, the largest communications company in Canada, today announced that Bell will offer its Managed Services hosting customers the most versatile, high performance and cost effective data center solutions on the market by implementing Juniper Networks® QFabric™ architecture. Using Juniper’s single-tier data center fabric, the first of its kind, Bell will be unmatched in its ability to provide customers with a comprehensive portfolio of hosted services solutions.

Data center hosting solutions from Bell Canada help its largest customers—from financial institutions to government agencies—optimize and consolidate their infrastructure to reduce costs, improve flexibility and enhance business resiliency through private clouds. With QFabric, Bell Canada addresses these needs through an innovative architecture that removes complexity and enables rapid delivery of the services customers need to stay competitive.

"Our collaboration with Juniper enables us to deliver a new network experience that provides flexibility and scale to meet the growing needs of our customers as they expand," said Matt Hurley, Senior Vice President, ICT Operations & Delivery, Bell Business Markets. "The QFabric deployment will allow Bell to deliver versatile and cost-effective solutions that deliver uncompromised levels of availability and resiliency to our most demanding enterprise customers."

After evaluating other networking vendor solutions, Bell's Managed Services team chose Juniper's QFabric architecture for its ability to deliver simplicity, resiliency and strong performance. In addition, the solution demonstrated record low latency and the ability to scale gradually over time without disruption to daily business operations. Juniper Networks QFabric architecture will be at the core of Bell's network infrastructure and will unify the server, storage, appliance and edge network elements in their new hosting environments. As a result, Bell customers will experience a reduction in the delivery time of cloud-based services and applications for greater business efficiency.

"As private clouds become a more viable option for enterprises that need to cut costs yet stay competitive, the QFabric architecture provides a single layer solution, eliminating scaling complexities on the backend while allowing businesses to achieve a new level of application and computing performance," said R.K. Anand, executive vice president and general manager, Data Center Business Unit, Juniper Networks. "This is made possible through QFabric's inherently simple design that requires fewer components and eases data center operations to deliver maximum uptime for Bell Canada customers."

About Bell Canada

Bell (www.bell.ca New Window) is Canada's largest communications company, providing consumers and business with solutions to all their communications needs: Bell Mobility wireless, high-speed Bell Internet, Bell Satellite TV and Bell Fibe TV, Bell Home Phone local and long distance, and Bell Business Markets IP-broadband and information and communications technology (ICT) services. Bell Media is Canada's premier multimedia company with leading assets in television, radio and digital media, including CTV, Canada's #1 television network, and the country's most-watched specialty channels.

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks is in the business of network innovation. From devices to data centers, from consumers to cloud providers, Juniper Networks delivers the software, silicon and systems that transform the experience and economics of networking. Additional information can be found at Juniper Networks (www.juniper.net).

Juniper Networks and Junos are registered trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. in the United States and other countries. The Juniper Networks and Junos logos are trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. All other trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, or registered service marks are the property of their respective owners

Oracle Announces Availability of Oracle NoSQL Database

Oracle Announces Availability of Oracle NoSQL Database

Part of Oracle’s Big Data Portfolio, Oracle NoSQL Database Offers NoSQL Technology with Enterprise Grade Support

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. - October 24, 2011

News Facts

A key offering in Oracle’s portfolio of Big Data products, Oracle NoSQL Database, is available for download off the Oracle Technology Network today.
Oracle NoSQL Database enables customers to easily manage massive amounts of data with dynamic schemas such as web log data, sensor and smart meter data, data gathered for personalization, and data maintained by social networks.
With a simple key-value data model, the highly-available and scalable Oracle NoSQL Database facilitates efficient storage of data in a simple, flexible format, and is ideally suited for rapid development and deployment of applications.
Many current NoSQL offerings make writing applications difficult by providing only “eventual consistency,” where multiple copies of data are “eventually” updated. This leaves the responsibility for generating code to handle consistency with the application developer. In contrast, Oracle NoSQL Database manages consistency and offers developers configurable consistency options to meet different application needs.
Leveraging Oracle’s expertise in enterprise data management and backed by Oracle’s leading enterprise support, Oracle NoSQL Database is also easier to install, configure and manage than many competitive solutions.
In addition, Oracle will also deliver a new engineered system, the Oracle Big Data Appliance, that is an optimized platform for running the Oracle NoSQL Database and Oracle’s other Big Data offerings. The Oracle Big Data Appliance will ship in Q1 CY2012.
With the announcement of Oracle NoSQL Database and complementary Big Data offerings, Oracle is the only vendor to provide an end-to-end value chain for acquiring, organizing and analyzing Big Data. This enables customers to maximize the value of Big Data within their enterprise.

Faster, More Efficient Storage of Dynamic, High-Volume Data

Key benefits of Oracle NoSQL Database include:
Commercial-Grade Software and Support: Oracle NoSQL Database is fast, scalable, reliable, and easy to install and configure. Backed by Oracle Support, Oracle NoSQL Database also offers customers a single point of contact for trouble-shooting issues and maintaining continuous availability of critical database instances.
Scalable throughput and bounded latency: Oracle NoSQL Database scales almost linearly, providing customers with reliable, high performance under a wide range of workloads and use cases.
Simple Programming and Operational Model: Simple major + sub key and value data paradigm and more relaxed support of ACID transactions provides extreme flexibility of programming for large datasets in horizontally scaled environments.
Easy Management: With a Web-based console and accessible APIs, Oracle NoSQL Database is easy to manage. The offering automatically manages and monitors topology, load balancing, performance, events and alerts.

Supporting Quote

“Oracle NoSQL Database is a key component of Oracle’s Big Data strategy,” said Andrew Mendelsohn, senior vice president, Oracle Server Technologies. “As customers look to manage the huge explosion in data from new and evolving sources, such as Web, sensors, social networks, and mobile applications, Oracle is helping them unlock the value of this data by providing a highly-available, reliable and scalable NoSQL database environment.”

Supporting Resources

Connect with Oracle Database via Blog, Facebook and Twitter
Download a free evaluation version of Oracle NoSQL Database. Terms, conditions and restrictions apply.

About Oracle

Oracle engineers hardware and software to work together in the cloud and in your data center. For more information about Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), visit http://www.oracle.com.

Trademarks

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Contact Info

Eloy Ontiveros
Oracle
+1.650.607.6458
eloy.ontiveros@oracle.com

Letty Ledbetter
Oracle
+1.650.506.8071
letty.ledbetter@oracle.com

PMC Delivers SAS/SATA Controller-Based Encryption Solutions for Securing Cloud Storage

PMC Delivers SAS/SATA Controller-Based Encryption Solutions for Securing Cloud Storage

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct 24, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) --

PMC-Sierra, Inc., (Nasdaq:PMCS) or PMC, the semiconductor innovator transforming storage, optical and mobile networks, today announced the Tachyon(R) SPCve 6Gb/s SAS/SATA protocol controllers with integrated StorClad(TM) encryption technology. The virtualized nature of cloud data centers make securing corporate, financial and sensitive data paramount. Until now, data security was a network add-on, which made scalability, data encryption and key management difficult and expensive. PMC's SPCve controllers integrate line-rate data encryption into the existing data flow, providing a central, scalable and cost-effective means to secure and manage stored data. In addition, the controller-based encryption architecture is agnostic to drive type or vendor, allowing OEMs and cloud providers to mix and match HDDs and SSDs, and to encrypt their deployed storage infrastructure.

"As 6Gb/s SAS/SATA controllers are broadly deployed in both server and external storage architectures, adding encryption to the SAS/SATA I/O path is a practical and cost-effective approach to securing data," said Benjamin S. Woo, program vice president, worldwide storage systems research, IDC. "Regardless of whether it's regulation or shared storage models driving the need for data security, it's becoming essential to protect sensitive content from security breaches."

PMC's SPCve controller family includes the eight-port PM8009 8x6G and the 16-port PM8019 16x6G. The SPCve architecture is scalable to support thousands of HDDs or SSDs and can flexibly encrypt at the Logical Unit Number (LUN), application or I/O level. A single controller can support more than one million encryption keys, enabling a broad range of deployment models. The SPCve controllers incorporate in-line encryption engines, PCI Express(R) 3.0 and a high-performance architecture to achieve up to 6GB/s of encrypted data throughput.

"Legacy solutions for securing data-at-rest with encryption, including expensive appliances, performance-limited software and premium-priced self-encrypting HDDs, are complex and expensive," said Derek Dicker, vice president of marketing for PMC's Enterprise Storage Division. "Integrating StorClad technology into PMC's SAS/SATA controller family builds on our field-proven Fibre Channel encryption solutions, and gives OEMs and cloud storage providers a path to deliver high-performance data security in next-generation storage systems, while maintaining their existing SAS software drivers and infrastructure."

The SPCve controllers are IEEE 1619 standards compliant, combining advanced data encryption engines and 256-bit AES-XTS keys to meet the most demanding application needs for securing data in enterprise and cloud computing environments. Key server providers can utilize Tachyon's StorClad architecture API to enable key management support. PMC's solution is compliant with the FIPS 140-2 standard, a strict United States government computer security standard used to accredit cryptographic modules.

Advanced security features include:

  • FIPS/NIST-certifiable ECB-AES encryption mode;
  • NIST recommended AES Key Wrap engines for each port;
  • Data parity protection across cryptographic boundaries;
  • Internal Data Encryption Key (DEK) cache;
  • 256-bit encryption keys; and
  • External key management interface and API.

Tachyon SAS Compatibility

The SPCve architecture is compatible with prior generations of Tachyon SAS controllers, providing a common API that preserves existing software drivers and test infrastructure.

Availability

The SPCve controllers are available now to select partners. For more information, including datasheets and pricing, visit http://www.pmc-sierra.com/sas-expanders-loopswitch-chips/.

About PMC Storage Products

PMC is a leading provider of enterprise storage system solutions for networked (SAN/NAS) and server storage applications, with a broad portfolio SAS/SATA and Fibre Channel protocol controllers, RAID controllers and SAS and FC disk interconnect products. PMC's Tachyon protocol controllers, Fibre Channel loop switches, enclosure management controllers and maxSAS(TM) expander switches and multiplexers provide the industry's most comprehensive solution for enterprise-class storage systems. Together, these products provide end-to-end semiconductor and software solutions to the industry's leading storage OEMs and ODMs. For more information, visit http://www.pmc-sierra.com/sas-expanders-loopswitch-chips/.

About PMC

PMC (Nasdaq:PMCS) is the semiconductor innovator transforming networks that connect, move and store digital content. Building on a track record of technology leadership, we are driving innovation across storage, optical and mobile networks. Our highly integrated solutions increase performance and enable next-generation services to accelerate the network transformation. For more information, visit http://www.pmc-sierra.com/

Attachments:

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© Copyright PMC-Sierra, Inc. 2011. All rights reserved. PMC, PMC-SIERRA, "Enabling connectivity. Empowering people." and Tachyon are registered trademarks of PMC-Sierra, Inc. in the United States and other countries, PMCS, maxSAS and StorClad are trademarks of PMC-Sierra, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50039835&lang=en

SOURCE: PMC-Sierra, Inc.

PMC-Sierra, Inc.
Susan Shaw, 1 408.988.8515
Sr Manager, Communications
susan_shaw@pmc-sierra.com
or
US Editorial:
Shannon Giusti, +1 303.382.2443
shannon.giusti@SohoSquarePR.com
or
China Editorial:
Jo Soo, +011 852.2837.4744
jo.soo@edelman.com