*IBM Corp. has worked with the City of Cambridge in
Ontario to introduce new intelligence systems for infrastructure management
that will help municipal workers monitor infrastructure projects across the
city in real time, making Cambridge the first municipality in Canada to be
recognized by IBM as a smarter city. The technology allows staff to identify
safety issues on roads and sidewalks and effectively organize and route this
information to crews to ensure timely and complete response. The new system
will be mainly used by Transportation and Public Works staff with a view to
expanding it to other areas in the future. The Government of Canada contributed
over $978,700 towards this project through the federal Gas Tax Fund. The City
of Cambridge also invested approximately $703,000 towards the project, which
included training, work management systems and Global Information Systems (GIS)
technology development.
*Kaspersky Lab reports an android SMS Trojan is now
being delivered to Android users via SEO techniques. Writing for the Russian
security software vendor, researcher Denis Maslennikov said Android users
searching for pornography on their smart phones could be in for a costly
surprise. During the course of researching the origin for the first SMS Trojan
for Android devices, Maslennikov found a new Android package masquerading as a
porn media player but which instead sends SMS messages to premium rate numbers.
The SMS messages cost $6 each and are sent silently in the background without
the user's knowledge. The latest Android malware (detected as
Trojan-SMS.AndroidOS.FakePlayer.b) is being distributed via clever search
engine optimization (SEO) techniques, a clear sign that cyber-criminals are
making every effort to infect mobile devices. Maslennikov said the use of SEO
is a significant development that confirms Kaspersky’s belief that mobile
malware - especially on Android devices - is a potentially lucrative business
for malicious hackers. The fake porn player does not have a user interface.
Once installed, it simply drops an icon (an adult-themed photograph) on the
smart phone's screen and starts sending premium SMS messages without the user's
knowledge whenever the app is launched. The malware is not available in the
official Android app store. It is being distributed via Web sites but, with the
search engine optimization techniques being used, there is a likelihood this is
infecting a lot of users.
*No Panic Computing president and CEO Larry Keating
has been recognized as a Privacy by Design (PbD) Ambassador by the Information
& Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Ann Cavoukian. PbD Ambassadors advocate that privacy be
built directly into systems from the outset, making privacy protection an
organization's default mode of operation.
Privacy by Design is a concept that was developed by Dr. Cavoukian to
address the ever-growing and systemic effects of Information and Communication
Technologies, and of large-scale networked data systems. Privacy by Design
asserts that the future of privacy cannot be assured solely by compliance with
legislation and regulatory frameworks; rather, the protection of individuals’
personal information must become an organization’s default mode of operation. As
president and CEO of No Panic Computing, Larry has partnered with Intel, HP and
Iron Mountain to introduce an industry-first Notebooks-as-a-Service solution
with a data centre professionally-managed laptop.
*01 Communique Laboratory Inc. has filed a lawsuit
in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria
Division, against LogMeIn Inc. and Dell Inc. 01 Communique is alleging that the
infringed products include, but aren’t limited to LogMeIn Free, LogMeIn Pro2
and LogMeIn Ignition and for Dell, Dell Remote Access. The company is seeking
past and future damages, in addition to damages for willful infringement and
injunctive relief. In other related news, 01 Communique is also in the midst of
undergoing a patent litigation with Citrix Systems, which found the
reaffirmation of the patentability of all of 01 Communique’s claims that were
subject to the re-examination process. Citrix has since filed its notice of
appeal for this decision.