Tech Tattle By Ahmed ElAmin

The SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security) Institute is holding two free webcasts on securities issues, one dealing with Windows, the other with UNIX vulnerabilities.

The webcast on Windows security problems will be held today.

The UNIX webcast is scheduled for February 12. Go to www.sans.org and click on the link to "Webcasts" to sign up for the broadcasts.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has announced the addition of new computer-related classes at its online learning centre. Registration is free for the classes, which can be completed at the user's convenience.

The classes include an introduction to MS Word, how to design business documents, wireless networking, firewall basics, an introduction to storage area networks, wireless technology and the real estate professional, real estate flyers made easy, how to create PDF's with Adobe Acrobat, digital photography for business use, how to build your first website, and how to upgrading to MS XP.

You can join courses after they have started, but HP is limiting class sizes. The classes are interactive, with instructors available to respond to student questions.

*****

Enterprise Ireland, a government organisation, has launched a free handbook on e-business that I think is quite good, even if you read it only for the numerous case studies. The book is designed to give practical advice to small and medium sized companies planning on embarking on e-business and information technology projects.

While the CD version of the handbook can be ordered only to an address in Ireland, the online version is available at www.enterprise-ireland.com.

*****

As a follow up to the Tech Tattle column last week on the need for e-commerce companies to admit to their clients when personal data has been lost, I note a related incident in Canada in which ISM Canada, a subsidiary of IBM, lost the data of 180,000 people.

The data belonged to the customers of Co-operators Life Insurance Company.

The hard drive contained "vital information such as name, address, date of birth, social insurance number and mother's maiden name (which) can be used to access financial accounts, open new bank accounts, transfer bank balances, apply for loans, credit cards and other financial services," Co-operators said in a warning letter to its clients.

According to the Saskatchewan government the missing hard drive also contained other information, including workers' compensation board records, thousands of public servant pension statements, bulk fuel rebate applications, SaskPower billings, doctor pay lists and physician service data.

Co-operators Life is the only private sector company to have told their customers about the loss of their data. Others have remained silent.

*****

Leave it to the current French government to opt for a policy to control people's behaviour, rather than attempting to get them to change their behaviour through better policing of the roads. The government is so desperate to lower France's atrocious death rate on the roads that it is employing what it has dubbed the "Self-Adapting Speed Restriction Limiter".

The system will be installed in a Renault and a Peugeot, which will be driven on roads in the Yvelines department west of Paris from May this year.

Beacons on board will allow a satellite to locate the cars according to different speed zones, and then communicate a command restricting fuel supply if they go over the limit.

The accelerator will not function after the speed limit for a given area has been reached, exactly as if the driver had lifted his foot off the pedal, according to the government laboratory that developed the system.

About 7,200 people died due to accidents on France's roads last year, a fall of six percent but almost double the rate in the UK, which has about the same population.

Although the satellite solution seems to be a desperate move, it is much better than the suggestion made by the former agriculture minister two years ago. He stated that the beautiful plane trees lining many of France's highways should be cut down so drivers would not be tempted to run into them. Thankfully the minister is no longer in office.

*****

Tech Tattle deals with issues in technology. Contact Ahmed at editoroffshoreon.com