An industrial espionage case in Canada involving an unethical airline and a stupid one that was big enough to know better, shows exactly how easy it is for a business to let its network defences down.

For this fiasco I blame the executives of Air Canada, the victim in this case, for not checking up on their IT department, or whoever was in charge of network security.

Between 2003 and 2004 WestJet covertly gained access in to an internal Air Canada website.

In a court filing Air Canada alleged the low-cost airline used the password of one of its former employees about 240,000 times to log into its reservations database.

WestJet allegedly used the information on Air Canada?s bookings to plan new routes and adjust fares and routes to win more market share.

As you can see, nobody in Air Canada was watching the door. Simple procedures, such as monitoring unusual access to the network and regular password changes, would have helped the company find the breach in its defences.

I do not know if the ?former employee? was fired as a result of the breach, or whether Air Canada simply forgot to terminate his password access when he left.

However, make sure there is a procedure in place to shut down access when an employee leaves.

The details are contained in a press statement WestJet issued this week in a public apology to Air Canada, as part of the settlement. The company admitted that its executives engaged in ?unethical and unacceptable? industrial espionage against their larger rival by accessing Air Canada?s password protected site.

?This practice was undertaken with the knowledge and direction of the highest management levels of WestJet and was not halted until discovered by Air Canada,? the airline stated.

WestJet has agreed to pay US$5 million for Air Canada?s expenses relating to the case. It will also donate US$9 million to children?s charities.

So it paid $14 million for access. Air Canada filed for bankruptcy protection in 2003.

@EDITRULE:

The new domain is supposed to let users know when they are on a website that is formatted especially for mobile devices.

Mobile Top Level Domain is responsible for sites with the suffix, under the control of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Go to the World Wide Web Consortium at www.w3.org and click on the ?Mobile? links for background documents relating to the evolving standards for the creation of websites formatted for the tiny screen crowd.

Dot-mobi registration is now open to companies belonging to a wireless trade association. From June 12, registration is open for any trademarked name. The rest of us will have to wait for a dot-mobi address until August 28.

Go to http://pc.mtld.mobi to get a list of the registrars near you.

@EDITRULE:

Here is another sign of the times. In this so-called information age, regular old newspapers and magazines are finding they are having to eat their own lunch, or see it eaten by others.

The internet will this year overtake national newspapers to become the third biggest advertising medium by spend, according to authoritative forecasts.

A report from GroupM, a company?s whose subsidiaries buy and plan about 30 percent of global media advertising, forecasts that by the end of next year Internet advertising will close the gap on regional newspapers.

Regional newspapers are currently the number two medium for media advertising. Internet advertising spend will still be well short of television, the biggest outlet in the ?12bn-a-year media advertising market. The Financial Times reported the projection, to which it had exclusive access.

GroupM estimates the internet will take 13.3 per cent of the total media advertising market - excluding areas such as direct mail, public relations and market research ? in 2006. National newspapers will take 13.2 per cent.

Newspapers have traditionally been reluctant to put their product on the Internet, afraid that such a move would eat into the readership of the hard copy version and in turn lead to less advertising revenue.

I am calling out to all you readers to share your favourite technology-related books with others.

I would like to know about the books you would recommend to others to read.

Can you send me a brief blurb about the theme or topic of the book and reasons why you liked it? The book does not have to be current.

?Classics? can also be suggested. Then I will compile a summer reading list for other readers of this column. I won?t use your name in the column if you prefer to remain anonymous.

E-mail me to share your favourite books with others at elaminahmedyahoo.com.