Stories about: Meta Group

Computing on the Net is heading for a fall because security is a joke. So we summoned the best minds to see if we could put Humpty back together again.

According to the 2004 IT Staffing and Compensation Guide, an annual report released by Meta Group, 24% of the more than 650 companies surveyed indicated that IT professionals in the application development field were the most difficult to retain. Respondents also indicated high turnover among employees who specialize in security (13%) and those who hold networking job functions (13%).

Compliance might create headaches as companies strive to meet legislative demands but it could hold hidden benefits, according to industry experts.

Security software company Symantec is negotiating to buy storage software vendor Veritas Software for more than US$13 billion, according to a report published Tuesday by The New York Times.

Drowning in signature libraries and reactive event information that is of little value in locating attacks in progress, network security managers are fed up with signature-based intrusion-detection systems that have been the backbone of network security. Amid an ever-shrinking time gap between vulnerabilities and exploits, signature-matching IDS already has become obsolete, analysts and users say.

Controversy about using content filtering software and other technologies in workplace surveillance is still at the centre of industrial disputes with no end to the long-standing problem in sight.

Despite the alarming statistics and doomsday warnings about spyware in recent months, Australian IT managers claim it has only hit a small percentage of their user base with few signs of malicious intent.

After the Nachi worm hit last year, Joe Granneman, manager of networks and PC services at Rockford Health System, knew it was time for a change. "It only took three infected machines to bring down our dual processor firewall," he marvels. "Without our Internet connection we couldn't process claims or do much of anything."

The Computerworld editorial team has collected the views of analysts and the industry about what to expect in the New Year. In this instalment, news editor Sandra Rossi talks to the experts about security, governance and compliance issues in 2004.

Business Process Management tools gain traction in the enterprise.