A monthly index of IT jobs maintained by TechServe Alliance found that there are now 4,068,400 jobs in the IT sector, an increase of 7,100 jobs since October. The new total jobs figure represents a 2.1 percent increase -- 84,000 jobs -- since November 2010.
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According to Chris Dowse, CEO of consulting firm Neochange, most organizations receive less than half of the benefits they want from their IT investments. What accounts for this “value gap”? Complex IT adoption for one.
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A new survey of IT executives attending Gartner’s Application Architecture, Development and Integration (AADI) Summit shows that application development priorities have changed little in a year. “Deliver applications faster” was at the top of the list -- exactly where it was last year. Only the percentage has changed; this year, 68 percent of respondents said it was a top priority; the figure was 61 percent in last year’s Summit survey.
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A new CAST Report on Application Software Health (CRASH) was released today by CAST, a software analysis and measurement firm. It’s the first I’ve seen that studies the exposure enterprises have to “fix hidden problems that remain in software and result in damaging risks in applications after they are operational” -- what it calls technical debt -- and puts it in monetary terms any boardroom executive can understand. CAST acknowledges that its estimate -- technical debt is $3.61 per line of code -- is conservative. The firm didn’t include costs to fix software so it performs its intended functionality (that is, correct logic problems).
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Network security provider Fortinet is out with its monthly threat research, and as part of the report is the company’s list of Top 5 Android Malware Families. In addition, the company has commented on new root-level attacks on Android phones.
Fortinet says Gartner claims the Android operating system has a global market share of 52.5 percent, Symbian is in second place with 18 percent, and iOS is third (though no percentage is given). Android’s popularity is certainly attractive to hackers: the company found “approximately five times the amount of malicious families on the Android OS versus what we’ve found on iOS.”
Axelle Apvrille, a Fortinet senior mobile anti-virus researcher, explains that “this disparity can be attributed to the way Apple handles iOS application development and distribution. Unlike Android, which makes it fairly easy to place applications for people to download, iOS requires developers to undergo some strict screening from Apple before the application can make it to the Apple Store. That’s not to say that Apple is totally immune from being infiltrated by malware -- the Eeki banking worm proves that -- but it is a testament to why we’re seeing so little activity on the iOS platform.”
Android’s larger market share (not to mention its open development environment) may be why the company has seen a “90 percent increase in Android malware families in 2011 compared to 2010, while malicious iOS families only increased by 25 percent” during that period, according to Apvrille.
FortiGuard Labs’s antivirus engine detected the largest threat samples from these five malware families:
- Geinimi, Android’s first botnet, sends a user’s geographic location and controls infected phones remotely; Geinimi can cause an phone to call a particular phone number
- A Trojan in the form of live wallpaper called Hongtouto “steals private information such as the victim's subscriber number (IMSI) and automatically visits [Web sites] that the malware directs it to”
- DroidKungFu, a botnet that can remotely install other malware and start other apps
- A phony instant-messenger app, JiFake, “sends SMS messages to premium phone numbers”
- The BaseBridge Trojan also sends SMS messages to premium telephone numbers; the vulnerability was also available (and removed from) the Android Market
The malware comes dressed to look like legitimate apps, according to Karine de Ponteves, a malware analyst at Fortinet. “DroidKungFu was an example of malware that was found repackaged in a legitimate VPN utility, whereas Geinimi was found within the legitimate application ‘Sex Positions.’”
Unfortunately, it isn’t tough to exploit root access to Android devices. “The mobile security trend is a familiar one: as operating systems mature and gain popularity, malware and vulnerabilities follow since there is focus and motivation from cyber criminals,” Fortinet’s senior security strategist Derek Manky, explained. “With root access, hackers can gain access to system files and change system settings that are typically authored to be read only. For example, a malware creator with root access to a vulnerable device could silently download and install additional malicious software, such as ransomware, spambots, and keyloggers.”
-- James E. Powell
Editorial Director, ESJ
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A new survey released today by Symantec Corp. -- the 2011Enterprise Encryption Trends Survey -- found an increase in enterprise adoption of encryption. That is, of course, no surprise, given that IT is trying to control storage costs amid massive data growth. The problem uncovered by the survey is that fragmented encryption solutions are “creating risk for organizations from the lack of centralized control of access to sensitive information,” as well as disrupting e-discovery and compliance monitoring.
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If you work in a small business and want to enjoy the cost savings, increased agility, and greater efficiencies (and the resulting return on investment) that server virtualization can bring to your organization but don’t know where to begin, CDW (a national technology solutions provider) has a free, short self-assessment tool to help you gauge your readiness to deploy and manage server virtualization.
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A new Forrester Consulting study found that most (57 percent) IT managers at small and midsize businesses (SMBs) don’t accurately estimate the full cost of purchasing and maintaining a traditional file server.
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