McAfee Inc. announced the release of its second issue of Sage, a semi-annual security journal designed to inform executives and technical personnel on cutting-edge security topics.
The journal includes articles from McAfee researchers, managers and evangelists, on topics including cybercrime, Microsoft Windows Vista security, spyware, spam, cell phone security, data leakage and security risk management.

McAfee officials called the constant struggle between security personnel and malware authors an arms race. With that in mind, the Sage journal is designed to help security experts stay ahead of the ever-shifting threat landscape, offering views of what they should watch for and beware of as they plan for the future.

Sage examines the near-term future of the security business — the threats, defenses and issues security professionals will face over the next five years. Among the findings in the report:

* The Future of Cybercrime: Cybercrime follows money. The majority of cyber criminals target PC users, but experts expect more attackers to branch out to other areas of technology, like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and radio frequency identifications (RFID), as those technologies become more widely adopted.

* Securing Applications: Securing applications is a continual race between malware writers and developers, and the developers are struggling to keep up. As more information surfaces about the nature of software bugs and how they might be exploited, hackers are finding vulnerabilities that were previously considered to be secure.

* The Future of Security, Vista Edition: While Microsoft has taken steps to make the base of Windows Vista more secure, the improvements weaken third-party efforts to secure systems and don’t go far enough to do the job alone.

“For the most part this issue has been resolved,” explained David Marcus, security research and communications manager, for Santa Clara, Calif.-based McAfee Avert Labs. “But there is still a huge misconception in the public and in the enterprise that Vista is all about security and that it is locked down but that is simply not the case.

“Some malware is written to target the security technologies on a PC and shut them down. We will see, probably later this year, malware doing that to Vista.”

* Spyware Grows Up: Although programmers add security measures during development, new spyware technology often surpasses even the best planning of the most diligent engineers. Spyware will follow us into new technologies, like Bluetooth and RFID.

* Emails Spam Plague Persists: Expect little increase in the percentage of spam volume over the next two years. That said, the total volume of spam is expected to increase as worldwide bandwidth grows. Image spam is the latest way for spam writers to dodge defenses.

* Online Crime Migrates to Mobile Phones: While current mobile phone service is generally considered safe, McAfee is seeing a rapid growth in mobile attacks with increasingly technical diversification.

“Malware and cyber criminals follow money,” Marcus said. “Though we’re not seeing mobile malware emerge to a large extent yet [in North America], we are seeing it in Europe and Japan where culturally they use their mobile phones differently (for instance, for making online banking transactions or point-of-sale purchases).

“Give it another year or so and we should see it become more commonplace here. But we’re ahead of the curve; McAfee has invested heavily in mobile agent technologies. For example, we’ve been offering a mobile version of our anti-virus solution overseas for quite awhile now.”

* Closing the Data Leakage Tap: Data Leakage is an emerging security concern that could bear an enormous impact on the reputation of a business. While drive encryption is the only reasonably mature preventative technology, McAfee said basic data leakage prevention and disk encryption will become ubiquitous in regulated enterprises within the next five years.

* Managing Risk: Security risk management is an important issue for IT managers. Organizations that fail to be proactive in risk management will find that the businesses they are chartered with protecting will sail on without them.

Source:eChannel Line

HONG KONG — Hong Kong based Artificial Life, Inc. (OTCBB:ALIF), a leading provider of award-winning mobile 3G technology and applications, announced today that it has acquired the SMS Galaxy system from Swiss-based Script Avenue AG (formerly Blackpencil AG) in a cash and equity transaction. Script Avenue is owned by Claude Cueni, a bestselling Swiss author of many TV thrillers, who is a successful entrepreneur and pioneer in interactive and online games, and has been an inventor of interactive TV formats since 1991.

SMS Galaxy is a revolutionary mobile interface used to complement live TV shows. Users can interact with a live TV show and control the movements and actions of 3D avatars representing themselves on the TV screen by simply sending SMS messages to a designated number. The system is very successful in Switzerland and has been in practical use there for four seasons in a daily show format that has achieved the highest viewer ratings.

“SMS Galaxy is a fantastic system. Its success speaks for itself. We decided to buy SMS Galaxy because of its proven success and our ability to further enhance it with more interactive and intelligent functions. The system fits perfectly into our strategy to become the number one player for mobile interactive TV formats and TV show based mobile entertainment and games. I am especially pleased and honored to be able to work closely with Claude Cueni on further improving the SMS Galaxy and he has now also joined our corporate advisory board,” said Eberhard Schoneburg, CEO of Artificial Life, Inc.

“It is a great honor to work with Artificial Life. They are the leaders in the 3G mobile space, especially for interactive movie and TV formats. This is a big opportunity for all of us and our goal is to roll out an enhanced version of SMS Galaxy in as many countries as possible and as soon as possible,” said Claude Cueni, Chairman of Script Avenue AG.

Source:Prime Newswire

(CBS) Officials at Virginia Tech used email to notify students and community members that a shooter was on campus, but in addition to the fact that the first message was sent more than two hours after the first attack, email messages likely wouldn’t reach many of the intended recipients for hours.

That’s because, unlike Blackberry touting business executives and politicians, most students don’t check their email constantly throughout the day. Students aren’t always deskbound and when the shootings were taking place, some were walking on campus, others were in class while others were on their way to school.

At the University of Texas in Austin, scene of a deadly shooting back in 1966, university officials have the capability of notifying students and community members via text-messages that go directly to student and staff cell phones.

The University has signed a deal with Mobile Campus, an advertiser-supported service that allows administrators not only to send out emergency notices but also more mundane communications such as band practice or class cancellations.

Other campuses that work with the service include Kent State, also scene of a tragic shooting along, with Clemson University, University of Florida, Texas State and Santa Fe Community College among others.
.
The service itself is free to universities and to students but cell phone companies typically charge users a small fee per message received and sent, unless users subscribe to plans allowing a certain number of monthly messages.

Source:CBS NEWS

Monty Mobile signed an agreement with Sabafon, one of the most important mobile operators in the Middle East to provide its MMS hubbing expertise. Monty Mobile will thus help Sabafon expand its MMS coverage to include networks in many new countries with just one signature.

At present there are more than 650 mobile operators around the world. Due to costly and time consuming bilateral agreements, all operators do not have bilateral agreements with each other, which are limiting the subscribers’ ability to get connected worldwide.

Our MMS/SMS gateway is the vital requirement for mobile operators to cover extended international messaging and benefiting from uncovered destinations while gaining competitive advantage.

Monty Mobile being a unique MMS aggregator and an associate member of the GSM association, provides state-of-the-art MMS and SMS Interworking service supporting the most recently developed technologies and standards. Through its service, mainly based in the Middle East and North Africa, Monty Mobile enables subscribers of GSM operators to send and receive MMS/SMS messages in their home network and those of foreign operators who are interconnected to it. Monty Mobile is a leader in its domain due to its dedication to provide quality and cost effective services. Our blend of highly skilled employees and experienced technicians facilitate our time-to-market strategy which is providing clients with incomparable service, and this is our key to success.

Source:idp Group

Web-Based Platform Processes Sales Data From More Than 60 Mobile Operators Including Sprint, Verizon, Cingular and T-Mobile

SAN DIEGO — RoyaltyShare, a premier provider of digital royalty solutions to the entertainment industry, today announced expanded support for processing sales data from mobile music services. Labels making their content available through leading mobile music services including Sprint, Verizon, Cingular, T-Mobile, NineSquared, MobileStreams, Hudson, Jamster, Zingy and Groove Mobile, are now able to leverage the suite of Web-based royalty processing services offered by RoyaltyShare to consolidate, manage and process data from digital music download, ringtone, ringback and other revenue streams.

Recent advances from handset manufacturers and content providers in developing customer friendly service offerings have helped drive an increase in the consumer adoption of mobile music services. Recent industry research forecasts that wireless music and ring tone downloads will generate more than $32 billion dollars in revenue by 2010, accounting for a significant portion of total music sales worldwide.

As record labels continue to make their digital content available through a variety of online and mobile sales channels, they are tasked with the responsibility of collecting and reporting royalty statements to content owners and copyright holders. The detailed nature of modern royalties and the constantly changing landscape of digital copyright laws require a massive, scalable royalty reporting system capable of processing a staggering volume of sales data.

The cost and effort of building and maintaining such a data import and royalty-processing infrastructure would be prohibitive for one label to develop. By outsourcing this business critical function to RoyaltyShare, record labels are able to leverage RoyaltyShare’s technology infrastructure and royalty expertise to manage this responsibility efficiently.

“As mobile channels continue to increase market share in the digital music space, record labels have come under increased scrutiny from artists and music publishers who expect timely and accurate royalty reporting,” said Steve Grady, president & COO of RoyaltyShare. “Even the most technologically advanced records labels have found it immensely difficult to develop an IT infrastructure that can manage the inherent complexity and volume of digital music sales. RoyaltyShare removes this complexity by supporting and maintaining interfaces with content providers and royalty payees, giving customers the freedom to focus on what matters - how to market and sell music through mobile sales channels.”

Utilizing custom data importers to support mobile services, RoyaltyShare imports, manages and consolidates sales data from all the major digital distribution retailers. The suite of services offered provides a standard Web-browser interface, enabling customers to dynamically track all aspects of the incoming sales data. The graphical reporting environment allows carriers to gain a new level of insight into their digital sales channels that helps to facilitate intelligent marketing decisions.

RoyaltyShare’s technology is currently used by more than 50 leading independent records labels and mobile music distributors. The service features a simple fee structure based on the volume of revenue processed, making it a cost effective solution.

Source:Sys Con Media

Country singers and their record labels may not have been the first to peddle hit songs as cell phone ringtones - mobile song snippets that sell for $2 or $4 a pop - but slow and steady growth could end up paying surprising dividends for Music Row in Nashville, Tenn.

A forecast released last week estimates an 8 percent drop in overall ringtone sales to $550 million in 2007, according to BMI, an organization that collects and distributes performance royalties to songwriters and publishers.

But in Nashville - and for country artists and their record labels - the news is not nearly as bad.

Jaimee Minney, a spokeswoman for M:Metrics, a mobile technology research firm in Seattle, says country music ringtones are posting gains while national sales for all genres combined fall. Helping boost country numbers are more purchases by women and adult males, Minney says.

An even brighter silver lining for record companies, Minney says, is that so-called master ringtones - actual song clips for which the labels and artists each get paid - have begun to eclipse standard (or polyphonic) ringtones, which generally consist of a song’s melody without the words. Only composers get paid for those brief tunes.

Heather McBee, senior director of digital business and new media for Sony BMG Nashville, says master ringtones are starting to click with country music fans as phones that can handle more sophisticated digital music technology become widely available.

“Our consumers are not typically early adopters of new technologies,” McBee says. “The country demographic is now catching on to ringtones, and that’s why you’re seeing growth.”

On March 22, Waylon Jennings’ theme song from “The Dukes of Hazzard” was the first country ringtone to be certified platinum, meaning it has sold more than 1 million copies.

Other top sellers include Trace Adkins’ “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” and Big & Rich’s “Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy).”

Minney says ringtones are experiencing a decline in sales among younger consumers, who are largely made up of hip-hop and rap fans who drove much of the category’s early growth. Between 2003 and 2006, the U.S. ringtone market grew nearly tenfold from $68 million to $600 million.

“Even though we are starting to see ringtone sales leveling off, we’re seeing the number of people who are creating their own ringtones going up,” she says.

In other words, newer phones with more digital music capabilities are making it easier - and less expensive - to create ringtones from a user’s personal music collection. A surge of smarter phones in the U.S. also may have helped bolster the market for ringbacks, which are song snippets that a caller hears in place of the ring that’s typically heard when calling someone.

For the first time since it started tracking the ringtone market, BMI’s forecast included an estimate that sales of ringbacks in the U.S. will reach $65 million in 2007.

Some experts say the next wave of potential growth for mobile music probably will come with streaming or downloaded services that many expect will be sparked by Apple’s hotly anticipated introduction of the iPhone in June.

Sony BMG’s McBee says that while the introduction of new music phone devices could eat into future ringtone sales for country, any technology that allows for more music sales is a good thing for the labels.

“Any device that gives us more of an opportunity to sell music,” she says, “I’m all for that.”

Popular country ringtones
These are the country tunes making a mark as hot-selling ringtones:

1. Carrie Underwood: “Before He Cheats”

2. Brooks & Dunn: “Hillbilly Deluxe”

3. Dixie Chicks: “Not Ready To Make Nice”

4. Brad Paisley: “She’s Everything”

5. Waylon Jennings: “Theme From ‘The Dukes Of Hazzard’”

6. Keith Urban: “Stupid Boy”

7. Trace Adkins: “Ladies Love Country Boys”

8. Carrie Underwood: “Jesus, Take the Wheel”

9. Trace Adkins: “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk”

10. Carrie Underwood: “Wasted”

11. Lonestar: “Amazed”

12. Kellie Pickler: “Red High Heels”

13. Jason Aldean: “Amarillo Sky”

14. Alan Jackson: “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere”

15. Kenny Chesney: “Beer In Mexico”

16. Gretchen Wilson: “Redneck Woman”

17. Big & Rich: “Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)”

18. Rascal Flatts: “Life is a Highway” (from the movie “Cars”)

19. Johnny Cash: “Ring Of Fire”

20. Kenny Chesney: “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy”

Source:The Daily Advertiser

The government continues its crackdown on mobile phone theft by introducing tough sentences for those involved with the re-programming of stolen mobiles.

New penalties designed to deter criminals tempted to re-programme stolen mobile phones come into force tomorrow, as part of the government’s continued efforts to reduce this type of activity.

Anyone involved with re-programming will now face up to five years in jail, an unlimited fine or both.

“Being robbed for your mobile is a harrowing and distressing experience that has happened to far too many of us and our children,” said Home Secretary John Reid.

“Fighting crime and anti-social behaviour is Labour’s priority. We are listening to our communities who are telling us that they want tough and innovative action to address their concerns - and we are committed to delivering for them.”

Mobile phone theft continues to be a massive problem as devices become more attractive due to multimedia capabilities and the increasing amount of data people now store on handsets beyond just phone numbers.

Last year, the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum (MCIF) joined forces with the big five UK operators to pledge that 80 per cent of mobiles reported as lost or stolen would be blocked within 48 hours - a promise it has lived up to according to an announcement made in parallel to Reid’s tougher sentencing stance.

“I welcome the progress we have made so far, but we know there is more to do,” Reid added.

“That is why Labour are working to remove the incentive to criminals by blocking stolen phones; why Labour have introduced the tough new sentences which come into effect tomorrow; and why we will now work with the industry and police to anticipate the crime for the future, so we can design out problems in the next generation of phones before they develop.”

The success of the blocking initiative was echoed by Tim Goodwin of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), who said that the programme “demonstrates the industry’s commitment to blocking stolen phones across all networks. I believe this ongoing support is playing a major part in our joint efforts to drive down mobile phone crime.”

Source:IT PRO

McAfee Inc. announced the release of its second issue of Sage, a semi-annual security journal designed to inform executives and technical personnel on cutting-edge security topics.
The journal includes articles from McAfee researchers, managers and evangelists, on topics including cybercrime, Microsoft Windows Vista security, spyware, spam, cell phone security, data leakage and security risk management.

McAfee officials called the constant struggle between security personnel and malware authors an arms race. With that in mind, the Sage journal is designed to help security experts stay ahead of the ever-shifting threat landscape, offering views of what they should watch for and beware of as they plan for the future.

Sage examines the near-term future of the security business — the threats, defenses and issues security professionals will face over the next five years. Among the findings in the report:

* The Future of Cybercrime: Cybercrime follows money. The majority of cyber criminals target PC users, but experts expect more attackers to branch out to other areas of technology, like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and radio frequency identifications (RFID), as those technologies become more widely adopted.

* Securing Applications: Securing applications is a continual race between malware writers and developers, and the developers are struggling to keep up. As more information surfaces about the nature of software bugs and how they might be exploited, hackers are finding vulnerabilities that were previously considered to be secure.

* The Future of Security, Vista Edition: While Microsoft has taken steps to make the base of Windows Vista more secure, the improvements weaken third-party efforts to secure systems and don’t go far enough to do the job alone.

“For the most part this issue has been resolved,” explained David Marcus, security research and communications manager, for Santa Clara, Calif.-based McAfee Avert Labs. “But there is still a huge misconception in the public and in the enterprise that Vista is all about security and that it is locked down but that is simply not the case.

“Some malware is written to target the security technologies on a PC and shut them down. We will see, probably later this year, malware doing that to Vista.”

* Spyware Grows Up: Although programmers add security measures during development, new spyware technology often surpasses even the best planning of the most diligent engineers. Spyware will follow us into new technologies, like Bluetooth and RFID.

* Emails Spam Plague Persists: Expect little increase in the percentage of spam volume over the next two years. That said, the total volume of spam is expected to increase as worldwide bandwidth grows. Image spam is the latest way for spam writers to dodge defenses.

* Online Crime Migrates to Mobile Phones: While current mobile phone service is generally considered safe, McAfee is seeing a rapid growth in mobile attacks with increasingly technical diversification.

“Malware and cyber criminals follow money,” Marcus said. “Though we’re not seeing mobile malware emerge to a large extent yet [in North America], we are seeing it in Europe and Japan where culturally they use their mobile phones differently (for instance, for making online banking transactions or point-of-sale purchases).

“Give it another year or so and we should see it become more commonplace here. But we’re ahead of the curve; McAfee has invested heavily in mobile agent technologies. For example, we’ve been offering a mobile version of our anti-virus solution overseas for quite awhile now.”

* Closing the Data Leakage Tap: Data Leakage is an emerging security concern that could bear an enormous impact on the reputation of a business. While drive encryption is the only reasonably mature preventative technology, McAfee said basic data leakage prevention and disk encryption will become ubiquitous in regulated enterprises within the next five years.

* Managing Risk: Security risk management is an important issue for IT managers. Organizations that fail to be proactive in risk management will find that the businesses they are chartered with protecting will sail on without them.

Source:eChannel Line

Vodafone will partner with Internet giants Google and Yahoo to launch a suite of ad-supported mobile services in mid-2007. The operator is currently in negotiations with an unnamed soft drink producer and an automaker to develop a pan-European platform for direct mobile advertising–Vodafone is also trialing ad-funded mobile web services and games in Italy, Germany, South Korea and the UK. 

Source:Fierce Mobile Content

The Wall Street Journal is running a fluff piece that sums up Sprint’s mobile music services. Perhaps the most interesting point of the article was that Sprint is working to target other user segments beyond youth, especially “mature women with ample purchasing power.” However, most in that segment won’t shell out the hundreds of dollars for the necessary handset. While it offers little in the way of new information, the stats serve as an interesting watermark leading into CTIA:

Sprint spent more than $1 billion on its network so that it could handle data-heavy content and will have to spend more to make it available nationwide.
Only 250,000 of its 47.5 million customers have phones capable of operating on its new network.
Sprint has deals with about 300 content companies.
All 400,000 songs in the Sprint Music Store are from the four major labels.
Sprint COO Len Lauer said the company “doesn’t work to exclude content,” but wants to keep the downloading process simple. Lauer called it a “compromise” between being open to partners and ensuring best usability of content.

Source:Fierce Mobile Content