Posted 03/15/10 at 06:10:18 PM by Ryan Whitwam

A new survey of smartphone users paints a pretty grim picture for RIM and their Blackberry line of smartphones. According to market research firm Crowd Science, 40% of blackberry users plan to swap their device for an iPhone come the end of their contract. And it’s not just the iPhone that has these normally reserved business types excited. The survey also indicates that 32% would be willing to trade in their Blackberry for a Google Nexus One.

Crowd Science also asked about how people use their phones, and this may provide some insight into why people seem ready to jump ship. According to the report, people want to use their phones for both business and personal use. Only 16% of Blackberry users say they use their device for personal matters. About two thirds of iPhone users report using the phone for at least some personal and business exercises.

If RIM has any magic left, they might want to bring it to bear. In contrast, over 90% of iPhone and Android users planned to stay with their platform of choice come the next upgrade. Let’s hope Blackberry OS 6.0 can turn some frowns upside down. It’s going to take more than good keyboards to fix this.

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Posted 03/15/10 at 07:31:44 AM by Paul Lilly

Not that Big Blue's ego needs any more stroking, but according to a new survey, IBM is trusted by consumers more than any other IT company when it comes to securing and protecting personal information and overall privacy.

"We are honored to be recognized by consumers as the most trusted business-to-business company in Ponemon Institute's survey," said Harriet Pearson, vice president, Security Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer at IBM. "As data rapidly moves from the desktop to the cloud, consumers are more aware and concerned than ever about the security and privacy of their personal and sensitive information. IBMers worldwide are committed to delivering trusted and secure technologies, services and solutions that protect the privacy of our clients' most valuable and critical assets and operations.

On a related note, the study reported that 41 percent of consumers feel they have control over their personal information, which is down from 45 percent last year, and 56 percent from 2006. Identity theft ranked as the top concern and a major factor in brand trust diminishment, while half of those surveyed said notice of a data breach was a big factor.

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Posted 03/10/10 at 07:25:19 AM by Paul Lilly

Should your IT department consider switching to Macs? Perhaps, if the only criteria is the cost of management. That's because according to a new survey by the Enterprise Desktop Alliance, IT admins feel that Macs have lower management costs than PCs.

The survey pinged 260 IT admins from large organizations with both Macs and PCs, and in some categories -- such as troubleshooting, user training, and help desk calls -- three times as many respondents said that Macs are easier on the wallet to manage.

"Administrators in organizations that have both Mac and PC platforms have the experience to determine whether managing Macs is less expensive," said T. Reid Lewis, CEO of Group Logic, and president of the Enterprise Desktop Alliance. "The members of the Enterprise Desktop Alliance provide products and services that make deployment and management of Macs easier to do."

Perhaps most surprising is that the respondents rated every category in the Macs' favor, including system configuration. You can read the full survey results here (PDF).

Are you buying the survey results? Hit the jump and sound off!

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Posted 03/08/10 at 08:40:07 AM by Paul Lilly

Quick question: Is Web access a fundamental right or a privilege? If you think the Internet is a fundamental right, then you're in the clear majority, according to a new global survey conducted for the BBC World Service.

In a poll of 27,000 adults spread out through 26 countries, four out of five respondents described Web access as a right, and that number was even higher in South Korea and China. About 78 percent of respondents said the Internet gave them greater freedom, while half said the Web should never be regulated.

At the same time, some 65 percent of respondents in Japans said they didn't feel safe expressing their opinions online, a sentiment shared by pollsters living in South Korea, France, Germany, and China.

Other areas of concern include fraud, violent and explicit content, and threats to privacy, but none of these diminished the overall feeling.

"Despite worries about privacy and fraud, people around the world see access to the Internet as their fundamental right," said Doug Miller, the chairman of GlobeScan which conducted the survey. "They think the Web is a force for good, and most don't want governments to regulate it."

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Posted 03/08/10 at 07:41:09 AM by Paul Lilly

Jobs aren't exactly easy to come by these days, but for those employed as security professionals, 2009 wasn't all that bad, a new survey suggests. According to ISC Squared, 55 percent of U.S. security pros said their salaries went up in 2009.

ISC Squared pinged more than 3,000 global technology security pros, over half of which were from the U.S. Of those, 800 claimed to have hiring authority, with 50 percent saying they expect to hire either full-time help or contractors in 2010.

"The results from our latest Career Impact Survey show that in a very difficult economic environment, organizations are placing an even higher value on the work that information security professionals do," W. Hord Tipton, executive director for ISC Squared, said in a statement. "It's a sign of the private and public sectors' ever-increasing dependence upon the stability and security of the online world, providing a plethora of career opportunities for knowledgeable, qualified, motivated security professionals."

The respondents represented a wide range of industries, including government, IT, professional services, and banking.

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Posted 01/28/10 at 07:36:24 PM by Pulkit Chandna

The internet is becoming increasingly popular with both state and non-state actors as a launchpad for attacks against critical  infrastructure belonging to their enemies. A new McAfee report gives a measure of the preparedness and vulnerability of key infrastructure enterprises.

According to a survey conducted by McAfee, more than half of the world's key infrastructure organizations have been at the receiving end of cyber attacks. Attackers usually trigger outages or try and pilfer precious data. Nearly two-thirds of the survey's 600 respondents – IT executives employed by key organizations - reported an increase in attacks over the past year. But going by the results, the worst is yet to come. Around two-fifths of the respondents apprehend a serious attack in the coming twelve months.

“From public transportation, to energy to telecommunications, these are the systems we depend on every day. An attack on any of these industries could cause widespread economic disruptions, environmental disasters, loss of property and even loss of life,"said McAfee CEO Dave DeWalt.

He fears an attack of the magnitude of the recently discovered Operation Aurora being targeted at critical infrastructure. DeWalt termed Operation Aurora “a watershed moment in cybersecurity.” The attack was recently discovered by Google, which revealed that the attackers used zero-day bugs in Internet Explorer and targeted several other organizations apart from Google. It is said to have emanated from China.

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Posted 01/24/10 at 01:33:15 PM by Justin Kerr

Here at Maximum PC, we love Windows 7. Its snappy, riddled with handy new features, and is the most stable version of the OS to ever come out of Redmond. Regardless of how much fame and positive press it racks up however, we know it will take years for the majority of consumers and businesses to fully make the switch. Overall market share numbers pegged the OS at around 3.6% in November, with a slow but steady climb to around 6% in December.

We know these numbers will continue their march upwards over the next few years at a fairly health rate, but one demographic is breaking the adoption mold, that group is PC Gamers. According to the December Steam hardware survey, Windows 7 accounts for nearly 23% of all Steam users when you add up both the 32 & 64 bit varieties. Vista by comparison sits at around 31%, but that gap is pretty small when you consider that it has a three year head start over Windows 7. As for trusty ole Windows XP, it continues to hold the lead with a commanding 45% share, but is losing ground even faster than Vista.

If you haven't checked out the Steam hardware stats before, it gives a really interesting insight into the PC Gaming hardware landscape, and is definitely worth checking out. For example, a quick glance at the spread shows the average processer speed is 2.5Ghz, and despite ATI's commanding price/performance lead, Nvidia holds over 65% of the market share compared to ATI's 30%. Its a quick and easy way to see where your system ranks against your fellow gamers.

So, is Windows 7 the best gaming OS?

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Posted 01/15/10 at 07:08:33 AM by Paul Lilly

With a sample size of just 224 IT and security admins, we have to take Check Point's latest survey results with a grain of salt, but the results are still a little surprising, if not somewhat off-putting. According to Check Point, only 27 percent of the survey's respondents said their companies employ hard disk encryption to protect sensitive data on corporate endpoints, Net-Security.org reports.

It gets even worse when it comes to removable drives. Only 9 percent of businesses surveyed said they use encryption for these devices, including USB thumb sticks.

"With less than 30 percent of businesses saying they use data encryption, the majority of corporations are left dangerously exposed to the risk of a serious data breach," said Juliette Sultan, head of global marketing at Check Point. "Fortunately, the survey data also shows enterprises recognize the need to address the issue, particularly with a growing mobile workforce."

That might change the next time Check Point pings IT admins. The survey also found that some 47 percent of respondents plan to purchase an endpoint security solution with disk encryption within the next year.

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