Robert Lemos

Sites that rely on user-created content can unwittingly be employed to attack their own users via JavaScript and other common forms of Web code. This security issue, known as cross-site scripting (XSS), can, for example, allow an attacker to access a victim’s account and steal personal data.

Now the makers of the Firefox Web browser plan to adopt a strategy to help block the attacks. The technology, called Content Security Policy (CSP), will let a website’s owner specify what Internet domains are allowed to host the scripts that run on its pages.
Technology Review

Virtualization is great and all, but sometimes a customer just wants their own server. For many companies, however, off-the-shelf servers are too big, too powerful and too hot—making the typical data-center fare too costly.

It’s a problem that faced Dell’s in-house skunkworks, the Data Center Solutions (DCS) group, last year. Their solution? Build a compact server based on the Via Nano processor — a low-power, low-cost chip found in increasingly popular netbooks, says Todd Brannon, market development manager for Dell’s DCS. The mini-server, known as the XS11-VX8 or Fortuna, almost fits in a 3.5-inch floppy case and requires a fraction of the power of a typical enterprise server.
CIO.com

Many experts - including some in the military - argue that cyber weapons could make our networks safer. But will they? Robert Lemos reports from the Conference on Cyber Warfare in Estonia.
CSO Online

Hit hard by the recession, several states are looking to server farms and cloud computing facilities to help them keep jobs in their territories. The thinking: There’s nothing like a data center to boost a state’s economy.

Earlier this month, Gov. Bev Perdue, the governor of North Carolina, announced that Apple had agreed to locate its next data center in the state. Perdue’s office estimates that the project could bring in $1 billion in revenue for construction companies and other services over the next decade, creating 3,000 jobs.
CIO.com

In March, the organizers of a computer-security conference called CanSecWest challenged attendees to break into any one of five smart phones, among them Apple’s popular iPhone. The perceived difficulty of the task–especially breaking into the iPhone–meant that few researchers made any attempt to hack the devices, and none succeeded.

Now two researchers hope to make things considerably easier for would-be iPhone hackers. Next month, Charles Miller, a principal analyst at Independent Security Evaluators, and Vincenzo Iozzo, a student at the University of Milan, in Italy, will present a way to run nonapproved code on Apple’s mobile device at the Black Hat Security Conference, in Las Vegas.
Technology Review

With energy costs rising and data centers at the core of IT strategy for many companies, cooling the growing number of computers jammed into data centers is an issue that has taken center stage.

Some innovative university researchers are focusing on cutting the cost of cooling the hot racks of servers in data centers. Last month, Syracuse University teamed with IBM to create one of the world’s most efficient data centers on the school’s campus, while the Georgia Institute of Technology announced last week that its faculty had created a 1,100-square-foot testing facility where researchers can test new cooling designs and measure the impact that the designs have on power efficiency.
CIO.com

A federal district court in San Jose shut down an alleged rogue Internet service provider, after the Federal Trade Commission documented the ISP’s cooperation with online criminals and child pornographers, the agency announced on Thursday.

The takedown of the Internet service provider, Triple Fiber Network, comes after a months-long investigation by the FTC in collaboration with other government agencies and industry. The court ordered the ISP’s upstream providers on Tuesday to disconnect Triple Fiber Network from their systems, cutting it off from the Internet, without notifying the company.
SecurityFocus

Who’s gambling on big technology investments in this down economy?

At first glance, you might not guess that it would be the Las Vegas Sands Company, the owner of the Venetian and Palazzo Resorts in Las Vegas and the Sands Macau in China. The company recapitalized last November to the tune of $2.1 billion and suffered a public falling-out between its chairman and top executive earlier this year, leading to a new president being named. Yet, as LV Sands shored up its finances and brought in new leadership, it forged forward with bold plans to expand globally. In late May, LV Sands opened its first casino in Bethlehem, Penn., handling more than $60 million during the Memorial Day weekend, of which nearly $6 million was gross profit. By the end of the year, the company, which earned $4.4 billion last year, aims to open a “megacasino” in Singapore.
CIO.com

The Obama administration announced on Friday that it would establish a top-level office to create and manage the United States’ strategy for securing cyberspace, launching the nation on a massive initiative to better protect information networks and critical infrastructure.

In a morning press event at the White House, President Barack Obama committed his administration to the security of the nation’s networks and computers. Among the immediate priorities for the administration are creating a national strategy, developing strong relationships will key groups in the private and public sectors, building a framework for a unified response to cyber incidents, boosting cybersecurity research and development, and promote national awareness of cybersecurity issues.
SecurityFocus

In recent days, “less bad” has become the favored description of much of the economy, including the IT industry. However, the number of positions needed for efficient operation of data centers has remained strong, continuing to show overall growth even in a down economy.

Listings for data center jobs have increased steadily in the last few years, according to data from job-listing aggregator Indeed.com, especially among companies looking for green IT, virtualization and cloud computing expertise. In July of last year, job listings seeking workers with “green” expertise nearly tripled and continue to grow, Indeed.com says.
CIO.com