End of the Line for Fttp Plan: Libs Order 'Multi-Mix'

Thursday, April 10, 2014 Issue No. 6264

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Defence Vessel – Ocean Shield had picked up traces of two End of the line for more underwater signals in the right frequency range. The pinger locator towed behind Ocean Shield on Tues- FttP plan: Libs order day afternoon picked up one signal for more than five minutes and, later that night, for ‘multi-mix’ NBN about seven minutes, search coordination chief Angus ANBERRA – The Abbott Government has for- Houston revealed. mally instructed NBN Co to dump the fibre-to- That means there have the-premises plan for the National Broadband now been four transmissions CNetwork initiated by the former Labor government and in the same area of the Indian instead concentrate on its “multi-technology mix”. Ocean, 2260km north-west of Perth. Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Fi- The latest signals will “assist in better defining a re- nance Minister Mathias Cormann handed down a new duced and much more manageable search area on the “statement of expectations”, built around the new mix, to ocean floor,’’ Houston said. “Hopefully in a matter of the board of NBN Co. days, we will be able to find something on the bottom that The new model would see FttP might confirm that this is the last resting place of MH370.” technology used for only 26 percent He has said the submersible sonar device will not be of premises, while a projected 44 launched to comb the seabed until it is clear that the bat- percent will get fibre to the node teries that may be emitting pings from the blackboxes – which uses Telstra’s existing have finally expired. copper network for the final few hundred metres to homes. The remaining 30 percent will Cybercrims thinking big: report either resort to the shared transmis- SAN FRANCISCO – Cybercriminals in November and sion on existing hybrid fibre coaxial pay-TV cables or – in December 2013 unleashed the most damaging series of remote and regional areas – satellite delivery. cyberattacks in history, according to the latest Internet Secu- The statement commits NBN to be built “within the rity Threat Report from Symantec, constraints of a public equity capital limit of $29.5 billion,” released yesterday. according to the government statement. The report provides an over- Meanwhile Labor’s shadow communications minister view and analysis of the year in Jason Clare has called on the Government to move swiftly global threat activity, based on to block ISP TPG from rolling out its “cherrypicking” data from Symantec’s Global fibre-to-the-basement plan for large buildings in major Intelligence Network cities. “If they don’t do that, then it threatens the financial It says the number of “mega” viability of the NBN Co,” Clare warned. data breaches went from one in 2012 to eight in 2013, exposing an unprecedented 552 Two more pings: Ocean million identities. Data breaches increased by 62 per cent while targeted attack campaigns for cyber-espionage and Shield narrows M370 search cybercrime grew by 91 per cent. PERTH – Possible launch of the blackbox-hunting The figures indicate that cybercrims are plotting for submersible device Bluefin-21 has moved a step closer months before pulling off huge heists – instead of execut- yesterday after revelations that ADV – that’s Australian ing quick hits with smaller rewards, Symantec says.

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Each of the eight top data breaches in 2013 resulted in Atlassian scores $150m funding the loss of tens of millions of data records. By comparison, SYDNEY – Australian software company Atlassian has 2012 only had a single data breach reaching that threshold. scored a US$150 million injection from US mutual fund “One mega breach can be worth 50 smaller attacks,” T.Rowe Price and Dragoneer Investment Capital. said Kevin Haley, director of Symantec Security Response. It is said to be only the second external investment in “While the level of sophistication continues to grow the company, which makes tools for software developers among attackers, what was surprising last year was their at nearly 35,000 companies globally. willingness to be a lot more patient – waiting to strike until The investment will give the two funds a 5 per cent the reward is bigger and better.” stake in the private company The report found targeted attacks were up 91pc and but will not constitute a direct lasted an average of three times longer compared to 2012. investment and the funds will Personal assistants and those working in public rela- not receive board seats. tions were the two most targeted professions, apparently Atlassian founders Mike because cybercriminals use them as a stepping stone to- Cannon-Brookes and Scott ward higher-profile targets like celebrities or business Farquhar, pictured, who be- executives. tween them retain 78pc of the company, are now said to have holdings worth $2.7 billion Telstra copper to be ours: Ziggy – up from an estimated $550 million last year. Cannon-Brookes has stressed that the company has no SYDNEY – Current negotiations between NBN Co and plans for a stock exchange float. Telstra should see the NBN builder acquiring Telstra’s copper and hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) networks, NBN Co chairman Ziggy Switkowski has said. ISPs ready to talk on anti-piracy Switkowski was speaking on the ABC TV’s The Busi- SYDNEY – Australia’s ISPS have agreed to work with ness program. “I think the outcome of these negotia- the Attorney-General’s Department and copyright tions should lead to a situation holder organisations on a new system to deter music where the copper network, the and movie piracy, according to Communications Alli- ownership, is transferred into ance CEO John Stanton. the NBN; the ownership of the But, he told a Communications Day event, ISPs are not HFC network is transferred into willing to bear the costs of enforcing copyright. NBN,” he said. His comments come after Attorney-General George He said that this would mean Brandis earlier this year warned that, if the industry did that NBN Co would take on re- not come up with a plan to deter piracy via file-sharing sponsibility for maintenance of sites, the Government would impose one. the copper network. “The ISPs and the Comms Alliance are keen to re-engage He added: “At the end of it all Telstra shouldn’t be out in the debate about how we might bring an industry-based of pocket relative to what they had agreed to before” – an solution to this,” Stanton told the CommsDay audience. apparent reference to the $11 billion deal negotiated by But he said that, for the proposed system to work, it had the Labor Government with Telstra – “and the taxpayer to involve all rights holders, and all ISPs, and would need shouldn’t be exposed to higher costs, unless they’re get- to respect existing consumer protections around privacy ting more services.” and the right to appeal.

Mobile pusher fined $320,000 Zuora plumbs A/NZ goldmine CANBERRA – Brisbane based mobile telecoms opera- SYDNEY – Things are buzzing Down Under for Zuora, tor Startel Communications has been fined $320,000 for the rapidly growing US-based subscription e-ecommerce misleading consumers about their rights under the Aus- platform. Staff has grown from just three last November to tralian Consumer Law. a projected 15 by the end of April, A/NZ VP Greg Cullen The fine was imposed by the Federal Court in a case told a media lunch in Sydney yesterday. brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer A highlight has been inking of a major deal with Tele- Commission. Startel was acquired by Truphone in 2009. com New Zealand, which is using Zuora technology to ACCC said Startel had breached consumer law by power the rollout of Big Pipe, a new mass-market service failing to inform customers that they could get out of a offering uncapped, no-frills broadband consumer service. contract within 10 business days; didn’t supply documents Thomas Salman, CTO of Telecom’s Digital Ventures which would help consumers decide whether they wanted business unit, flew across the ditch yesterday morning to to proceed with the contract; and took money out of bank attend the lunch and tell media that TNZ is pretty chuffed accounts during the cooling-off period. with the Zuora service, which automates the Big Pipe More than 2500 customers Australia-wide were said subscription service, setting up payments and providing to have been affected by the conduct, including some in up-to-the minute information on customer growth, rev- remote indigenous communities. enue, collection , churn and financial reporting.

2 THU, APR 10, 2014 All material in Computer Daily News is copyright and may not be photocopied or otherwise reproduced without permission Computer Daily News It will also be used to launch an online video service INSIDE COMPUTER DAILY NEWS later this year, he revealed. Also tucking into the barramundi and half-shell grilled Computer Daily News is published by David Frith prawns at Café Sydney was Tien Tzu, Zuora co-founder Computer Services, PO Box 906, Milsons Point, NSW 2061. and CEO, who pointed to capital injections from the Phone: (02) 9909 8470 likes of Salesforce.com’s Marc Benioff, and Microsoft Fax: (02) 9908 3982 cofounder Paul Allen, as proof of the Zuora’s platform’s E-Mail: [email protected] increasing stature. Managing editor: David Frith Australian customers include Fairfax Media, News Co-editors: Kate Castellari International, and Sensis – the latter part of Telstra until John Stackhouse recently. – David Frith Contributing editor: Merri Mack Special reporter: Gareth Powell NextDC datacentres rev up BRISBANE – ASX-listed datacentre builder/operator NextDC says completion of two new data halls in its M1 Melbourne and S1 Sydney datacentres has delivered an additional 4.8MW of technical space to its customers. Computer Daily News is produced daily using Lexmark printing solutions and faxed throughout Australia on “This development brings the current installed data Hewlett-Packard hardware hall capacity across all five NextDC facilities to 19.65MW,” the company told the ASX. The centres have an eventual “Demand for the S5 will start kicking in from the second combined potential of 35.35MW. quarter, which will also drive sales of chips and displays,” said Lee Sun Tae, a Seoul-based analyst at NH Investment & Securities. People, people “Samsung has well-diversified line-ups across all cat- l ASX-listed Oakton has chosen Dennis Papakyriako- egories, so it will fare better than rivals, at least before the poulos to head up a new “group services” division which bigger iPhone hits the market in the latter half of the year.” will include cloud-as-a-service offerings. Papakyriako- poulos joined Oakton in 2005 and before that worked in Virtual currencies used senior IT roles with Coles Myer, Praxa, Elcom Technology and Primed Online. for money laundering WASHINGTON – Bitcoin and other virtual currencies pose significant risks from criminal activities including Windows XP: last plug pulled money laundering, US Attorney General Eric Holder has SEATTLE – Following 12 years of service Microsoft has told a congressional panel. finally pulled the plug on Windows XP. Service ended at “More than ever before, the department’s law-enforce- midnight on April 8, Seattle time. ment work today must contend with new and emerging Windows XP computers will technology, including virtual currencies such as bitcoin,’’ still work, but there will be no Holder said. more support or security updates. The virtual currency has been fraught with problems Microsoft is betting on users including the recent collapse of the Tokyo-based trading migrating to Windows 8.1, but exchange Mt. Gox, which announced it had lost roughly for many users a move to Win- US$500 million of bitcoins. dows 7 is likely to be the easiest That has prompted a federal criminal probe into pos- transition. Everything in Win7 is sible fraud in the world of bitcoins. mostly in the same place as it was in Windows XP – including the traditional desktop, the recycle bin and the much-loved Start menu. Google offers ‘Glass at Work’ SAN FRANCISCO – Google has embarked on a push to put Glass headsets into the workplace. A new pro- Samsung profit drops again gram, “Glass at Work”, has been SEOUL – Samsung posted its second straight drop in launched to entice coders to build quarterly profit reflecting falling demand and lower prices enterprise applications for com- for its Galaxy devices and components. panies wanting to employ the Operating profit fell to 8.4 trillion won (A$8.5 billion) wearable computing platform. in the three months ended March from 8.8 trillion won a The company has set up a year earlier. forum for developers targeting Samsung unveiled its 5.1-inch Galaxy S 5 smartphone enterprise, and will post regular code updates and tech- with a fingerprint reader in February and plans to make nical support advice for businesses and the coders who it available outside South Korea at the end of this week. sell to them.

All material in Computer Daily News is copyright and may not be photocopied or otherwise reproduced without permission THU, APR 10, 2014 3 Computer Daily News Twitter rejigs profile pages US STOCK PRICES SAN FRANCISCO – Twitter has redesigned its profile Stock Close Change 52-wk range pages for new desktop users – but not the mobile version Nasdaq 4112.99 +33.23 3154 - 4371 used by smartphones and tablets. Users can now put a Accenture 78.29 -0.59 69 - 85.88 Adobe 61.82 +1.35 41.91 - 71.11 large horizontal photo at the top of their page in addition Alcatel-Lucent 3.91 +0.05 1.31 - 4.68 to the more traditional thumbnail headshot. Amazon.com 327.07 +9.31 245.75 - 408.06 A user’s most popular tweets will appear in bigger A M D 3.99 +0.11 2.29 - 4.65 Apple 523.44 -0.03 385.1 - 575.14 type, and people can pin their favourite tweet to the top Autodesk 47.15 +0.56 33.01 - 58.68 of their profile page. BMC Software 46.30 0.00 43.3 - 46.70 BlackBerry 7.96 +0.10 5.44 - 16.59 Brocade 10.20 +0.06 5.14 - 10.96 C A 31.36 +0.10 24.12 - 36.22 Researchers can locate tweeters CheckPoint 67.51 +1.44 44.69 - 69.92 NEW YORK – IBM researcher Jalal Mahmud and co- Cisco 22.94 +0.09 19.98 - 26.49 Citrix 56.40 +1.28 51.18 - 77.16 workers have created software that can identify a Twitter Compuware 10.13 -0.04 9.66 - 12.07 user’s home city, based on the user’s 200 most-recent Concurrent 8.22 -0.08 5.87 - 8.95 tweets. Mahmud says his model can predict a Twitter C S C 60.16 +0.51 42.43 - 64.1 Electronic Arts 28.73 +0.39 16.65 - 30.56 user’s home city among the 100 largest US cities within a E M C 27.38 +0.34 21.45 - 28.26 second with 70 percent accuracy. Extreme 5.86 -0.02 2.99 - 8.14 His team has filed a patent application for the algo- F5 Networks 107.45 +2.10 67.53 - 116.71 Facebook 58.19 +1.24 22.67 - 72.59 rithm, though its purpose remains unclear. Google 554.90 +16.75 527.15 - 604.83 Hewlett-Packard 32.45 -0.25 19.07 - 33.66 I B M 193.29 -1.23 172.19 - 213.09 Intel cuts 1500 Costa Rica jobs Informatica 37.76 +0.35 30.27 - 43.79 Intel 26.91 +0.42 21.06 - 27.12 SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA – Intel said it is trimming 1500 Interactive Intelligence 69.95 -0.02 39.3 - 81.59 jobs in Costa Rica, as the chipmaker moves its assembly Juniper Networks 25.25 -0.08 15.62 - 28.75 Kyocera 45.24 +0.36 42.85 - 57.78 and test operations to locations in Asia. Lenovo 23.04 -0.12 16.55 - 27.99 The company had 107,600 employees worldwide at the Level 3 Comms 38.70 +0.44 19.42 - 41.22 end of December. Lexmark 46.39 -0.03 24.64 - 47.98 Microsoft 39.82 +0.02 28.5 - 41.66 Intel has been grappling with the effects of a slowdown N C R 35.17 +0.69 25.64 - 41.63 in sales of PCs that use its microprocessor chips. The NetApp 37.00 +0.70 32.75 - 45.96 company has also been slow to build a sizable business NetSuite 83.74 +0.99 77.08 - 120.77 Nuance Comms 16.35 -0.12 13 - 23.38 in chips for smartphones and tablets. Oracle 40.24 +0.77 29.86 - 42 Progress Software 21.44 -0.11 20.06 - 26.95 Red Hat 50.01 +0.16 41.89 - 61.45 Web servers open to attack Salesforce.com 55.21 +1.24 36.09 - 67 S A P 80.46 +0.99 69.71 - 87.42 SAN FRANCISCO – A bug in OpenSSL software – used Siemens 135.20 +1.74 98.69 - 139.28 Symantec 20.64 +0.23 17.95 - 27.1 by millions of Web servers – could have exposed anyone Teradata 45.33 -0.39 39.16 - 65.96 visiting sites they hosted. The bug is in a software library Telstra 5.08 +0.04 4.50 - 5.30 used in servers, operating systems and e-mail and instant Texas Instruments 46.77 +0.52 33.56 - 49.77 Twitter 41.78 -0.67 38.8 - 74.73 messaging systems supposed to protect sensitive data. VMware 107.68 +3.32 64.86 - 112.89 Statistics from net monitoring firmNetcraft suggest that Unisys 29.70 -0.01 15.68 - 36.05 about 500,000 of the Web’s supposedly secure servers are Xerox 11.49 +0.06 8.11 - 12.65 running versions of the vulnerable software. Yahoo! 33.83 +0.76 22.7 - 41.72

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