According to Symantec Corp’s Global SMB Information Protection Survey 2010, small and medium-sized businesses are now aware of the importance of data security. They consider information protection as the most important factor in business. This is quite contradictory to the situation that existed just 15 months ago when most of the same respondents didn’t even have the most basic protection. Symantec has analyzed the reasons for the sudden change.

By this point you've probably heard about AT&T’s iPad security breach, with the most recent update, being an apology letter that AT&T forwarded to all customers whose email addresses and ICC-ID numbers were supposedly “hacked maliciously” by Goatse Security. Well now its Goatse Security’s that put out a release. The reply began: “So, AT&T calls us malicious in their letter to their customers. I think this call for a statement to clear the air.”

Yesterday evening, AT&T reached out to iPad customers who had been part of the recent iPad security breach via email. The email from Dorothy Attwood, senior vice president and chief privacy officer at AT&T, confirmed that only email address and ICC-ID numbers were the only information to be leaked. With Apple having no part in the issue, AT&T was the only company in question. In their release, AT&T put all blame on the hackers that gained unauthorized access to the site by taking advantage of its attempt to speed up log-in. It was Goatse Security that first reported the flaw that leaked the e-mail addresses of 114,000 iPad owners. 

The FBI is currently looking into AT&T/ iPad3G data breach. According to FBI spokesperson Katherine Schweit, “The FBI is aware of these possible computer intrusions and has opened an investigation.” She did not make any specific comments about who will be questioned.

Facebook is working towards easing users’ concerns about information sharing. The social media site has been making update after update. Facebook has mentioned in its blog that “privacy settings themselves have not changed with this update; we've simply added ways to control what you share with fewer steps.”  In other words, users still have to go through the whole rigmarole of opt out instead of opt in. Although in yet another update, Facebook has now launched a new “Facebook and Privacy” Page to complement its existing privacy guide. The new page is interactive in nature and will feature regular updates. Facebook is also planning to post updates about new materials, tips on how to control sharing, and links to relevant news stories and viewpoints.

Controversies and backlashes are nothing new to Facebook. Ever since its inception, Facebook has been under fire for its blatant disregard for users’ privacy concerns. However, Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg tried to placate the concerns and presented his company’s point of view during his appearance at D8. The CEO reiterated his stance that maintaining users’ privacy is of utmost importance to his company. However, he evaded answering a question about the automatically enabled connections and gave a circuitous reply that Facebook users are familiar with the controls and therefore can choose desired settings on their own. He sounded defiant while stating that Facebook had always been built around networks, not individuals, and that this shows that people actually want to share their information. 

The world’s largest social networking site Facebook is still going through some tough times on the issue of privacy. Yesterday was the first of two Quit Facebook days that popped up on our radar. In all a little under 35,000 committed to quit. Even without Quit Facebook Days, many users are still expected to quit. A poll from Mashable found roughly 25% of respondents planned on quitting Facebook, while another poll from Sophos  found 30% of its respondents were highly likely to quit.

Following Mark Zuckerberg’s post on new privacy controls, Ana Yang Muller of Facebook has written a blog post on “Understanding Your Privacy Controls on Facebook.” She has promised that Facebook is sure to launch the redesigned privacy settings page to users across the globe within the next few weeks. Muller writes, “We agreed and have revamped the privacy settings, starting with a new main page where, in a couple clicks, you can set all of the content you share to everyone, friends of your friends or just your friends. This new single setting, though, is just one of the new ways to control what you share.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a lengthy blog post Wednesday on Facebook’s blog in response to raising privacy concerns. Zuckerberg said, “Over the past few weeks, the number one thing we've heard is that many users want a simpler way to control their information. Today we're starting to roll out changes that will make our controls simpler and easier.” He introduced some changes to Facebook’s privacy settings by offering a “one-click” mechanism that allows users to have full control over their shared information. The CEO said that the new security aspect enable users to know how much of their personal information is publicly available on the web.

In a paper published by a panel of three judges, the Court of Appeals said "The district court found that Microsoft captured 80 percent of the custom XML market with its infringing Word products, forcing i4i to change its business strategy." The court documents go on to state that "after its effective date, the injunction prohibits Microsoft from selling, offering to sell, importing, or using copies of Word with the infringing custom XML editor." This injunction was originally handed down in the August 12 verdict, but was stayed upon appeal by Microsoft. It is now slated to take effect Jan 11. Ironically, the i4i website openly promotes Microsoft Word's support of custom XML.

A federal appellate court may have the last word today, regarding Microsoft Word 2007. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a ruling dating back to August 12, 2009. The ruling concerned a lawsuit by small Toronto-based software developer i4i, who claimed industry giant Microsoft violated its 1998 patent (No. 5,787,449) on a method for reading XML. The ruling prohibits Microsoft from selling any more copies of Word 2007 with custom XML functionality, and also requires the company to pay $290 million to i4i.

Just the other day I was thinking how I wished my friends and marketing specialists had an easier way to stalk me online! Twitter to the rescue! The site announced yesterday that it will soon give users the option of publishing their location along with their post.

I was laughing along to John Stewart this morning, over my coffee and a bagel, when what does he bring up but social networking. And whooooo, you might ask, has joined this online phenomenon now? Why none other than the former Bush administration.

Sure, we all know you can get viruses through emails or certain Web sites, but from your Adobe reader?

Well sort of... A group based in Jerusalem has set up a service that allows users to Tweet their prayers to the Western Wall.