A report from European Union security agency Enisa says that cloud computing, wireless networks, and supply chain integrity should be the focus of information technology security research during the next three to five years. Europe must focus on policy and law enforcement challenges, in addition to technical issues, according to the report. “Cloud computing models can benefit greatly from the international harmonization of data protection, retention, and privacy regulations,” the report says. “Research is also needed to better understand the best practices and policies that will facilitate effective incident handling.” The study also calls for guidelines and standards for evaluating and certifying cloud-based services. Real-time detection and diagnosis systems, future wireless networks, and sensor networks are other areas in need of greater attention from researchers. With regard to wireless network security, Europe must address the requirements for resilience, as well as network mechanisms, intrusion detection, and recovery mechanisms.
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Microsoft and researchers from the University of Konstanz in Germany are collaborating to create Videomap, navigation software that incorporates videos of driving routes. The program gives drivers visual cues by highlighting landmarks and emphasizing one side of the road before a turn. Videomap uses algorithms for “turn anticipation”–essentially, the video slows before a turn and points out key images where the turn must be made. The program points out landmarks in the same way. “As we pass a landmark, the field of view will expand to encompass that landmark and create a landmark thumbnail,” says Microsoft’s Billy Chen. The image is held for a few seconds so that the driver can commit it to memory. Video speed varies depending on whether the driver wants to note landmarks or get an idea of the length of the trip. To test the system, 20 volunteers read normal driving instructions for five minutes. Then they were shown a simulation of the route and were asked several times to state where the car would turn next. The second time participants used Videomap instructions. With normal directions, the drivers were correct 60 percent of the time; with Videomap, the number rose to 80 percent. Chen calls the study “pretty conclusive,” and points out that drivers relied less on text instructions after using Videomap and most of them preferred the software. Chen plans to test participants a second time using a new video simulation to see how the program holds up in different environments. He also wants to develop the program so that users will look only at the video when it covers a landmark, rather than looking equally at both the moving map and video. University of Zurich researcher Arzu Coltekin says that Videomap could potentially be useful for bikers and pedestrians as well.

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DC predicts that by 2013, jobs in information technology (IT) will expand by 5.8 million worldwide, and that 75,000 new businesses will be created during that time. IDC says that growth in software and cloud computing will be major factors in new business and job creation, and expects new cloud-based businesses to generate $800 billion in revenues by 2013. IDC also predicts that IT spending will increase to $1.7 trillion annually by 2013, up from $1.41 trillion in 2009, in the 52 countries covered in the report. The rate of increase in IT spending will be more than three times the expected rate of gross domestic product growth in the 52 countries. “The advantages of a growing IT sector are more extensive than the raw numbers alone suggest,” the IDC report says. “IT jobs tend to be higher skilled than most others, particularly in emerging economies, and countries with higher computerization can be more competitive in world markets.” Information Technology and Innovation Foundation founder Robert D. Atkinson says the past 20 years have shown how investments in IT innovations foster economic growth. Atkinson says that continued IT innovation and investment will help to jump-start the economy out of the current recession and will significantly contribute to job and new business creation.

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Internet security experts have discovered that many phishers are using a trick called a flux, which allows a fake Web site to rapidly change its URL, making it difficult for defenders to block phishing sites or warn unsuspecting users. New research has found that about 10 percent of phishing sites are now using flux. Indiana University professor Minaxi Gupta says that because phishers often have access to thousands of hijacked machines they can quickly move a site around the Internet, protecting it from security professionals while keeping the fake site operational. To use a flux, phishers must control a domain name, giving them the right to control its name server. The phisher can then set the name server so it directs each new visitor to a different set of machines, rapidly cycling through the thousands of addresses available within its botnet. If the name server also is moved to different locations on the Internet, it is particularly difficult for defenders to pinpoint a central location where the fake site can be shut down. Gupta has identified several methods for detecting a flux and suggests that flux detection should be incorporated into the domain name system itself, because only a fraudulent site is likely to use a flux. There are some legitimate reasons for using a flux, but a legitimate flux looks different from a flux on a botnet. Shortening the detection time of phishing sites by even a few hours can make a major difference and make the scams less profitable for criminals, Gupta says.

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The majority of countries with the most successful broadband deployments have opened up the networks of their main carriers to competing service providers, according to a draft report issued by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. The report, by Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, analyzed findings from a variety of market-oriented democracies in an effort to understand what approaches are the most successful at ensuring that citizens have adequate high-speed Internet access. Most of the highest ranked countries use open access policies in which the incumbent carriers must allow competitors to lease capacity on their networks to offer their own services. In comparison, the United States established open access rules in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, but has backed away from implementing them early in this decade, according to the report. The study found that open-access policies were a major contributor to the success of many first-generation wired network transitions, and is now helping second-generation wired rollouts. Japan, South Korea, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom are among the countries that have used open-access rules to foster strong broadband markets. In most measurements of broadband success, the United States ranks in the middle of developed countries, according to the study’s analysis. The U.S. ranks 15th on broadband penetration per 100 people, and 19th in 3G wireless penetration. However, the U.S. ranks fifth in both median upload speed and in a broad measure of prices for low-speed broadband, and ninth in the number of Wi-Fi hotspots per 100,000 people.

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