Caron Carlson

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is investigating allegations that Microsoft Corp. is planning a campaign against document software programs, such as Adobe Acrobat, along the lines of the campaign waged against Netscape Navigator. Massachusetts disclosed its investigation in a filing on Friday with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. As part of a […]

The Web site for the Sheshequin-Ulster Community Center in Pennsylvania contains skating party news, calls for volunteers and minutes of board meetings—but no pornography. Nonetheless, the site was one of scores of sites that had the misfortune of sharing IP addresses with child pornography sites targeted by the state of Pennsylvania and was shut down […]

GFI Software Ltd., a security and messaging software maker in Surrey, England, last week launched a freeware version of its Network Server Monitor, which automatically detects server failures, enabling administrators to catch problems before users do. ABC Liquors Inc. has been using the monitoring software for about a month, said Brian McConnell, network administrator at […]

The Federal Communications Commissions annual report on high-speed Internet access, released late last month, indicates that SOHO businesses are growing in popularity. High-speed lines connecting businesses and residences grew by 18 percent in the first six months of 2003, the FCC reported. More telling perhaps is that advanced services lines—those that deliver more than 200K […]

The federal government on Wednesday dropped its proposal to debar WorldCom Inc., doing business as MCI, from future contracts. Nevertheless, officials in Washington, D.C., said the accounting scandal-laden company is not yet out of the woods. Because of the gravity of WorldComs corporate malfeasance, the U.S. General Services Administration decided it was necessary to enter […]

Cisco Systems Inc. is introducing new carrier-grade routers in its 12000 series to double the capacity of core networks, and it is unveiling upgrades to its 7600-series routers to support new high-bandwidth services. The enhancements to the 7600 series will make it easier to deliver a wide range of high-reliability, enterprise-level services over one network, […]

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the breakup of American Telephone & Telegraph Co., which rocketed long-distance service into a competitive business with ever-plummeting prices. In the local markets, however, dominant RBOCs retain the vast majority of subscribers, leading some policy-makers to push for a local version of the famed split-up. In 1996, Congress […]

Avaya Inc. has a new hardware/software communications package for small and midsize businesses looking for IT answers with fewer integration challenges. “You could go buy four or five different boxes, log in to each one, administer each of them, and read the manuals for each one,” said Saied Seghatoleslami, vice president of product management and […]

The nexus between network security and consumer privacy is increasingly being seen in measures health care organizations are taking to comply with the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Systems deployed last April to meet HIPAAs privacy deadline will help achieve compliance with a security deadline in April 2005. At Childrens Hospital, in Boston, […]

It has been six weeks since a federal ban on taxing Internet access expired, and a political stalemate in Congress leaves a theoretical vacuum for state tax collectors to fill. Although theres been no new tax proposals from the states, some policy watchers warn that seeds are being sown for new ways to tax online […]

A group of high-level IT officials in the federal government has begun collaborating on configuration benchmarks that government agencies could be required to use in future purchases of hardware and software. The development of the benchmarks is at once an indication of the growing importance of security in Washington and of the governments intention to […]

The nexus between network security and consumer privacy increasingly is seen in measures that health care organizations are taking to comply with the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Systems deployed to meet HIPAAs privacy deadline in April this year will also help achieve compliance with a security deadline in April, 2005. At Childrens […]