Stories by Julian Bajkowski

SonicWall increases local support

After a merry-go-round of distributors and some very public attacks from within the reseller community over support, network security appliance vendor SonicWall has dispatched two of its senior brass down under to soothe the nerves of jaded customers and agents and announce that staff for Australia will be doubled – from two to four.

Federal IT councils survive NOIE closure

In a move certain to worry IT vendors, the federal government will retain its two most powerful internal IT advisory bodies, the Information Management Strategy Committee (IMSC) and the Chief Information Officer Committee despite the almost certain closure of their coordinating arm, the National Office of the Information Economy.

Letter from the eastern front

When it comes to laying the blame for malicious code, viruses, scams and spam, IT security vendors love to point the accusatory finger to what used to be known as the Eastern Bloc. Yet for every throwaway accusation, few attempt to justify such claims with hard statistics – let alone a response from those inside Russia.

Spammers on final warning from minister

Communications Minister Daryl Williams has issued a tough final warning to Australian business to fall into line with the impending Spam Act or suffer the pecuniary consequences at the hands of the Australian Communications Authority (ACA).

Music industry data seizures in the balance

University, ISPs and enterprise network managers are all enduring a nervous wait on a ruling from the Federal Court to determine what grounds, if any, the music industry can invoke to gain access to third-party network data to enforce copyright.

Cheap seats choke budget airline sites

A ticketing price war between Australian budget airlines Virgin Blue and newcomer JetStar has resulted in both companies' Web sites being choked by a frenzy of bargain-crazed, hopeful passengers attempting to secure 300,000 tickets priced at $29.

Motorola launches smart phone for the camera shy

It runs Windows Mobile, accepts PKI certificates, supports data encryption and can pack up to one gigabyte of RAM. But you won't find an embedded camera inside the MPx200, Motorola's latest smart phone offering aimed squarely at the risk-averse corporate and government markets.

St George drags POS to Internet age

St George Bank is set to embark on a wholesale upgrade of the communication protocol for its non-branch ATM system, and has issued a request for proposal (RFP) to its telco, Optus, for both cost and technology to upgrade the system to IP.

Customs SmartGate faces scalability and funding issues

The facial recognition system the Australian Customs Service has tested on Qantas cabin crew will need significant 'real world' adjustments to deal with the vagaries of the travelling public, according to evidence given at a Senate Estimates committee hearing last week.

Estimates committee dissects NOIE

With the National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) now certain to be abolished in name, politicians intent on dismembering the agency have run into an unexpected hurdle: how to carve-up NOIE’s more useful coordinating functions with departments such as the Attorney Generals and Defence.

Telstra billing systems draw more fire

Telstra’s troubled billing system infrastructure has again come under fire, with the sudden accrual of another $243 million of bad debt only months after the carrier purged nearly $600 million of receivables from its books to collection agencies last year.

Customs system bail-out to cost $43 million

The Australian Customs Service’s (ACS) perpetually delayed Integrated Cargo System (ICS) has gnawed through $43 million dollars in emergency funding and nearly sent its department to the wall, evidence tendered at a Senate Budget Estimates hearing revealed yesterday.

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