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News

• 500 million people will be using mobile health apps by 2015

  Smartphone apps are set to become the killer health care product as a research report projects that some 500 million people will be using them within five years.

• Gemalto launches credit card with built-in password generator

  Smart card vendor Gemalto introduced a new credit card Wednesday that's capable of generating one-time-passwords (OTP) for electronic banking and payment transactions.

• Man pleads guilty to $4.8 million ATM fraud

  The general manager of a business partner of Connecticut's Domestic Bank has pleaded guilty to his role in a scheme that siphoned millions from automated teller machines.

• Complexity of IT systems will be our undoing

  Roger Sessions, CTO of ObjectWatch and an expert in software architecture, argues that the increasing complexity of our IT systems will be our undoing.  In fact, he just recently got a patent for a methodology that helps deal with complex IT systems. Network World Editor in Chief John Dix recently caught up with Sessions to get his take on the extent of the problem and possible solutions.

• Are Smart Grids the Top Priority for WE Utilities' CIOs?

  If we start with an oversimplified idea that "Smart Grids = Grids + ICT," then it is obvious that utilities IT budgets have a direct effect on our future achievements of a Smart Grid. However, while there is growing excitement in the market concerning new technologies, including those in the Smart Grid concept, utilities are always cautious when it comes to IT spending and have pressure to prove ROI or TCO reduction before implementing any new initiative. Utility CIOs' budgets are still subject to numerous influences, including cost containment, compliance with regulations, and maintenance of the existing infrastructure.

• Traditional System Jump into the Smart Buildings Game

  The race is on to demonstrate that your integrated building energy management platform will drive Smart Buildings. Headlines are popping up every day announcing new ways to increase energy efficiency, drive down electricity consumption, or effectively participate in demand response programs. Will we see integrated energy management platforms promote smart buildings that can shrink the sector's energy consumption from 40% of the US energy pie?

• Highlights of IDC Energy Insights Clean Energy Outlook

  IDC Energy Insights hosted its semi-annual Clean Energy Outlook in Boulder, Colorado on Tuesday, September 28th. A series of speakers, including IDC Energy Insights analysts, spoke on a range of topics, many of which touched on renewable energy and the challenges and opportunities of renewable energy integration.

• Will Offshore Wind be a US Energy Industry Game Changer?

  On Oct. 7, the Department of Energy released "<a href="http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy10osti/40745.pdf">Large-Scale Offshore Wind Power in the United States: Assessment of Opportunities and Barriers</a>."&amp;nbsp; A couple highlights from this 240-page document authored by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL):

• Energy Management Moving Facilities to Smart Buildings

  Today Comverge, a major player in the demand response market, launched its rebrand - Intelligent Energy Management software, hardware, and services "that help utilities, commercial and industrial (C&amp;I) organizations and consumers optimize energy use." At the same time EnerNOC a major competitor in the demand response space has also been marketing its services as a means for "transforming the way the world uses energy."

• Researchers turn to data analytics tools to help stroke victims

  Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center are turning to data analytics techniques to more quickly spot symptoms of a potentially fatal complication called delayed ischemia that can develop in patients who have suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm.

• Man pleads guilty to using hack, pump-and-dump botnet

  A Chandler, Arizona, man has pleaded guilty to charges related to his role in a pump-and-dump scam that inflated penny stock prices via spam and hacked computers.

• Microsoft's anti-Zeus tool cleans quarter-million PCs

  Microsoft said its free malware cleaning tool had scrubbed the money-stealing Zeus bot from nearly 275,000 Windows computers in under a week.

• YouTube, e-discovery software among tech tools for war crime investigators

  War crimes -- brutal genocide, mass executions, ethnic cleansing, torture -- have spurred international efforts by the United Nations to investigate and convict those deemed responsible, wherever they have occurred. And according to those involved in prosecuting war crimes in once war-torn places such as the former Yugoslavia, Cambodia and Rwanda, modern technology related to e-discovery and multi-lingual translation is playing a critical role in the ongoing process to find justice for victims.

• Zeus botnet gang targets Charles Schwab accounts

  Criminals are using a Zeus botnet to pillage Charles Schwab investment accounts, a security researcher said Friday.

• Bluetooth low-energy spec to help shipments reach 2B in 2013

  The recession in 2009 led to a small reduction in Bluetooth devices shipped globally, but upcoming low-energy Bluetooth devices will trigger renewed growth in those short-distance wireless devices, especially for phones and industrial and medical gear.