http://www.mitechnews.com Mitech News Guest Columns http://www.mitechnews.com/articles.asp?id=11493 LANSING - The headlines definitely point to the kind of week we had at MEDC: "Gov. Jennifer Granholm announces more than 17,300 new jobs for Michigan," "Yacht maker Four Winns to hire 2,320 workers in Cadillac," and, my personal favorite, "2,500-Job Surge to Energize Michigan." http://www.mitechnews.com/articles.asp?id=11479 NEW YORK - Technology executives are signaling a readiness to make critical IT investments, a new survey shows. More than one-third (37 percent) of chief information officers (CIOs) interviewed said, post-recession, they plan to implement software and hardware upgrades that had been deferred due to a soft economy. Others foresee moving forward with virtualization projects (16 percent) and website design initiatives (16 percent) as conditions improve. http://www.mitechnews.com/articles.asp?id=11434 BIRMINGHAM - I had an interesting demonstration in January from a hacker who goes by the handle "The Jester" or in so-called l33t speak, th3j35t3r which is his Twitter ID. Since January 1, The Jester has been systematically wreaking havoc with several websites he associates with Al Quiada and Jihadists via a Denial of Service attack delivered over the web through an anonimizer service. http://www.mitechnews.com/articles.asp?id=11433 BIRMINGHAM - Last month, I related communications I had with The Jester, an individual who has decided to express his outrage at Jihadist organizations by systematically taking down their web sites. A week later, we learned that engineers at Google had been engaging in their own form of cyber vigilantism by hacking into a command and control server in Taiwan. http://www.mitechnews.com/articles.asp?id=11432 BIRMINGHAM - Last month, Google announced that they had been hacked by sources in China. The target was email accounts of Chinese activists and bloggers. An outraged Google threatened to discontinue censoring search results at the Google China search engine google.cn. http://www.mitechnews.com/articles.asp?id=11431 BIRMINGHAM - We have had eleven days to absorb the implications of wide spread Chinese supported attacks against Google and thirty or so other organizations. The US Secretary of State made one of the most affirmative statements on Internet freedom yet articulated by a government. Various policy analysts have chimed in as well. Some thoughts on what they have said. http://www.mitechnews.com/articles.asp?id=11425 SAN FRANCISCO - We've heard a lot about security issues with the iPhone, but the BlackBerry isn't immune to threats from malicious apps. http://www.mitechnews.com/articles.asp?id=11394 BIRMINGHAM - The attacks against Google emanating from China and the subsequent speech by the US Secretary of State on Internet Freedom have exposed cyber security issues to a wider audience in recent weeks. Perhaps predictably some old ideas are creeping up that should be slapped down quickly. http://www.mitechnews.com/articles.asp?id=11393 STAMFORD - A lot has happened in a year within the social software and collaboration space. And analyst firm Gartner says companies quickly need to develop best practices for embracing social networking with a maximum of safety. http://www.mitechnews.com/articles.asp?id=11353 BLOOMFIELD HILLS - During the summer of 2008, gas prices went through the roof, and the United States refocused on renewable energy. Americans say they desire energy independence from foreign nations and environmentally sound renewable energy sources.