U.S. Senator for Maryland Barbara Mikulski, Maryland Lt. Governor Anthony Brown and Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett were at NIST today to announce the partnership with Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and NIST Director Patrick Gallagher.

“We’re standing up for the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence to protect America’s ideas and innovations from cyber terrorists, spies and thieves,” Senator Mikulski said. “This center will unite the knowledge of the government with the know-how of the private sector to improve our nation’s cybersecurity and create jobs. I was so proud to put money in the federal checkbook so this new center will ensure Maryland continues to lead the way in cyber technology and cyber jobs.”

“Maryland has made great strides in preparing a workforce that’s ready for cyber and IT jobs,” said Lt. Governor Anthony G. Brown, who leads the O’Malley-Brown Administration’s economic development portfolio. “With our focus on K-12 STEM education, cyber-security specialties in higher education, and the presence of U.S. Cyber Command at Ft. Meade, Maryland is uniquely poised to contribute to the rapidly growing cybersecurity industry. The addition of the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence will help build on our progress by enhancing coordination between the federal, state and local governments, as well as our partners in the private sector.”

NIST’s fiscal year 2012 appropriations provided $10 million to establish the public-private partnership to operate the center. It will provide a state-of-the-art computing facility near NIST’s Gaithersburg, Md., campus, where researchers from NIST will work collaboratively with both the users and vendors of cybersecurity products and services. The center will host multi-institutional, collaborative efforts that build on expertise from industry and government.

The center will undertake carefully developed use cases—comprehensive requirements and test plans to address specific cybersecurity challenges—that will lead to practical, interoperable cybersecurity approaches for real world needs of complex IT systems. Examples of potential use cases would be interoperable cybersecurity templates to address challenges in health IT, cloud and mobile computing, cryptography, or continuous monitoring of IT systems.

The development and refinement of use cases would be open to all interested parties, including IT vendors and the public. Results from center projects will be shared with the broad IT user and vendor communities.

By accelerating the adoption of state-of-the-art cybersecurity tools, the center will:

• enhance trust in U.S. IT communications, data and storage systems;
• lower risk for companies and individuals in the use of IT systems; and
• encourage development of innovative, job-creating cybersecurity products and services.

The improved trust resulting from the center’s efforts will support the development and adoption of innovative business methods to improve operational efficiency, reap significant financial benefits for public and private-sector institutions, promote entrepreneurship and create new employment and career opportunities.

“Cyber crime hurts individuals, businesses and government agencies. We want to bring together the best minds and provide them with the best tools to create and test solutions that will make online transactions of all kinds safer,” said Gallagher. “We’re pleased to have the support of our Maryland partners, and look forward to working with additional partners from industry, academia, nonprofit and government sectors.”

Organizations interested in working with NIST, the State of Maryland, and Montgomery County at the new center should send an email tonccoe@nist.gov. For more information on the center, see our fact sheet at http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/factsheet/nccoe.pdf.

As a nonregulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, NIST promotes U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life.

A panel of high-profile judges will evaluate and vote on the entries. The panel includes:

• John Bryson, Secretary of Commerce
• Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist, Google
• Vivek Kundra, Executive Vice President of Emerging Market, Salesforce.com
• Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media
• Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook
• Steven Van Roekel, Federal CIO

Specifically developers are being challenged to look for innovative ways to utilize available data to help businesses:

• Learn about and evaluate opportunities, both here in the U.S. and internationally;
• Access useful government services, data, and market information;
• Fund business activities;
• Support education and training, and
• Facilitate or accelerate the pursuit of operating and growing their business.

A $5,000 cash award will be given to the winner. Second place will receive $3,000 and third place will receive $2,000. Submissions will be accepted between February 22, 2012 and April 30, 2012. Complete contest rules and entry requirements can be found at http://docbusinessapps.challenge.gov

We are planning to ask Europe’s highest court to assess whether ACTA is incompatible – in any way – with the EU’s fundamental rights and freedoms, such as freedom of expression and information or data protection and the right to property in case of intellectual property.

As you are no doubt aware, within the EU institutional process, the European Commission has already passed ACTA to national governments for ratification. The Council has adopted ACTA unanimously in December and authorised Member States to sign it. The Commission has also passed on ACTA to the European Parliament for debate and a future vote.

That said, I believe the European Commission has a responsibility to provide our parliamentary representatives and the public at large with the most detailed and accurate information available. So, a referral will allow for Europe’s top court to independently clarify the legality of this agreement.

In recent weeks, the ratification process of ACTA has triggered a Europe-wide debate on ACTA, the freedom of the internet and the importance of protecting Europe’s Intellectual Property for our economies.

But let me be very clear: I share people’s concern for these fundamental freedoms. I welcome that people have voiced their concerns so actively – especially over the freedom of the internet. And I also understand that there is uncertainty on what ACTA will really mean for these key issues at the end of the day.

So I believe that putting ACTA before the European Court of Justice is a needed step. This debate must be based upon facts and not upon the misinformation or rumour that has dominated social media sites and blogs in recent weeks.

As I have explained before the European Parliament on several occasions, ACTA is an agreement that aims to raise global standards of enforcement of intellectual property rights. These very standards are already enshrined in European law. What counts for us is getting other countries to adopt them so that European companies can defend themselves against blatant rip-offs of their products and works when they do business around the world.

This means that ACTA will not change anything in the European Union, but will matter for the European Union.

Intellectual property is Europe’s main raw material, but the problem is that we currently struggle to protect it outside the European Union. This hurts our companies, destroys jobs and harms our economies. This is where ACTA will change something for all of us – as it will help protect jobs that are currently lost because counterfeited and pirated goods worth 200 billion Euros are floating around on the world markets.

So let me be clear: ACTA will change nothing about how we use the internet and social websites today – since it does not introduce any new rules. ACTA only helps to enforce what is already law today.

ACTA will not censor websites or shut them down; ACTA will not hinder freedom of the internet or freedom of speech.

Let’s cut through this fog of uncertainty and put ACTA in the spotlight of our highest independent judicial authority: the European Court of Justice.

This clarity should help support a calm, reasoned, open and democratic discussion on ACTA – whether at the national or at the European level. We will also be in contact with the other European institutions to explain this step and why it would make sense that they make the same move.

“These principles will enable enterprises to experience the value that cloud can provide and help ensure that internal and external users can trust cloud solutions.”

Only through proper governance and management can cloud computing achieve its potential for organizations. To help enterprises manage the potential pressure points that begin to surface when cloud computing strategies diverge from internally provided IT services or traditional outsourced arrangements, global nonprofit IT association ISACA has issued Guiding Principles for Cloud Computing Adoption and Use, a complimentary guide featuring six key cloud computing principles:

1. The Enablement Principle: Plan for cloud computing as a strategic enabler, rather than as an outsourcing arrangement or technical platform.
2. The Cost/Benefit Principle: Evaluate the benefits of cloud acquisition based on a full understanding of the costs of cloud compared with the costs of other technology platform business solutions.
3. The Enterprise Risk Principle: Take an enterprise risk management (ERM) perspective to manage the adoption and use of cloud.
4. The Capability Principle: Integrate the full extent of capabilities that cloud providers offer with internal resources to provide a comprehensive technical support and delivery solution.
5. The Accountability Principle: Manage accountabilities by clearly defining internal and provider responsibilities.
6. The Trust Principle: Make trust an essential part of cloud solutions, building trust into all business processes that depend on cloud computing.

“Cloud computing presents a unique opportunity for enterprises—and is particularly a game-changer for small and medium enterprises because its availability means that technology infrastructure is not the market differentiator it has been in the past,” said Ramsés Gallego, CISM, CGEIT, member of ISACA’s Guidance and Practices Committee and security strategist and evangelist for Quest Software. “These principles will enable enterprises to experience the value that cloud can provide and help ensure that internal and external users can trust cloud solutions.”

ISACA’s Guiding Principles for Cloud Computing Adoption and Use is available as a free download at www.isaca.org/cloud-principles. Additional cloud resources, including IT Control Objectives for Cloud Computing, can be found at www.isaca.org/cloud.

“With this offer, we provide our shareholders a chance to realize their investment now at an attractive cash premium rather than waiting indefinitely during this period of transition.”

The proposal offers minority shareholders HK$13.50 per share in cash, which implies a premium of 60.4 percent over the 60-day average closing price of Alibaba.com shares, and a premium of 55.3 percent over the 10-day average closing price.

The Offeror stated in the announcement filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange today that the offer price will not be increased. Under Hong Kong regulations, the Offeror will not be permitted to increase the offer price. Alibaba.com shareholders will in due course be sent a scheme document and will be invited to vote on the proposed offer. The Offeror and its concert parties will not be permitted to vote in relation to the proposed offer. The Offeror further stated in the joint announcement that it intends to finance the privatization from a combination of new committed financing and existing cash on hand.

A major factor driving Alibaba Group’s decision to privatize its publicly traded subsidiary, which is engaged in the B2B marketplace business, is to provide minority shareholders an opportunity to realize returns while Alibaba.com implements a shift in its business strategy. Alibaba.com and the Offeror stated in their joint announcement that this shift could result in slower revenue growth and less earnings visibility in the short- to medium-term. Alibaba.com’s business in the early years was driven by a focus on rapidly increasing the number of manufacturers, trading companies and wholesalers that pay a subscription fee to sell products on the company’s marketplaces in order to maximize revenue growth. Last year, the company implemented a major initiative toward improvements in the quality of the buyers’ experience on the company’s online marketplaces. As a result the pace of adding paying customers has been slowed down. In previous disclosures, Alibaba.com outlined this strategic shift, warning investors that despite confidence in the favorable long-term prospects of these initiatives, there would likely be a short- to medium-term impact on financial results.

“Taking Alibaba.com private will allow our company to make long-term decisions that are in the best interest of our customers and that are also free from the pressures that come from having a publicly listed company,” said Jack Ma, founder, chair and CEO of Alibaba Group and Board chair of Alibaba.com. “With this offer, we provide our shareholders a chance to realize their investment now at an attractive cash premium rather than waiting indefinitely during this period of transition.”

Since November 6, 2007 when Alibaba.com was initially offered to the public at HK$13.50 per share, the Hang Seng Index has declined more than 27 percent (as of the close on February 20, 2012).

An Independent Board committee of Alibaba.com has been formed to evaluate the proposal and will work with its own independent financial advisor to formulate recommendations to independent shareholders. The recommendation of the Independent Board committee will be disclosed in the scheme document to be dispatched as soon as practicable.

About Alibaba Group

Alibaba Group is a global e-commerce leader and the largest e-commerce company in China. Since it was founded in 1999, Alibaba Group has grown to include the following core businesses: Alibaba.com (HKSE: 1688; 1688.HK), Alibaba Group’s flagship company and the world’s leading B2B e-commerce company; Taobao Marketplace, China’s primary C2C online shopping destination; Tmall.com, China’s leading B2C online marketplace for quality, brand name goods; eTao, China’s most comprehensive shopping search engine; Juhuasuan, China’s most comprehensive group shopping platform; Alibaba Cloud Computing, a developer of advanced data-centric cloud computing services; and China Yahoo!, one of China’s leading Internet portals. Alipay, China’s largest third-party online payment service, is an affiliate of Alibaba Group.

About Alibaba.com Limited

Alibaba.com (HKSE: 1688) (1688.HK) is the global leader in e-commerce for small businesses and the flagship company of Alibaba Group. Founded in 1999 in Hangzhou, China, Alibaba.com makes it easy for millions of buyers and suppliers around the world to do business online mainly through three marketplaces: a global trade platform (www.alibaba.com) for importers and exporters; a Chinese platform (www.1688.com) for domestic trade in China; and a transaction-based wholesale platform on the global site (www.aliexpress.com) geared for smaller buyers seeking fast shipment of small quantities of goods. Together, these marketplaces form a community of more than 76.3 million registered users in more than 240 countries and regions. As part of its strategy to transition into a holistic platform where small companies can build and manage their online business more easily, Alibaba.com also offers Chinese traders a wide array of business management software, Internet infrastructure services and export-related services directly or through companies it has acquired including HiChina and One-Touch, as well as educational services to incubate enterprise management and e-commerce professionals. Alibaba.com also owns Vendio and Auctiva, leading providers of third-party e-commerce solutions for online merchants. Alibaba.com has offices in more than 70 cities across Greater China, India, Japan, Korea, Europe and the United States.

“Creating and managing a clinical mobility capability is a significant priority for healthcare providers. Integrating patient information, imaging and applications at the point of care creates real opportunities to improve the quality of care while eliminating medical errors, reducing cost and improving outcomes”

Dell will demonstrate its latest healthcare solutions – including Unified Clinical Archiving (UCA) and Mobile Clinical Cloud Computing (MCC) – at the Healthcare Information & Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2012 Annual Conference and Exposition at the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas, Feb. 20-24 (Booth #3607).

Cloud-based Archiving

Since acquiring InSite One in December 2010, Dell has developed a complete clinical archiving solution that enables secure data retrieval and sharing for the clinician, while simplifying IT management and maintenance overhead with a variety of storage options. Global expansion and a new alliance with Siemens will extend the reach of Dell’s UCA solution and cloud-hosting capabilities into new markets in 2012.

Dell and Siemens have forged an alliance to deliver a cloud-based vendor-neutral image archiving and sharing solution. Under the agreement, Siemens will incorporate Dell’s clinical data management software into its Image Sharing & Archiving (ISA) solution. In addition, the Dell Cloud Clinical Archive will provide redundant archiving support for Siemens Healthcare Cloud Computing Center. The two companies will collaboratively market the joint solution.

Beginning in the late first quarter of 2012, Dell plans to offer its cloud-based medical archive platform as part of its UCA solution in the United Kingdom, supported by the new data center located in Slough. Cloud-based medical archiving is scheduled to be available to healthcare providers in France and Germany later in the year. Several European hospitals already have been using Dell’s On-Premise Clinical Archive featuring the DX6000 platform as part of a pilot study.

The Dell Cloud Clinical Archive is now managing more than 68 million clinical studies, nearly 4.8 billion diagnostic imaging objects and supports more than 800 clinical sites in one of the world’s largest cloud-based clinical archives. Growing at a rate of more than a million new studies under management each month, the archive will soon surpass the 5 billion mark, making Dell one of the largest healthcare cloud computing service providers in the industry.

“Creating and managing a clinical mobility capability is a significant priority for healthcare providers. Integrating patient information, imaging and applications at the point of care creates real opportunities to improve the quality of care while eliminating medical errors, reducing cost and improving outcomes,” said Scott Lundstrom, group vice president, IDC Health Insights.

Dell recently attained ISO-13485 certification for its cloud-based image archive operations. Achievement of this globally recognized quality standard demonstrates a commitment by Dell to provide healthcare solutions and services that consistently meet the most stringent industry requirements.

My Doctor’s Getting an EHR: Why Care? By Danielle Patton

Mobile Clinical Computing

Dell’s MCC solution, introduced just three years ago, has seen significant gains over the last year as hospitals seek to make information more accessible for clinicians while adhering to privacy and security regulations. Of particular concern is the proliferation of consumer-grade devices in the healthcare setting.

According to the HIMSS 2011 Mobile Technology Survey, 97 percent of respondents indicated that clinicians at their organizations accessed information using a mobile device, yet only 38 percent noted that their organization has a mobile technology policy in place that regulates use of mobile devices and outlines the organization’s mobile strategy. [1] Healthcare data breaches increased 32 percent from 2010 to 2011 and cost the industry $6.5 billion, according to a study by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by ID Experts. The three leading causes of data breaches in healthcare are lost or stolen equipment, errors by third parties and employee mistakes. [2]

Designed to improve clinician efficiency without compromising security, Dell’s MCC solution combines desktop virtualization, single-sign-on and strong authentication technologies with expert consulting, implementation and support services. By storing information in the data center – not the endpoint device – MCC helps reduce the risk of lost or stolen data and simplifies HIPAA compliance.

The solution also increases clinician productivity. Findings of MCC pilot projects at 10 European hospitals demonstrate that medical professionals can reclaim up to three hours a week for patient care by improving access to patient information and reducing application access time by an average of 83 percent. The time savings adds up to approximately $15,000 in annual productivity gains for each medical professional. [3]

Dell at HIMSS12

Dell will showcase its solutions and services for healthcare providers at the 2012 Annual Healthcare Information & Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2012 Annual Conference and Exposition, Feb. 20-24, at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas (Booth #3607). Dell will also participate in the Interoperability Showcase (booth #11000, Hall G) to demonstrate the UCA cloud archive capabilities as well as Dell Cloud Clinical WebAccess.

Cloud Computing Survey BizCloud

Cloud Computing InformationWeek Reports, a service provider for peer-based IT research and analysis, announced the release of its latest research report.  2012 State of Cloud Computing encompasses analysis of results from InformationWeek’s annual survey on cloud computing and guides readers in selecting, integrating and monitoring the services their employees depend on. More than 500 business technology professionals, all from companies with 50 or more employees, responded to this poll.

HijackThis - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijackthis - scans your computer to find settings changed by spyware, malware or other unwanted programs. HijackThis also generates an in-depth report to enable expert users to analyze and fix an infected computer. Several security communities use HijackThis log files to help users evaluate and eradicate infections. A common practice for novice users is to generate a HijackThis log file and submit it to one of the many forums devoted to HijackThis on the web. Experts at these forums provide information on which items are causing your problems and how to remove them safely from your computer.

The code, originally written in Visual Basic, is now officially available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/hjt/.

“This means that other people can build on a solid base to create or improve their own anti-malware tools,” said Merijn Bellekom, the original creator of HijackThis.

Trend Micro has offered HijackThis as a free tool since acquiring the antispyware freeware tool from itsNetherlands-based creator, Merijn Bellekom in 2007.  By then, it had already been downloaded more than 10 million times and was often used to submit logs to online discussion and help forums, such as Castlecops.com, Majorgeeks.com and Spywareinfo.com, to elicit comments that could help in cleaning infected desktops

“HijackThis was an essential tool at CastleCops, so much so that there were forums, web applications and services dedicated to it, answering questions posed from the data collected about files and registry entries.  Hands down, HijackThis was vital to the health of a PC providing needed data that helped experts clean machines from complicated malware infections.  Enabling the open source community with source code for the powerful tool HijackThis shows the commitment Trend Micro has toward advancing security and privacy.   The OSS framework provides people with an opportunity to help others in a rich and diverse environment, and this ensures that HijackThis will continue building on its strength in serving the community,” said Paul Laudanski, Founder, Castlecops.com

Trend Micro will continue to maintain the original source code and will update the base code on SourceForge as developers make modifications that are essential and positive to the continued improvement of this code.  As new malicious code is released faster than ever before, the need for analyzing log data to identify new malicious code is more important than ever.  Through this offer to the open source community, the product has the opportunity to develop and become an even better solution to quickly identify new malicious code.

“HijackThis moving to open source is a really exciting stage for this tool and a big thanks to Trend Micro for bringing this tool back to life.  HijackThis was once the most used tool for enumerating Windows startup programs and quickly identifying the presence of malware.  Moving HijackThis to open source will prompt more rapid releases and also allow more people to be involved in the project so that it is able to keep pace with current infection techniques,” said Larry Abrams, Owner and Founder of BleepingComputer.com.

Join Access And Support Internet Freedom

At the Motorola Solutions Channel Partner Expo, Verizon Enterprise Solutions and Motorola Solutions announced the two companies will leverage each other’s expertise to help grow machine-to-machine (M2M) connections, and deliver vertical enterprise solutions with wireless data and voice.

Verizon Enterprise Solutions will offer end-to-end integrated voice and data solutions, while Motorola Solutions’ versatile product portfolio will allow enterprise and government IT organizations to capitalize, capture and analyze critical data.  Critical elements to that equation include device staging, vertical applications, rollout support and help desk services.

“One of the significant elements in today’s enterprise is ensuring machine-to-machine connections are optimized through a combination of solid hardware, a reliable network and vertical solutions,” said Michael Toto, director, global solution partners and distribution, Verizon Enterprise Solutions Group.  “Our customers will benefit from this dynamic opportunity to match offerings from Motorola Solutions and its select channel partners with a combination of 4G LTE, 3G and IP capabilities that Verizon Wireless delivers today.”

Motorola Solutions will provide Verizon Enterprise Solutions with ways to grow its business deeper into new vertical markets with Motorola’s solution and integrator partners providing expanded access and solid relationships in field service, manufacturing, retail, education, government, healthcare, transportation and logistics.  One area of focus includes the ruggedized line of handsets such as the Motorola SolutionsES400, MC65, MC75 and MC9500 mobile computers.  Verizon Wireless mobile users can capture and share mission-critical data in the field and update back-end systems in real-time with enterprise class devices and solutions.

“With Verizon Enterprise Solutions’ participation in the PartnerEmpower program, our channel community will have additional revenue opportunities in targeted vertical markets, and customers will benefit from our combined strengths and expertise,” said Mark Kroh, vice president of North American Channels, Motorola Solutions.

“Our continued relationship with Red Hat demonstrates collaboration focused on providing on-demand, pay-as-you-go cloud solutions for our existing and future customers”

Red Hat Cloud Access is a capability that enables Red Hat customers to move their subscriptions between traditional on-premise servers and off-premise clouds hosted by Red Hat Premier Certified Cloud Providers, such as Amazon Web Services. Red Hat initially extended its Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions into the cloud with Red Hat Cloud Access in April 2010. Today, the company adds Red Hat Enterprise MRG Grid subscriptions as the second product able to take advantage of the Red Hat Cloud Access program. This results in improved deployment portability, easier subscription management and cost advantages for deploying in the cloud.

Red Hat Enterprise MRG incorporates Messaging, Realtime and Grid functionality that offers improved performance, response time and compute grid management. Enterprise MRG’s Grid technology provides a highly scalable and manageable platform for High Throughput Computing (HTC) and High Performance Computing (HPC) environments, and includes the ability to schedule to local grids, remote grids, virtual machines and rented cloud infrastructure. At its launch in 2008, Enterprise MRG was the first HPC product that could integrate with private virtualization and public clouds.

Red Hat Enterprise MRG Grid was recently extended to Amazon Web Services via DevPay, allowing customers to build hybrid clouds or use Enterprise MRG in the cloud for managing traffic and on-demand HPC capabilities. Now, with Cloud Access, customers can use their Red Hat subscription for Enterprise MRG in Amazon Web Services deployments. As a Red Hat Certified Cloud Provider, Amazon Web Services allows customers to use the same images both on-premise and in-cloud, through an in-cloud update service provided by Red Hat. Errata and updates are made available through the in-cloud service, so customers on a Red Hat Certified Public Cloud that are Cloud Access-enabled have confidence that they have up-to-date images. With this, users can manage and update thousands of servers with ease. A primary benefit of Red Hat’s approach to cloud computing is that it is built on standardized open source technology, providing a consistent application platform across physical, virtualized and cloud environments. This gives customers the flexibility to adapt to new computing models as their business needs dictate, simply and cost effectively, while also eliminating the vendor lock-in associated with other cloud computing solutions.

“Red Hat Cloud Access allows our customers to benefit from the valuable support they receive directly from Red Hat experts through their Red Hat subscription, while also allowing them to take advantage of the benefits of deploying in a certified public cloud,” said Scott Crenshaw, vice president and general manager, Cloud Business Unit at Red Hat. “This level of flexibility gives enterprises the ability to bring their infrastructure to the cloud more easily and now encompasses both our Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system and Red Hat Enterprise MRG Grid technologies, offering more choice for public clouds.”

“Our continued relationship with Red Hat demonstrates collaboration focused on providing on-demand, pay-as-you-go cloud solutions for our existing and future customers,” said Terry Wise, director of Business Development at Amazon Web Services. “We started with support for Red Hat Cloud Access capabilities with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and are excited that our customers can now take advantage of Red Hat Enterprise MRG Grid via Cloud Access.”