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The Federal Trade Commission is being asked to investigate Internet search giant Google for a lack of security in its cloud-computing services, a framework of software and services in which applications and data reside on third-party servers that provide remote access through Web-based devices.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a Washington, D.C.-based public-interest group, filed the complaint and is asking for an injunction by the FTC to stop Google from offering any of its cloud services until the FTC has investigated Google’s safeguarding of consumers’ information.

The complaint comes just 10 days after Google announced that it had unintentionally disclosed user-generated documents stored on its cloud-computing service.

Privacy Glitches Cited

In its 15-page complaint, EPIC said Google is not providing adequate protection of consumers’ information in its group of cloud-computing services, which includes Gmail, Google Docs, Google Desktop, Picasa Web Albums and Google Calendar.

“We understand the FTC is very interested and have received an acknowledgment from the FTC,” Marc Rotenberg, president at EPIC, told us. “Now they will make a determination on whether to begin an investigation.”

Rotenberg said EPIC always reserves the right to supplement the filing and may add to it because of Google’s health-records service that “will clearly raise privacy and security concerns.”

In September and November alone, 30.4 million consumers used Google’s Docs and Gmail cloud-computing services, according to ComScore Media Metrix.

EPIC points out several flaws in Google’s cloud-computing services. In January 2005, researchers found that usernames and passwords for Google accounts allowed others to steal log-in information, allowing outsiders to snoop on users’ e-mail. Another flaw exposed Google users’ personal data to malicious Internet sites, EPIC says.

“Of course what we did was we looked carefully at Google’s statements and they sound very favorable, then you read their terms of service,” Rotenberg said. “On one hand they are telling everyone cloud…

TORONTO, Canada, March 18, 2009 –- Platform Computing, the global leader in High Performance Computing (HPC) management software, announces the release of the Platform HPC for ICE-Linux, a solution developed with HP, which combines the power of Platform Computing with the multi-systems management of HP Insight Control suite for Linux (ICE-Linux). The solution will allow customers to easily deploy HPC cluster environments using an out-of-the-box software solution that supports superior performance, growth and scalability while reducing cost and complexity.

Platform HPC for ICE-Linux offers HP ProLiant and HP BladeSystem customers and resellers a simple path for incorporating HPC into IT infrastructures. The solution integrates a combination of Platform, HP and open source technologies, and builds on the established HP ProLiant system management technology, HP Systems Insight Manager (SIM) for monitoring and provisioning capabilities. HP SIM allows unified infrastructure management across HP platforms and provides HP ICE-Linux with the basis for deep insight, precise control and ongoing optimization for expanding physical and virtual Linux environments. Platform HPC for ICE-Linux provides customers with powerful tools to manage the software stack, including a comprehensive toolkit for high performance computing, a workload manager, resource management tools and the remote control and advanced power management functions of ICE-Linux.

As IT budgets come under increasing pressure, Platform HPC for ICE-Linux allows customers to leverage existing HP investments and open source tools within Platform Open Cluster Stack (OCS) 5 to reduce the complexity and costs within IT infrastructures. Platform OCS 5 is based on the open source Project Kusu. Project Kusu is designed from the ground up to deliver the next generation of cluster management software. Customers and resellers will minimize the disruption of implementing additional new technologies and services, cut costs associated with HPC cluster projects, and reduce the impact that monitoring and management tools have on…

COLUMBIA Md., March 17th 2009 – Prism Microsystems, developers of comprehensive Security Information and Event Log Management (SIEM) technology that enables logging in depth, announced today that user registrations on its knowledgebase crossed the 50,000 mark, making the website the premier source of free, in-depth information on event log data on the Internet.

Available at http://kb.prismmicrosys.com, the Prism knowledgebase is a searchable database of detailed descriptions and vendor neutral cause-resolution information on over 20,000 events generated by hundreds of sources including Windows systems, syslog devices, applications and more. Events can be searched for by any combination of ID, event source or fragments of the description field. Although available freely on the Internet, the solution is also fully integrated into both EventTracker, Prism’s SIEM solution and EventTracker PULSE, a free log search utility launched in February 2009.

“Unlike other websites that provide free information on log data, our knowledgebase is extremely detailed and updated daily by a dedicated team of specialists. Not only can users contribute new event definitions, but also request our specialists to research data not already catalogued. This is a valuable service that’s provided with no strings attached, you don’t have to be a customer or pay a fee to take advantage of it,” said Steve Lafferty, VP of Marketing at Prism Microsystems.

There is little doubt that managing logs is critical for compliance, security monitoring or IT optimization; however given the inherent obscurity of event log data and the lack of a standard logging format, the task of making sense of this data to extract any meaningful intelligence is tedious and requires system-specific expertise. “The aim of the knowledgebase is to deliver this expertise free of charge to the IT community and make log data readily understandable by all,” added Lafferty.

The knowledgebase is also a useful complement to EventTracker…

There are some businesses and organizations that seem to be not only surviving the economic downturn, but even thriving: Liquor stores, movie theaters, libraries, and now online video games.

According to an announcement Tuesday, Marvel Comics is teaming up with a small and relatively unknown multiplayer online (MMO) game developer called Gazillion Entertainment to create a virtual universe featuring Marvel characters.

The joint venture will first produce a low-level online game aimed at children using Marvel’s Super Hero Squad. The more sophisticated online game Marvel Universe does not have a specific release date, but will probably appear in late 2010 or early 2011.

Enormous Fan Base

Although an earlier Marvel-based online game never took flight, both Marvel and Gazillion think the comic publisher’s enormous fan base will help make Marvel Universe a hit.

“Despite the tough economy, the video-game industry continues to grow, and MMO games for mass audiences represent the next big opportunity for the upcoming decade,” said Rob Hutter, president and CEO of Gazillion. “This is particularly the case for established global-entertainment brands like Marvel, which possess hundreds of millions of touch points with fans worldwide. The next step is exceptionally high-quality MMO entertainment, and that’s our mission at Gazillion.”

The comic-book company currently has more than 5,000 characters, including such iconic figures as Wolverine, Iron Man, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, and Captain America. A number of those characters have been the basis of successful films, making the prospect of cross-marketing even more alluring.

Despite its relatively short track record, Gazillion will be partnering with a number of major creative companies to assist in the creation of Marvel Universe, including Apple, Pixar Animation, Blizzard Entertainment, and Microsoft Game Studios. Four separate studios will be involved in the product development and launch.

Strong Growth in Games

Marvel and Gazillion hope to tap into what is already a…

EMERYVILLE, Calif., March 17, 2009 –- Sendmail, Inc., the leading provider of reliable and secure email and messaging infrastructures, today announced the availability of its new managed email infrastructure services with the introduction of Sendmail Sentrion® Cloud Services™. Sentrion Cloud Services provides enterprise customers with more choice, agility, control and protection by offering a cost-effective SaaS (software-as-a-service) solution to filter inbound emails for spam and viruses before they are managed and regulated by the on-premises messaging infrastructure solutions. Sendmail’s on-premises Sentrion Message Processors provide the more critical email-backbone functions such as data loss prevention, directory-driven message routing and content policy enforcement with proven high return-on-investment for large enterprises.

Enterprise customers are moving to a hybrid message processing architecture with a hosted approach to email filtering because of the significant cost savings realized by pushing commodity functions to the cloud. Just as important is the continued need to manage higher value complex message routing, delivery and content policy requirements on-premises. Messages caught by outbound or internal content controls typically should not leave the private network. The addition of Sentrion Cloud Services to Sendmail’s portfolio of messaging infrastructure solutions provides enterprise customers the choice to use Sentrion Message Processor appliances for inbound spam protection and their internal policy management layer, or the ability to architect a hybrid-hosted solution that meets their specific requirements.

Sentrion Cloud Services provides businesses an immediate return on investment by reducing the infrastructure required for managing spam on-premises. The savings are realized by requiring fewer servers at the gateway to accept inbound mail and by reducing data center footprint, network traffic, storage costs and energy consumption.

“The current economic realities and industry shifts are causing enterprise customers to re-think their approach to managing their email infrastructure,” said Stephanie Nevin, vice president of marketing, Sendmail. “By pushing the commodity filtering function to…

Its name comes from the Latin word for “falling in love.” And that’s the swooning response that Dell hopes customers will have for its new Adamo laptop, which, as befits most storybook lovers, is as thin as you can get and still be beautiful.

In fact, the first in the new Adamo brand is “the world’s thinnest laptop,” according to its proud parent. The Round Rock, Texas-based computer maker set a lofty goal for this new line of products, saying it’s intended to do nothing less than “disrupt the personal-computing space with the combination of new design aesthetics, personalization choices, and sought-after technologies.”

The Lifestyle Factor

To get the thin profile that Adamo boasts — 0.65 of an inch compared to the MacBook Air’s 0.76 — Dell milled the chassis from a single piece of aluminum.

The lifestyle factor is a major angle for this first Adamo, available in the colors formerly known as black and white and now known as Onyx and Pearl. Rumors of the new laptop first emerged on a lifestyle blog, and the Web site features a Flash video that slides between fashion-style photos. “Prepare to fall in love,” it warns.

At January’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Dell had fashion model Wakeema show a black Adamo model — but only the body, as the power was not turned on.

But many industry observers have noted that the release of a fashion-emphasized laptop could be a risky strategy for Dell. The vast majority of Dell’s sales are to businesses, and the current recession is making both business and consumer buyers cautious. There has also been speculation that businesses, in particular, will be updating hardware less often because of the economies offered by network-based “cloud computing.”

‘Makes Sense’

Laura DiDio, an analyst with Information Technology Intelligence Corps, disagreed with those who think…