IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 3 March
03-03-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
Over 1,700 people answer the Call | Obama plans to make cyberspace more secure
The Irish Times reports that comments by Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan that he anticipates a demand for high-speed broadband are "really maddening", according to Fine Gael's Noel Coonan. "I have heard the Minister pontificate about what he is doing in terms of broadband and set targets which he has consistently failed to meet," said the North-Tipperary TD. He also said the IDA and Shannon Development "have stated clearly that the most significant barrier to job creation in the mid-west is the lack of a high-speed broadband system. It is simply not there. The networks have been in the ground for years and it is frustrating for people."
The paper also says that the IDA hopes to create 105,000 jobs between now and 2014, as reported by ENN on Tuesday.
The same paper reports that Apple has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against HTC. Read more on this story on ENN.
The paper also notes that mobile data firm Zamano saw revenues fall 39 percent in 2009. Read more about Zamano's results on ENN.
The Irish Examiner says that over 1,700 people have submitted ideas to the 'Your Country, Your Call' website so far. Exactly 14 days after the nationwide competition was launched by President Mary McAleese, 1,731 proposals have been lodged at www.yourcountryyourcall.com. Two ideas will ultimately be chosen for a EUR100,000 prize and a further EUR500,000 in financial support to develop the project. Among the proposals are the creation of an online Irish book store "to rival Amazon.com" and the development of Ireland as "the world's first fully regulated jurisdiction for both interactive online gaming and online gambling".
According to the Financial Times, the Obama administration plans to make cyberspace more secure. Drafted in the final year of the Bush administration, the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative calls for greater co-operation between private companies and the National Security Agency, whose mission includes overseas spying and developing technology for better data security. The Department of Homeland Security will run a new security system called Einstein 3 that will look inside e-mail and other data traffic into and out of federal networks. The NSA will provide much of the technology and will be alerted to intrusion attempts, but it will not have access to the content of the messages.
The paper also says that SAP's new co-chief executives have promised a new culture of "fun" and "trust" at the troubled German software firm. Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe pledged to return the company to double-digit sales growth by 2012 and to restructure the company to make it more innovative and entrepreneurial. Speaking at the CeBIT IT trade show in Hanover, the pair said a key strategy would be reorganising the company's more than 12,000 engineers into small entrepreneurial teams of 10 or so people, with more contact with customers and more control over their own projects.
According to the Wall Street Journal, US tech firms came under fire on Capitol Hill on Tuesday for bowing to pressure by foreign governments to censor or block internet sites in countries like Iran or China. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, who chairs a Senate Judiciary Committee panel, said at a hearing he will introduce legislation "that would require internet companies to take reasonable steps to protect human rights or face civil or criminal liability." Several senators said they are disappointed technology companies have appeared reluctant to challenge free-speech and human-rights abuses in other countries.
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