Hefty cyber-crime costs hit Aussies
SMALL businesses are leaving themselves vulnerable to computer crime by scrimping on the cost of security.

A survey by the Australian Institute of Criminology found small businesses spent an average of $992 a year on computer security and 16 per cent had no protection at all.

Despite the relaxed approach to security, almost one in seven of the 4000 businesses surveyed by the AIC reported one or more computer security incidents in a year.

Those incidents included network sabotage, phishing attacks and virus infections that led to the loss of data, computer crashes and the corruption of hardware or software.

AIC principal criminologist Russell Smith said businesses needed to lift their computer security or face the consequences.

"Anti-virus software and firewalls are really not enough," Dr Smith said.

"Some of the new viruses come through before the updates are able to deal with it, so it's not a complete protection."
He said even very small businesses saved personal information in "client databases" and also had banking details that needed to be secured.

"All of this information is being collected in one place and is accessible through a laptop or a mobile phone," Dr Smith said.

The survey found the average loss for businesses affected by computer security incidents ranged from $2431 for small workplaces to $49,246 for big business.

The total loss from computer security incidents Australia-wide in 2006-07 was $649 million.

"Australia is pretty much level with other developed countries in terms of computer security but I think that suggests the whole developed world needs to take the computer risk a lot more seriously," Dr Smith said.

Part of the problem was the way computer systems were constructed, he said.

"They're designed to make it easy for people to get going and use computers and phones. Maybe there should be more barriers in place to force people to have more basic knowledge about computers."

Source: www.news.com.au


Search for greatest science invention
THE Science Museum in London is displaying models of what it feels are the 10 greatest scientific inventions in human history to mark its centenary on June 22.
It chose the steam engine, the X-ray machine, the electric telegraph, the DNA double helix, Stephenson's Rocket train, the Apollo 10 rocket capsule, the Model T Ford car and the Pilot ACE computer among its best objects.

The V2 German rocket engine and penicillin made up the top 10.

"We have selected these 10 objects because they are hugely significant in world history and (because of) the impact they had on how we live our lives today," said the museum's chief curator Tim Boon.

The public will be asked to vote for their favourites over summer.

Trevor Baylis, inventor of the wind-up radio, said he would vote for the V2 rocket engine.

"It's one of the greatest achievements of our time because it led to space exploration, and then satellite development, which then led to mobile phones and the astounding communication services we enjoy today," he said.
Nitin Sawhney, a British musician, backs penicillin.

"As an asthmatic recovering from a debilitating bout of pneumonia, I am painfully aware of how important a role penicillin has played in curing my lung infection," he said.

Members of the public can cast their vote by going to the museum in South Kensington or visiting its website www.sciencemuseum.org.uk

Source: www.news.com.au

Bad Blackberry manners can be costly
MOBILE email has become so distracting for some workers it could be costing their employers money.

Users are paying more attention to their Blackberries, iPhones and other gadgets rather than meetings and conversations – and businesses are complaining it upsets workplaces, wastes time and costs money.

"It happens all the time, and it's definitely getting worse," said Jane Wesman, a public relations executive and author of Dive Right In - The Sharks Won't Bite.

"It's become an addiction," she said.

According to a recent poll by employment website Yahoo! HotJobs, one third of more than 5000 respondents said they often check their emails during meetings. Such habits have their price, said the website's senior managing editor Tom Musbach.

"Things like BlackBerries fragment our attention span, and that can lead to lost productivity and wasted dollars because people aren't focused on their work, absolutely," he said.

In other Yahoo! HotJobs research, nearly a fifth of respondents said they had been reprimanded for showing bad manners with a wireless device.

Multi-failing

But the constant pursuit of an email fix may be costly. Research shows such multi-tasking can take more time and result in more errors than does focusing on a single task at a time.

"We know that if you have a person attending to different things at the same time, they're not going to retain as much information as they would if they attended to that one thing," said Nathan Bowling, an expert in workplace psychology at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

"If you're attending to multiple things at the same time, you often times don't learn anything," he said.

People who text message when they should be doing something else are engaging in what Mr Bowling called counter-productive work behaviour, which also includes harassment, showing up late or playing endlessly on the internet.

"Technology allows us to do counter-productive things that we weren't able to do 10, 20 or even five years ago," he said.

Business etiquette coach Barbara Pachter said there is a "learning curve" to new technology such as BlackBerries.

"We're still at that point where we're being rude," she said, adding that user behaviour is likely to improve in the next few years.

"We're just not there yet."