Technology Effect

Indian firms confident to deal with external cyber threats New Delhi: A majority of Indian companies are confident of dealing with the cyber security threats, says a survey released by financial advisory firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt Ltd. Unlike last year when many companies had done less investments on security due to economic downturn, organisations have gradually started to focus on employees and other internal security challenges, along with external threats. Out of the 62 organisations surveyed, 66 percent said they are confident in their ability to thwart external attacks. Thirty two percent of the respondents, however, believed that their information security professionals lack competencies to handle existing and foreseeable security requirements. Last year's edition of security survey had found that companies spent less on security. The damages done by last year's budget cuts are reflected this year's responses. Although 48 percent believe they are...

Tech evolution, smart attacks, Indian cos key concern: Survey New Delhi: Rapid evolution of technology and more sophisticated ways of attacking the company data like spam, are some of the key concerns of Indian companies when it comes to securing information, says consulting firm Deloitte. In its Global Security Survey 2010 - India Report, Deloitte said 47 percent of the respondents in India considered more and more sophisticated threats as a major barrier that the organization faced. About 40 percent of the respondents said rapid pace of technology evolution was also a concern, it added. "Organizations are trying to spend their information security budgets wisely. They want to obtain high security levels at a reasonable price and are positioning themselves for an optimistic, but still uncertain future," Deloitte India Senior Director Sundeep Nehra said. The report surveyed 62 Indian companies across financial services, healthcare, telecom, technology, manuf...

Now, swimming robots will clean the oil spill: MIT “Bangalore: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently announced the development of a prototypical robot called Seaswarm. Here's a new way of looking at oil spill clean-up: Forget the big ships, massive work crews and hefty price tags. It's a new way of looking at oil spill clean-up. These robots can find the oil as their own. And when they reach the site of an oil spill, they talk to their robot friends to figure out the best way to get the whole thing mopped up. The $20,000 robots will be unveiled officially to the public on Saturday at an event in Venice, Italy, and will be ready to deal with oil spills in about a year."We're hoping that spillage like what we've seen with Deepwater Horizon will not occur again, but oil leakage constantly happens and that's really what motivated us. When you drill offshore, you always have leakage. And you can imagine a team of robots waiting around the corn...

‘Scientists Concerned About Environmental Impact of Recycling of E-Waste Much of the world's electronic waste is being shipped to China for recycling and the cottage industry that has sprung up there to recover usable materials from computers, cell phones, televisions and other goods may be creating significant health and environmental hazards.Scientists from China and the United States have identified numerous toxic elements in the emissions from an e-waste recycling workshop in southern China, which uses low-tech methods to separate reusable electronic components from the circuit boards. It is not an isolated case, the scientists point out; such methods are used all over China. Results of their study have been published in the journal Atmospheric Environment. "The most immediate problem is the health of the workers and the people who live in the city," said Bernd R.T. Simoneit, a professor emeritus at Oregon State University and one of the authors of the study. ...

Diamond may replace silicon in computers Washington: Diamond could be the next key component in making computers, as scientists in California are working on diamond-based computers. This new set of computers would store information millions of times more than the existing silicon-based systems and processes that information dozens of times faster, according to the scientists. Commercially available technology has been used by the researchers in order to pattern large sheets of diamonds with tiny, nitrogen-filled holes. These diamond sheets, according to scientists, could be the basis for a supercomputer. Nitrogen has been in diamonds for as long as there have been diamonds; it's why some diamonds have a yellow hue. For years scientists have used these natural, nitrogen-infused diamonds to study various aspects of quantum mechanics. "We've used well-known techniques to create atomic-size defects in otherwise perfect diamonds," Discovery News quoted David Awsc...

With companies like Fujitsu and HP introducing new products in the convertible PC category, Lenovo has joined the bandwagon and launched the IdeaPad S10-3t. A convertible PC is essentially a laptop with a LED touch screen which rotates 180 degrees, to fit on top of the keyboard and doubles up to function as a slate.The S10-3t has a really impressive ergonomic design. It features a screen that is 10.1-inches wide, and the lid is a smart black colour, with an attractive embossed geometric design, which can also be seen on the lower panel, just below the keyboard.In terms of connectivity options, the tablet offers two USB 2.0 ports, a 6x1 card reader, a 3.5mm stereo headphone and 3.5 mm microphone slots and a VGA port.The IdeaPad S10-3t's trackpad was too small for comfort and made navigating troublesome. It was also unresponsive at the best of times, especially when it came to scrolling up and down. There is also the hard-felt lack of physical left and right mouse buttons, which le...