OS/400 Alert: Googlize Your Enterprise

April 28, 2004 Shannon O'Donnell

In a great example of the chicken coming before the egg, a software vendor, whose entire reputation has been built on the quality and accuracy of its software, is now moving into the hardware business by hardwiring its software into its new hardware. Google, the world’s leading Internet search engine vendor, is now offering hardware to allow your company to move into the search engine business. Intrigued? Read on!

GOOGLIZE YOUR BUSINESS

Google.com is rapidly becoming the de facto search engine of the entire Internet, easily outpacing its nearest competitor, Yahoo. One of the primary reasons for this success is Google’s speed and accuracy in returning the information you want and need. Now Google is offering the business world the ability to cash in on its patented search technology for corporate, intranet, and enterprise document and information searches. The Google Search Appliance is a licensable hardware-software solution that offers your business a variety of ways to power your own business using the Google technology. Available in three configurations, the Google Search Appliance offers your company the following benefits.

• Google quality and ranking. Find the highest quality and most relevant documents. Google factors in more than 100 variables for each query.

• Secure search. Search for secure information and view only those documents to which you have access; results are returned securely for documents protected by either NTLM or basic HTTP authentication.

• Dynamic page summaries. Judge relevance of results more easily via dynamically generated snippets showing your query in the context of the page.

• Results grouping. Navigate search results easily and clearly using intelligent grouping of documents residing in the same narrow subdirectories.

• Automatic spell-check. Avoid missing results through typos or misspellings, as Google automatically suggests corrections with startling accuracy, even on company-specific words and phrases.

• Cached pages. View search results even when the sites are down, via cached copies of pages included in the search results.

• Highlighted query terms. Quickly find the most relevant section of a document via highlighted query terms displayed on cached documents.

• View as HTML. Glimpse documents without needing the original client application of the file format via automatic reformatting of over 220 file types into HTML.

• Sort by date. Access time-sensitive information first via date sorting.

• Advanced Boolean search. Perform complex and sophisticated queries with over 10 special query terms, including Boolean AND, OR, and NOT searches.

The Google Search Appliance also offers the following administration and customization benefits:

• Web-based admin console. Configure multiple log-ins and administrative roles for crawling, serving, and monitoring with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface.

• Subcollections. Categorize searches according to URL patterns.

• Synonyms. Define synonyms for company-specific acronyms or terminology and have those terms be displayed as suggested alternative queries.

• Keymatch. Define matches between URLs and keywords with targeted URL displayed above the main set of search results.

• Look and feel. Customize search results using XSLT stylesheets.

• Reporting. View and export daily and hourly result sets, top queries, special feature use, and more.

• URL tracking. View analysis of all crawled content to quickly identify problematic servers, errors, and sources of content.

• Remote diagnostics. Simplify maintenance through optional remote diagnostics by Google support.

For more information, or to download this new tool, go to Google.com.

THIS WEEK’S NASTY WINDOWS WORRIES

The following information is from www.symantec.com.

W32.Gaobot.ADX is a worm that spreads through open network shares, several Windows vulnerabilities, and back doors installed by Beagle and Mydoom worms. This worm also has the ability to act as a back-door server program and attack other systems. This worm also attempts to kill the process of many antivirus and security applications.

W32.Gaobot.ADW is a worm that attempts to spread through network shares that have weak passwords, and allows attackers to access an infected computer using a predetermined IRC channel. The worm uses multiple vulnerabilities in order to spread.

W32.Randex.AAS is a network-aware worm that copies itself to computers that have weak administrator passwords. The worm receives instructions from an IRC channel on a predetermined IRC server.

W32.Gaobot.ADV is a minor variant of W32.Gaobot.SY. The worm attempts to spread through network shares that have weak passwords, and it allows attackers to access an infected computer using a predetermined IRC channel.

Trojan.Mercuryas.A is a Trojan horse that allows an infected computer to be used as an e-mail relay.

MICROSOFT JOINS FTC TO COMBAT SPYWARE

Most people have been the victim of spyware, that nasty bit of code that is installed on your PC without your knowledge and then covertly transmits information about your computing practices to vendors and other low-life’s. In fact, unless you are running a spyware removal tool, chances are your PC is currently infected with some form of spyware. Microsoft has joined forces with the Federal Trade Commission to combat this increasing problem. On Monday, April 20, Microsoft attended a an informal workshop convened by the FTC in Washington to discuss spyware and the steps Microsoft is taking to combat this problem. More information on what was discussed, and the ways Microsoft and the federal government are planning to fight spyware, can be found on Microsoft’s Web site.

PTF’S AND FIXES FOR OS/400 AND RELATED PROGRAMS

IBM released the latest cumulative package for V5R2 customers on March 29.

The latest HIPER package was released April 13.

The Database Group PTF was updated March 30.