IT security giant Symantec yesterday launched a new initiative to fight phishing, pharming, and other rapidly spreading types of online fraud targeting banks, e-commerce sites, brokerage houses, and other B2B or B2C institutions where lots of money changes hands. Under the new offering, called Online Fraud Protection Services, Symantec will bring to bear a battery of methods and techniques to block attacks launched against individual companies and their brands and, if possible, work with law enforcement to put the perps behind bars.

It was with great fanfare that the world celebrated the 30th birthday of spam recently. The hammy substance

System i (formally Power Systems server) users who venture upon Business Computer Design Int’l‘s beta for Catapult version 7.0 may be surprised to find a slick new graphical user interface (GUI) written in Microsoft‘s latest .NET language, C#, has been added the product. In addition to heightened ease-of-use brought by the new GUI, Catapult 7.0’s behind-the-scenes component has been beefed up to make spool file processing much faster.

Catapult is a client/server application that includes an i OS (formerly i5/OS) component that monitors spool file output queues and other sources of reports and printed output, and a Windows

The i OS security professionals at SkyView Partners and Innovatum, a provider of real-time audit change-monitoring software for the i, rolled out a new product this month that builds on collaboration the two companies started last year. The joint offering, called Policy Minder Real Time powered by DataThread, provides organizations with the capability to receive real-time alerts if the security audit journal detects an event that runs contrary to their security policies.

The collaboration between SkyView and Innovatum made news with SkyView’s release of Policy Minder version 1.3 last August. One of the core new features with that

Users of the i OS-based Power Systems server (formerly System i) can now transform their green-screen applications to a new Web 2.0-style interface and ditch the OLTP, or interactive, processing requirement along the way by using the latest release of Profound Logic‘s Genie. Last week, the company announced that Genie has been switched from requiring OLTP resources on the i server to batch processing, potentially saving organizations money.

Genie is one of a new class of non-invasive tools for modernizing i5/OS screens on the fly, as users access them. The product, which was first released a year ago,

Looking for some apps to load on your wickedly fast new JS-22 blade server running i 6.1 (formerly i5/OS V6R1)? After all, the world’s hottest server isn’t good for much without some good old RPG, COBOL, or Java to make the fans blow and the screens flicker. According to IBM‘s documentation, you have 140 applications to choose from to outfit your i 6.1 workloads, so choose wisely.

Ever since IBM started talking to business partners last year about the need to convert programs to get them to run on i 6.1, it started to become evident that the new

One of the challenges in large organizations is getting the right data in front of the right set of users. Sorting through the data and assessing its importance and its role to the organization is no easy task. But it is something Oracle addressed last week when it launched a new application, called JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financial Management and Compliance Console, that’s designed to present financial- and compliance-related data to JD Edwards EnterpriseOne users, and give them some analytical capabilities as well.

The new application provides EnterpriseOne users with role-based access to data housed in the ERP system. It includes

Wireless capabilities for IBM Lotus users took another step forward when IBM and Research In Motion (RIM) announced last week that IBM’s line of Web 2.0-powered collaboration software and information on demand capabilities have expanded support on the BlackBerry smartphone platform. The tools that Blackberry-equipped mobile users get include portal dashboards, business intelligence (BI), plus advanced collaboration and unified communications software. Portal access comes from WebSphere Portal, BI applications are courtesy of IBM’s recently acquired Cognos technology, and the collaboration apps originate from Lotus Notes, Sametime, Quickr, and Connections.

With a Blackberry in hand, the convenience of communication and collaboration

SunGard‘s disaster recovery business got a boost last week when it announced plans to buy Strohl Systems, a provider of business continuity planning (BCP) software and services that, like SunGard, is based in Pennsylvania.

Strohl Systems is a little known success story that has quietly built a solid customer base in the BCP space, particularly among community banks and credit unions. The King of Prussia-based company counts more than 2,000 customers in 20 countries on its roles, including nearly 30 percent of the Fortune 500. It also has a sizable Power Systems (formerly System i) business, which is

Woodstream, a manufacturer of lawn-care and pet products sold at more than 100,000 retail outlets, is using EXTOL‘s integration software to feed customer orders into its IBM iSeries ERP system, and to more closely monitor its customers’ inventory levels, the software company announced recently.

From its headquarters in Lititz, Pennsylvania, Woodstream oversees manufacturing operations at subsidiaries that include Perky-Pet, SaferBrand, Victor, Havahart, and Dr. T’s Nature Products, which it recently acquired. These products are sold to more than a thousand customers, including retail giants like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Lowe’s, as well as smaller chains like Ace, TruValue, and

HarrisData, a provider of ERP software for the i OS (formerly i5/OS), has entered into a partnership with EDI services provider Digital Movers that will bring HarrisData customers more options for their EDI needs, ranging from VAN services all the way to full outsourcing of EDI processing.

Based in Brookfield, Wisconsin, HarrisData has been developing a suite of RPG-based ERP applications, called the HarrisData Enterprise Suite, for more than 30 years. While other ERP companies have padded their revenues with the sale of services, HarrisData has kept its eye on the software ball, believing there’s still a place for