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WServerNews (formerly W2Knews)
Vol. 13, #1 - Jan 7, 2008 - Issue #655
Here Are The 2008 Predictions

This issue of WServerNews is sponsored by
  1. Editor's Corner
    • Quotes Of The Year
  2. Admin Toolbox
    • Admin Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without
  3. Tech Briefing
    • Here Are The 2008 Predictions
  4. WServerNews FAVE Links
    • This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff.
  5. Product of the Week
    • Save a tree. Save money. And a whole lot of time too.
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utility, a valuable tool for any help desk and more. With Microsoft's
Office Communication Server 2007, we have integrated presence capabilities
so your users can seek, find and click to communicate. We offer four
editions so you can find the perfect fit for your needs. See why customers
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Editor's Corner
Amazing. Another year flew by. It's as if they get shorter and shorter! And again, traditionally, I'm donning my asbestos undies, so you can safely flame my poor behind after reading my new 2008 predictions. The Magic 08 ball has been dusted off, and here we go gazing in the crystal for the coming year after three days of polling our lists, browsing and pondering.

However, to begin with, I'm repeating the tradition of my same New Year's Wish that you have read at this spot for these many years: "A world without war, crime and insanity, where honest people can flourish, prosper and reach greater heights".

First, how did I do with the 2007 predictions? Since I went out of my way last year with many trends in all the categories, it's hard to say. I got a bunch right. Notable failures though: IT has not moved into physical security yet. Not a lot of VOIP hacking stories yet either. No bug in the Blackberry middleware that shuts all Exchange servers down. And no Indiana Jones 4 being the biggest 07 block-buster, but perhaps in '08! It's interesting to see what they all were. See them in the archives:
http://www.wservernews.com/080107-2007-Crystal-Ball

And here is your first 2008 SunPoll, it's a repeat of 2007 and 2006, and we will see if anything has changed over the years! "For 2008, which do you expect to be the greatest security threat to your networks?"
  • Blended Malware
  • Botnets
  • Viruses
  • Outside-in hacking attempts
  • Internal security hacks
  • Phishing attacks
  • Other
Vote here, bottom right column:
http://www.wservernews.com/080107-SunPoll

Quotes Of The Year

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." -- George Bernard Shaw

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin

Thank you for being a WServerNews subscriber. Please tell your friends about us. They can subscribe here:
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Hope you enjoy this issue of WServerNews! Warm regards, Stu  |   Email me: feedback@wservernews.com

Ninja Email Security: Redmond Mag 2008 Editors' Choice

Sunbelt's Ninja Email Security received Redmond Magazine 2008 Editors'
Choice in the 'Low-Maintenance Magic' category with: "Sunbelt's Ninja
stealthily keeps your email clean and healthy."

That's an excellent start of the New Year! Ninja's page has been updated,
and provides a 30-day free eval to see how effective it deals with spam,
viruses, phishing and zero-day attacks:

http://www.wservernews.com/080107-Ninja-Email-Security

Admin Toolbox

Admin Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without

The free version of this tool has the power to replace and improve the way administrators use login scripts.
http://www.wservernews.com/080107-Specops

The new Sysinternals Autoruns is here! A stronger V9.0 version diagnoses Windows boot-up problems by displaying all background jobs that start up:
http://www.wservernews.com/080107-Autoruns

Get mPowerTools to do tedious Active Directory tasks without scripting. 100+ reports with AD, Security and Permissions reporting. Use it free for 15 days.
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Reclaim up to 95% of your .pst files with PSTCompress 3. Download your trial copy today!
http://www.wservernews.com/080107-PSTCompress-3

Extend Active Directory to your UNIX, Linux, Mac, web and database platforms. Free authentication guide.
http://www.wservernews.com/080107-Extend-Active-Directory


Tech Briefing

Here Are The 2008 Predictions

MICROSOFT: Windows XP lives! Redmond will announce another extension until Jan 2009 for WinXP, instead of the June 30 cutoff. During 2008 they will trumpet that they broke the 200 million Vista sales, but will not report the amount of people that have downgraded to WinXP.

OPERATING SYSTEMS: Virtualization will continue strong growth as W2K8 Hyper-V is released. -- Desktop virtualization will start its mainstream debut in 2008, providing intelligent provisioning of applications to desktop users. -- Open Source Solutions will continue to grow, but at the same slow pace. -- Linux Desktop solutions will continue to show promise, and despite Vista, will continue to fall short. -- IPV6 will start becoming relevant. -- Vista will get a 10% market penetration in 08, and thus will start getting attacked significantly more.

IT BUDGETS: SMB will mainly spend the money which is not sucked up by 'keeping the lights on' buying blades, virtualization storage and security. -- If you have lots of small satellite offices, their pipes will need to be beefed up in 2008 as the Internet slowly but surely is getting gridlocked.

MALWARE: Spam will still be a problem. -- Malware will use high traffic Internet sites as go-betweens to help bypass current detection and control methods. -- (Spear) phishing attacks will continue to rise, and several will hijack presidential campaigns. -- For SMBs servicing public companies, regulators and auditors looking downstream will knock on their doors, too. -- Up to now, mobile devices and IM have been relatively malware free, but... no more in 08.

MACRO ECONOMICS: The collapsed two housing / mortgage bubbles (which were fueling each other) will be the precursor for a major 2008 correction on either the Indian or Chinese stock exchanges or both at the same time. Keep in mind that ultimately money is nothing more than an idea, and this idea is backed by confidence. If the confidence drops, the bottom falls out of bubbles. Strap yourself in for the coming year.

HARDWARE: Wireless Internet devices become a BIG deal. "I want my IP phone + music + kindle + video + Internet" Google buys 700MHz spectrum, and sells a single device that does all that with no per minute fees; free, but Adwords-based or monthly flat rate subscription. -- Support for Muni Wi-Fi is going to die and will be eclipsed by Wi-Max. -- 2008 will see the first mass produced plastic digital displays. -- You will see the first game control hardware that used a headset reading brain waves. -- 24 inch wide-screen monitors will hit the mainstream mid 2008 and thereafter will become the norm. Look for Wi-Fi-based robots emerging from small companies this year, and a new Sony AIBO doggie with the same features.

SECURITY: Electronic voting machines will be hacked in November 2008. -- 'Cloud Computing' will penetrate as the new 2008 buzzword, but security issues with it will keep it from going mainstream. -- Users will still be your weakest link in 2008. -- The Payment Card Industry (PCI) standard will get teeth and very real for anyone accepting credit cards. -- Bots will go peer-to-peer and harder to take down. -- Criminals will start attacking virtual worlds -- Virtualization opens up a new huge attack surface.

2008 TECH TRENDS: Redmond's new SilverLight V2 technology will have a 30% market share by the end of 2008, mainly at the expense of Adobe's Flash. -- Tesla will produce 600 electric sports cars at a hundred grand each and sell them all -- TV will be IP-streamed at the same time as broadcast. -- Amid growing privacy concerns and intense state-level opposition, the costly Real ID Act of 2005 will collapse under its own weight in 2008. -- The 'presence' aspect of Unified Communications (UC) which is able to track you down where ever you are, will cause major backflash in early UC deployments.

2008 CAREERS: Admins that are able to include security in their job responsibilities will do well. Add disaster recovery and business continuity and you will be doing more than fine. 2008 is the year to take ownership of your career path. Your boss will not do it for you. Try Identity Theft as a career path, it will be extremely lucrative in 2008. ;-D

WEB SECURITY: The first shots have already been fired, but a major diplomatic incident regarding hacking will erupt, allegedly involving the Chinese getting access to highly confidential data. In the mean time, the Olympic village in Beijing will be hacked from outside China. -- Plan to be invaded by (or block) Social Networking site traffic.

GLOBAL CLIMATE: I predict that at least one cruise line will offer "2008 Northwest Passage" tours through the once again ice-free polar ocean. -- Did you know that computers consume 14% of the energy generated in the U.S.? In 2008, Intel will start a 'Green IT' campaign of "ten times the performance at 10 times less the power." -- But IT departments will suffer from 2008 Eco-Fatigue as many IT vendors suddenly declare all kinds of non-proven environmental benefits.

WILD-ASS GUESSES
  • Oracle Buys SalesForce.com
  • Palm gets acquired by Microsoft
  • Adobe gets acquired by Microsoft
  • Yahoo will sell out to... Microsoft
  • Presidential race Obama / Huckabee has electronic voting scandal
  • Google shares will hit $900, but will see another 25% dip as well, they will get into TV and radio, and announce their own OS.
  • Hi-Def Format Wars will declare peace and come out with one standard, compatible with both formats, with disks below $20.
  • Microsoft launch IE8 in the Spring of 2008. The entire planet needs to be rebooted.
  • Facebook is going to see the same kind of decline in popularity in 2008 that MySpace saw in 2007. The network that is actually really useful for techies like us (LinkedIn) will do extremely well.


WServerNews FAVE Links

This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff.


Product of the Week

Save a tree. Save money. And a whole lot of time too.

You can stop printing employee directories by leveraging your Active Directory with rDirectory. It's the perfect system: a web-based employee directory where users can self-edit to update their info, a template driven account creation tool with provisioning, a way for users to create and self-subscribe to email lists and groups, a self-service password reset utility, a valuable tool for any help desk and more. With Microsoft's Office Communication Server 2007, we have integrated presence capabilities so your users can seek, find and click to communicate. We offer four editions so you can find the perfect fit for your needs. See why customers call rDirectory the most versatile Active Directory tool available.
http://www.wservernews.com/080107-rDirectory-AD-Tool