In this era of Internet connectivity, businesses must prepare for what is becoming the almost-inevitable data breach, according to a pair of chief privacy officers for major financial institutions.

At the IntrusionWorld Conference and Expo co-located with the Web Services Security & SOA Conference May 13, Joel Tietz, chief privacy officer at AXA Financial, and Michael Drobac, chief privacy officer at Merrill Lynch, discussed the increasing risk and costs of data breaches and how enterprises can better prevent and manage them.

It’s been a rough couple of days. We’re OK, but the Florida fires got close. Real close. Like probably about a hundred yards away close. The pool house in our development caught fire. A fire-rescue trailer at the school across the street caught fire, and no matter where you go, there’s scorched earth. Literally.

Read this OutlookPower article.

Momail has launched support for all major email accounts including Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and other ISP mail. All of the most popular vendors’ email can now use Momail as their "Mobile Postman." Momail is very easy to get started with and to use, and all emails are automatically optimized to the user’s specific mobile model. So being away is no problem, Momail helps you be in control and at the same, increase freedom though all email communication can be done via your mobile.

In what’s being called the largest fake media file outbreak in three years, some 500,000 people have fallen prey to a phony music or video track that is actually a spyware-infested Trojan horse. Usually purporting to be a music track with an MP3 file extension (in this case, an MP3 track from the UK group Girls Aloud), the file is actually an installer that claims to require a special codec and a special media player to play back the file.

Install the codec and what you really get is a computer screen full of pop-ups delivered through a variety of malware programs. You can see what the infection process looks like by checking out the video on this post. The attack is being distributed primarily through peer-to-peer networks. This is hardly an original attack, but the scale is immense: Those 500,000 attacks occurred in the space of just one week.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is reportedly loading up on Yahoo’s stock in preparation for a possible attempt to shove aside the Internet icon’s board and bring the company’s disillusioned suitor, Microsoft back to the bargaining table.

As he mulls whether to lead a rebellion, Icahn has accumulated about 50 million Yahoo shares, a stake of roughly 3.6 percent in the Sunnyvale-based company, both CNBC and The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Both media outlets cited unnamed people familiar with the matter.

Icahn hadn’t returned messages seeking comment as of late Tuesday. He faces a Thursday deadline to submit an alternate slate of directors to oppose Yahoo’s board at the company’s July 3 annual meeting. Yahoo representatives declined to comment about a possible showdown with Icahn.

OrdinarySoft has released a new version of its best-selling product, Vista Start Menu. The new version features several improvements including support for new "Mimicry" Skins, One-Click Menu Editing, a Power Panel Timer, and more. Vista Start Menu 2.8 is a huge leap forward in graphic user interface design, far surpassing the program’s main competitor, Windows Start Menu.

One of the main features of Vista Start Menu 2.8 is support for various "skins" that allow users to customize the graphical "look" of the menu interface. The skins support unique "Imitative Color" technology, enabling the display of software programs in a style native to the Operating System installed on the user’s computer. A default set of skins includes Vista, XP and Classic styles.

Version 2.8 lets users easily add and remove items in the main menu with just the click of a button. Another new button allows users quick access to a secondary menu with folders and commands which are used less frequently, allowing these items to remain at hand without "overcrowding" the main menu. Additionally, the Power Panel adds a scheduled timer, allowing users to choose when to switch off or restart the computer.

Microsoft and Research In Motion announced an agreement to provide Microsoft Windows Live services on BlackBerry smartphones. As a result of this collaboration, BlackBerry smartphone customers will enjoy easy mobile access to Windows Live Messenger and an enhanced level of integration between Windows Live Hotmail and the BlackBerry platform.

The integration of Windows Live services into the BlackBerry platform will allow customers who use Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger on their BlackBerry smartphone to benefit from the BlackBerry platform architecture with the ability to communicate in real-time using push technology, and offering an exceptional mobile communications experience. Customers will also be able to seamlessly access their Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger account from their BlackBerry smartphone by simply entering their Windows Live email address and password once.

Microsoft Office 2007, the new office suite that aims to replace older platforms, introduces numerous changes and new features. However, the very modifications that make Office 2007 attractive also complicate its use. From incompatible new file formats to a drastically changed user interface, many organizations will be better served remaining standardized on Office 2003.

This is a complete PowerPoint presentation that you can use to present a reason why it makes sense to stay with Office 2003 rather than upgrading to Office 2007. It includes an email invitation, speakers notes, and a ready to use presentation that you can use as-is or modify to suit your needs.

More than a half million computers have been infected by a Trojan spreading through bogus MP3 files on popular peer-to-peer networks in the past several days, according to researchers at McAfee’s Avert Labs.

McAfee first reported noticing a spike in the discovery of a Trojan known as Downloader-UA.h on May 6. The malware was added to the McAfee DAT files May 2.

Microsoft may have left Yahoo at the altar, but that doesn’t mean it can’t wed another, or at least adopt a little brother.

Xobni might have been the perfect match. The San Francisco startup emerged from beta with its inbox socialization software, a tool that hundreds of millions of Microsoft Outlook users could download to organize their e-mail by relationships. Xobni ("inbox" spelled backwards) is what Outlook might look like if it were turned into a social network.