Top 10 IT news stories of the week: Scottish independence, Chinese hackers, iPhone 6 issues and Larry Ellison steps aside
No escape: election fever even influences IT issues
Security, the future, and the security of the future were some of the key issues that have drawn the attention of Computing readers over the last seven days, with these subjects making up a significant proportion of this week's most popular articles.
A full week after Apple revealed its iPhone 6, the Cupertino firm remained a popular subject for our readers, although this time it was for more negative reasons, including disgruntled iTunes users complaining about the unwanted appearance of a certain aging Irish band in their music libraries.
Naturally, given the imminence of the big Scottish independence referendum, Scottish IT issues were also on the agenda too...
10. 75 per cent of mobile apps will fail security tests in 2015 - Gartner
Analysts love gazing into their crystal balls to see what the future holds, and they love telling everyone about their predictions even more. But first they have to get our attention. That may be why analysts at Gartner decided to combine two key topics of interest for IT professionals - mobile and security - coming to the amazing conclusion that that the ever increasing rise of the former means bad things for the latter.
More than three quarters of mobile applications will fail basic security tests next year, the analysts say, putting the enterprise at risk from hackers and other ne'er-do-wells.
"Enterprises that embrace mobile computing and BYOD strategies are vulnerable to security breaches, unless they adopt methods and technologies for mobile application security testing and risk assurance," said Dionisio Zumerle, principal research analyst at Gartner, who argued that most enterprises are "inexperienced in mobile application security".
9. Chinese hackers breached US military contractors
It's understandable that the fact the United States government has found itself victim of cyber attacks may come as welcome source of schadenfreude to lesser mortals in charge of IT security, while at the same time being something of a worry.
On the one hand, it demonstrates that everyone, however big their budget, is vulnerable to hackers, lessening the pressure on the humble CISO; but on the other, if the US authorities can't tell if their systems have been hacked, what chance to the rest of us have?
Well, not a lot it seems. A Senate report found that US military contractor networks had been infiltrated by Chinese hackers on at least 20 occasions between June 2012 and May 2013. But at least the attacks have been stopped, right?
"Do I have confidence that the Chinese are stopping? No," said Carl Levin, Democratic Senator of Michigan and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee behind the report. Oh, right, well then ... that's bad.
With Western governments and organisations wary of cyber espionage by computer hackers from China, Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei often finds itself forced to answer questions about the exact nature of its relationship with the government of its country of origin.
Speaking an event at The Savoy Hotel in central London, the snappily-named and -titled Dr Leroy G. Blimegger Jr, senior vice president of Huawei Global Technical Services and global president of Assurance & Managed Services, spoke of plans Huawei has to increase its engagement with CIOs.
Computing asked Blimegger how Huawei intends to reach out to CIOs who will be aware that many western governments are wary about the firm's alleged association with the Chinese government.
"Yes, there's always news floating around the edges and yes we always have to expend some energy to take care of that," said Blimegger, adding "But the reality is our business is the fastest growing business in Huawei and when we when we talk to CIOs they're not interested in that, they understand a lot of that is just noise on the periphery."
7. Backbytes: Apple offers one-click U2 removal after Bono backlash
While computer security issues are obviously very important, there are worse things. The horror of unsuspecting members of the public being forced to listen to music they didn't even buy is obviously right up there with corruption and tax-dodging when it comes to corporate scandals.
Initially, when U2 appeared at the event Apple revealed the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus, nobody thought much of it. But apathy soon turned to anger when shortly afterwards it was discovered that every single person who has an iTunes account had been given the "gift" of a brand new U2 album, automatically downloaded without the user even being asked.
The outcry saw Apple quickly react and produce a one click tool that allowed those annoyed by their unwanted present (everybody) to remove it from iTunes.
6. Phones 4U pledges to refund Apple iPhone 6 buyers after it goes under
In other Apple related news, those iPhone cultists ... we mean enthusiasts ... who rushed out to pre-order an iPhone 6 from Phones4U may find themselves disappointed. Why? Because having handing over at least £500 to the high street retailer, Phones4U called in the administrators and is no longer able to guarantee that it'll be able to fulfil iPhone 6 pre-orders ... or give those who rushed to be one of the first to own an iPhone 6 their money back.
The company has pledged to refund customers "in full" for any iPhone 6 orders that have not yet been dispatched, although that decision may be affected by the adminstrators.
"Any orders that have not already been dispatched will be cancelled and any payments refunded to customers," said to spokesman Robert White.
To put this into perspective the collapse of Phones4U also puts 5,500 jobs at risk.
5. eBay hacked, criticised for slow response
While traditional brick and mortar might be struggling, at least buying things from the online giants is completely safe, right? Well, apparently not. It seems as online auction site eBay fell victim to cyber attacks this week, which may have seen cyber criminals make off with the personal details of millions of users.
An eBay customer alerted the auction site to the attack on Wednesday, but the firm only addressed the compromise more than 12 hours later.
"It is unfortunate that eBay has once again found itself under fire for failing to respond adequately to a data breach incident," said Paul Ayers, vice president EMEA at Vormetric commenting on the issue.
"To make matters worse, this latest report comes just a little too soon after attacks on its database and daughter site, Stubhub, which exposed user credentials."
4. Google Gmail users told to change passwords after five million accounts were compromised
Well, if you haven't used an online retailer recently, then you're safe from being the victim of computer hackers, right? Wrong again. Google has become the latest company to suffer an embarrassing security breach when Russian hackers released the user name and passwords of five million Gmail users.
The breach is serious because the Gmail password might unlock access to a range of Google features, including Google's Drive cloud service and even the mobile payment system, Google Wallet.
Gmail users have been advised to change their passwords in order to stop hackers compromising other services.
3. The transition from Spine to Spine 2 - a success story or yet another NHS IT failure?
When it comes to happy pairings, government-run bodies and IT projects are up there with Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. the NHS's huge NPfIT programme was described by MPs as the "worst and most expensive contracting fiasco in the history of the public sector". One of the few projects to emerge from the debacle with any credibility was Spine, version 2 of which was launched earlier this year.
Jon Payne, an engineer at software provider InterSystems who has been directly involved with the Spine 2 integration, says along with providing greater speed and flexibility, Spine 2 will also make it much easier for clinicians to access Summary Care Records.
The best thing about Spine 2 is that it's the gateway to making things easier and more accessible to the broader NHS community and will enable tangible benefits to be delivered in a cost-effective and timely way," he said.
And according to Stuart McCaul, managing director of EMEA at Basho, the Spine 2 project "proves that the NHS can take on a large complex project".
"The NHS has vertically integrated this project instead of outsourcing it - it's an amazing success," he added. Unusual.
2. Ellison steps aside as Oracle CEO
When one of the most prominent figures in the IT industry steps down it's big news, so the announcement that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison - who's led the firm since the 1970s - has decided to leave his position is likely to send shockwaves through the industry. But is he really going?
Not really. Ellison will stay on at Oracle as executive chairman and CTO, while the CEO role will be split between Safra Catz and Mark Hurd.
"I'm going to continue doing what I've been doing over the last several years. They're going to continue what they've been doing over the last several years," Ellison said suggesting very strongly that real change is not on the agenda.
"There will actually be no changes," echoed Catz. "No changes whatsoever."
So that's clear then, so why are they doing it?
"In almost all cases, these co-CEO configurations are a jerry-rigged solution to a political problem," Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at Yale School of Management, told Reuters, suggesting that the object is merely to remove the aging Ellison from the shop window.
1. Warning over government IT systems should Scotland vote for independence
Perhaps it was inevitable in the week leading up to the Scottish independence referendum that a story focusing on that country was Computing's most popular article over the last seven days.
With the No campaign eventually securing a victory by 55 per cent to 45 per cent, the issue has been consigned to the history books, at least for now, but that doesn't mean the IT industry wasn't thinking of what might have been.
An independent Scotland would have involved removing a number of IT contracts from the authority of Westminster. Indeed it was possible the entirety of Scottish IT infrastructure could be completely shaken up and at an estimated cost of £1bn.
"We're planning for both scenarios. We've got a big presence up in Scotland. We've got to plan either way," said Andy Isherwood, HP's managing director for the UK and Ireland.
The biggest challenge would perhaps have been in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which is midway through a major project intended to deliver Universal Credit (UC), one of the coalition government's biggest IT projects. Given the ongoing problems surrounding UC IT, it's probably better for everyone concerned that independence didn't throw yet another spanner in the works.