This downturn has been compounded by a recent boom in the interest of new technologies such as cloud computing which has had many IT professionals questioning their futures. The outsourcing of traditional in house IT services to cloud-based support, SaaS or to a lower cost foreign competitor who take care of system administration, programming, help desk support and testing is threatening to render many in house teams obsolete.

Pay-cuts, limited career opportunities and the withdrawal of vital training schemes by companies have been cited by many individuals associated with the industry as primary factors in the stagnation of the UK professional. So what is the solution, in a recent ComputerWeekly user questionnaire a majority of those who answered agreed that a fair playing field with offshore workers with UK contracts was essential to the survival of indigenous IT services.

As developing nations expand and grow it is inevitable that costs will eventually rise, so for the UK based IT professional I think that until a more ‘level playing field’ is achieved the key in my opinion is to make yourself more valuable to the company you work for. The best way to overcome a problem is by understanding it and remaining resolute; it is not good enough for IT teams to offer a service that will solely cut costs anymore or soon they may find that the simplest cost cutting exercise is to outsource their operation. Professionals need a thorough understanding of traditional and basic IT is crucial as well the flexibility to embrace new technologies. They should not simply concentrate on cost cutting, but value creation, forging a close working relationship with non-IT related colleagues such as marketing, finance or sales and embrace and manipulate new technologies including cloud computing, SaaS, Social Media and portable IT devices including smart phones and tablets. Fast and effective system delivery allows us to explore new markets and new opportunities, something that is central to the evolution of the IT industry.

It of course comes as no surprise that Jobs, who underwent a liver transplant in 2009 during a similar six month absence, has decided to take some time to focus on his own health. In 2004 Jobs divulged to Apple employees that he had been diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer, though a rare less aggressive  It was commented numerously after Apple Worldwide Developers conferences in 2008 that the San Francisco born businessman was looking considerably leaner than usual. I don’t want to focus too much upon the health of someone who despite his international status is a human being first and a business mogul second; more important is the effect Jobs’ absence may have upon the company, with numerous questions now being thrown around about the leadership of Apple: will a single individual step into the shoes of Jobs on a temporary basis; can the likes of Jonathan Ive or Tim Cook come together and consolidate successfully; will there be any kind of boardroom bust ups if control is levelled upon a group of senior employees rather than one person; what kind of influence, if any, will Steve Jobs have on product development and the overriding direction Apple expansion over the next year, two years or however long?

The announcement of Jobs’ leave of absence is thought to be very strategic, with shareholders having ridden a wave over the past year and share prices at an all time high; the day of the announcement itself was also an American national holiday meaning that investors had more time to let the news be absorbed. As suspected though when trading reopened in New York shares were down more than 5pc on the NASDAQ.

Despite this initial fall, it is widely believed that if financiers can ignore those itchy feet for long enough the company will not only recover, but bounce back with significant gains. Just as in 2009 when Jobs had to leave Apple to undergo the aforementioned surgery stocks suffered a similar reactionary downturn before a substantial recovery. Also just as in 2009, the year of the update and the relaunch, 2011 is set to see a continuous stream of product revisions and upgrades; we already know about the Verizon iPhone and spectators are eagerly anticipating the iPad 2 and the iPhone 5 to be unveiled and there will undoubtedly be some Mac desktop and notebook . With the strategy of so many big businesses today being ‘plan ahead’ it would be unsurprising if the iPhone 6 and 7 were already well under way in the development stage.

As we might all suspect I think that Apple will do just fine without Jobs for the foreseeable future, but in the long term the loss of his personality and methodology will no doubt be a big blow to the company. Jobs has something about him that even a comparative corporate figurehead such as Bill Gates lacks, an unconventionalism that just seems to work so that when the torch is finally past, it won’t be like Steve Ballmer’s succession at Microsoft, but something a little more poignant. What this indicates is the unique status and authority of the industrial celebrity, how one person’s prominence can so considerably define a multinational corporation employing thousands.

Whether or not Tim Cook or Jonathan Ive share this ‘star power’ is debatable, but in the meantime I have no doubt that Apple can continue to succeed without Steve Jobs at the helm, and as the man himself has already outlined, I’m sure wherever he is and whatever his health may be, he will still have a very real impact upon the overall evolution of his brainchild.

So what type of anti-virus software should you choose? With so much competition in the market today it is important to select a program which compliments your usage, does not hinder or impede the processing of your OS or any communicative features and is, perhaps most importantly, going to thoroughly and efficiently protect your computer. When I of course refer to antivirus software I am referring to a utility which protects not only from viruses but Trojans, spyware, rootkits, keyloggers, adware, scareware and host of other potential compromising attacks.

One feature of many of 2011’s new antivirus releases is the blurring of the lines between standalone and suite programs. Previous features which would provide a distinction between the two were the presence of personal firewalls and spam filtering tools yet these tools have been integrated into many of the recognised security suites including Panda Antivrus Pro 2011, eScan Anti-virus 11 and McAfee AntiVirus Plues 2011. Spam filtering has also become incorporated into BullGuard Antivirus 10 as well as eScan’s offering. StopSign Internet Security 1.0 includes an optional firewall with inbuilt spam filter. Other new programs include BitDefender Antivirus pro with its full remote management system and an effective anti phishing tool. GData Antivurs 2011 and AVG’s newest free antivirus update also feature anti-phising.

This trend doesn’t however spell the death of the standalone antivirus program, F-Secure Anti-Virus 2011 is completely distinctive from a form of suite or mini suite, while providing a resilient service

The problem regards the systems Graphics Rendering Engine which would allow a hacker, following a careful series of actions, to gain partial or full control of a computer. The strategy involves sending an email with an attached Microsoft Word or Power Point document, within which would be contained a specifically engineered thumbnail. The user would then be coerced to open this thumbnail, which would trigger the attack. Alternatively, the image could be placed on a network with potential victims having to browse the image location on Windows Explorer.

The flaw affects Windows XP Service Pack 3, XP Professional x64 Edition Service Pack 2, Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Server 2003 x64 Edition Service Pack 2, Server 2003 with SP2 for Itanium-based systems, Vista Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2, Vista x64 Edition Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2, Server 2008 for 32-bit, 64-bit, and Itanium-based systems and Service Pack 2 for each.

Microsoft did however state that it is not aware of any active attacks which are exploiting the problem, a spokesman stating that,

“Upon completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to help protect our customers,” he continued, “This may include providing a security update through our monthly release process or providing an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs.”

This revelation also comes at a time when Google security engineer Michael Zalewski has entered into an argument with Microsoft chiefs over the timeline of recorded correspondences with the firm, regarding the results of his new ‘fuzzing’ tool, referred to as the ‘cross fuzz’ which has exposed over 100 bugs in the 5 major browsers, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera and Safari. Though reports suggest the operators of the other systems, Mozilla, Apple and Google, where receptive to Zalewski’s findings, the Google worker has accused Microsoft of dragging their feet over providing patches for the flaws that are reported.

In further news, Statcounter has released an end of year report which also suggests that Mozilla Firefox has overtaken Internet Explorer as Europe’s most popular internet browser. Though their findings differ considerably from a similar Net Applications review, the findings suggest a considerable slide from 44.91% to a 35.54% share. The data should perhaps be taken with a pinch of salt, but could signify a shift in browsing habits, both reports corroborating on a significant increase in the use of Google’s lighter and faster Chrome program.

The software is thought to be designed with battery powered, mobile devices in mind, with Apple and Google’s recent advancements in the tablet and smart phone sector. Despite being the world’s largest software manufacturer, Microsoft certainly has lost ground to its competitors in the mobile computing market, with Apple’s iPad thought to have a 95% stranglehold on the tablet PC market and Microsoft’s only representative being the Windows 7 phone, which has received a mixed response.

Considering  Microsoft’s well established relationship with Intel and the type of x86 chips which are favoured by the processing company it would be difficult to figure out why else would Microsoft would endeavour to establish a program attuned with ARM other than to attack the mobile computing market. With wireless technologies such as WiFi and mobile internet making data connection easier and more accessible industry commentators are predicting a significant rise in the use of mobile devices across the next few years and it is understandable that Microsoft, already at a disadvantage to its competitors, wants to make some kind of headway in this lucrative new market sector.

Windows current flagship OS, Windows 7, is known to be far too bulky to function on devices with limited capacity and processing power, this could mean an upgrade for Windows current Phone 7 platform (although unlikely) or the engineering of a ‘Windows Lite’ version that would operate with the systems most popular features.

So does this mean that the door is now closed for Intel and its biggest cash cow? Well, not necessarily; in the initial report from Bloomberg it is revealed that, “The new software also will be able to work on Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. processors — the chips that power PC versions of Windows. While other versions of Microsoft software aimed at phones and mobile devices work on ARM chips, this is the first time it will make a full version of Windows available on that technology.”

If this statement is accurate, it will represent one of, if the not the first instance that a popular operating system has had the opportunity to run on both ARM and x86 architectures for domestic consumers. What this also means is that there will be a chance to make direct apple to apple comparisons of devices that run on Windows and Intel versus those from competing manufacturers. Intel will have to get their skates on if they are to mount a serious challenge against the new range of ARM chips already set for launch in the new year with improved computing power and miserly consumption, if that is, ABI Research’s prediction that ARM will surpass x86 as soon as 2013.

Wikileaks has been at the centre of a global media furore following the exposure of thousands of politically sensitive documents, the latest of which suggests that North Korean assisted missile compounds are being constructed in the remote Burmese Jungle.

The group who are called Anonymous set about implementing ‘Operation Payback’ using a host of zombie computers, internet capable systems which have been previously hacked or compromised, in a botnet DDoS attack on the specified corporations. Essentially these multiple inputs flood the bandwidth or resources of the intended targets, preventing their web pages from loading properly. The companies have been targeted for their refusal to process Wikileaks’ payments, resulting in disruptions to Visa’s processing and forcing the Mastercard website offline for several hours.

A spokeswoman for Mastercard said, following the site’s recovery that, “Our core processing capabilities have not been compromised and cardholder account data has not been placed at risk.” Despite reassurances, the success of the coordinated attacks may have some people questioning the safety and security protocols of these international corporations, especially considering that one of the perpetrators who yesterday admitted to being involved in Operation Payback and was consequently arrested, was a 16 year old boy from the Netherlands.

Twitter and Amazon are also said to be proposed targets of the activists, with the former yesterday in a seemingly anxious attempt to dissuade any retributive actions tweeting on its own page that “This week, people are wondering about Wikileaks, with some asking if Twitter has blocked @wikileaks, @cablegate or other related topics from appearing in the list of top trends,”

“The answer: absolutely not. In fact, some of these terms, including @wikileaks and @cablegate, have previously trended either worldwide or in specific locations”

This highly publicised event may have some businesses wondering about their own IT support and security and it seems that as highlighted in the past few days, anyone can be vulnerable to cyber attacks. Although small or medium size businesses are very unlikely to be the target of such an orchestrated manoeuvre my advice would still be to seek out solid, professional systems and advice to prevent any type system compromise.

A sandbox for those of you aren’t sure is a security mechanism that is used for separating programs, usually used to execute untested code or suspicious programs from third parties, suppliers and unfamiliar users. Essentially, it traps or at least hinders malware from escaping an application and wreaking havoc on an OS.

Apple which has been in a dispute with Adobe since 2007 regarding Flash on the iPhone, recently dropped the software from the newest MacBook Air and the intention seems to be to remove it from all future machines. Apple insiders cited security as the reason for turning their backs on the product and removing it from their Apple OS X system.

Google it seems took a different approach and instead sought to work in conjunction with Adobe to develop said sandbox. On the Chromium Blog, Chrome’s official news source, Pizano and developer Justin Schuh stated that, “This initial Flash Player sandbox is an important milestone in making Chrome even safer. In particular, users of Windows XP will see a major security benefit, as Chrome is currently the only browser on the XP platform that runs Flash Player in a sandbox.”

Although Google and Adobe are optimistic about their new development they do accept that there is still more to be done, “While we’ve laid a tremendous amount of groundwork in this initial sandbox, there’s still more work to be done. We’re working to improve protection against additional attack vectors, and will be using this initial effort to provide fully sandboxed implementations of the Flash Player on all platforms.”

Some users have already complained that the newly implemented sandbox has had a detrimental effect upon their software including breaking the control panel of the settings menu. No doubt Adobe will consider the long term security implications of the development a worthy compensation for these temporary inconveniences.

These real world improvements were revealed by Dean Hachamovitch, corporate Vice President for Internet Explorer, to be developments in Microsoft’s Java Script engine, Chakra. He stated that engineers have been tuning Chakra to corroborate more with the patterns found in real-world sites, observing attentively the way web sites actually use JavaScript in response to input from users, relocate objects and manipulate strings. What we might be asking though, is why weren’t these improvements, which sound more like commonsense than innovation, implemented much earlier.

Although Microsoft have again declined to announce even an approximate date of release for the new browser it is reported that there have been over 13 million downloads of IE 9 beta since it was released in mid-September.

What also transpired within the last few days was that Microsoft has already added stability fixes to the download.  One update provides stability fixes and the second is said to address issues with the user feedback tool of Windows-Live-Essentials 11 on 64-bit machines.

Consumers have expressed particular appreciation for the new user interface in what have so far been largely developer based previews of the platform. Users with automatic updates can sit back and wait for the updates to be automatically installed. As for the short term future IE9, watch this space, insiders have stated that a launch could be set to coincide with the International Consumer Electronics Show in early January next year.

This is the problem that Microsoft have faced since the launch and promotion of its Bing search engine and while Bing has made some progress in clawing back a little of the market share from its competitors it is still a long way off become a real contender to Google’s crown.

At a recent panel discussion at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco senior Vice President of Microsoft’s Online Audience Business, Yusuf Medhi admitted that his company has, “a long ways to go in terms of what we want to accomplish.”

Google’s position as, essentially what is for many, a default search page has a significant effect upon the way people search the internet and Medhi admitted that it would be extremely challenging for Microsoft to turn the heads of users who utilize the service so frequently, a habit ingrained upon the social consciousness, even the term ‘to Google’ is now a verb recognised in the English Dictionary. Medhi stated that, “It’s a hard thing. Habits die hard,” but he and the rest of Microsoft will certainly hoping that they don’t die too hard as they look to increase Bing’s market share.

In September in the U.S, Google handled 66.1 percent of search queries as opposed to 16.7 for Yahoo and 11.2 for Bing. Microsoft’s search partnership with is being established globally to assert Bing as the back end search engine for yahoo sites.

Although these statistics may sound healthy for Google, the U.S market share is relatively competitive compared to UK data which shows that over 91 percent of all searches go through either google.co.uk or google.com.

Medhi stated that Bing’s offline and online marketing campaign has been geared towards highlighting the system’s capabilities to perform tasks or collect information within the framework of the Bing interface.

Google’s Nikesh Arora, President of Global Sales Operations and Business Development, sat a matter of feet away from Medhi at the same conference seemed to set Google’s targets squarely on developing the company’s capacity for display advertising. Not known traditionally as a significant display advertisement provider Google has been busy working on its technologies to simplify the process of devising display ad campaigns as well as buying up advertising space on thousands of sites.

This confrontation is only one part of the increasing war between Microsoft and Google which has recently seen Facebook brought into the fray. In alliance with Microsoft, Facebook’s impending message platform which, despite Mark Zuckerberg’s protestations, is set to challenge Gmail as one of the major online communication networks will also have Facebook Docs fully integrated into the system. Facebook docs represented the first ever opportunity for users to use a web browser to access Microsoft’s Office Web Apps. As what looks to be a direct challenge to Google Docs the tussle between these two titans looks set to go on for a long while to come.

Also included in the initiative are Windows Live SkyDrive, Photos, Docs, and Devices pages which will all automatically be equipped to transfer their data via HTTPS. Microsoft is hopeful that this overhaul will give users more confidence that their accounts will be secure as popularity in rival email services, particularly Google’s Gmail continues to grow.

To activate HTTPS security for your Hotmail account go to your account live login and search for Manage SSL. Once this feature is enabled all of the connections you make in future will be delivered by SSL. The upgrade does not cover all connections though, including Outlook Hotmail Connector, Windows Live Mail and Windows Live app for Windows Mobile.

Once the changes have been in use for a reasonable period and proven stable Windows may decide to make HTTPS encryption a default setting for Hotmail Live accounts. The update has not been without its bugs though, with some customers complaining that they are having trouble accessing their mailbox