3 it trends

Trend No. 1: IPTV

We'll be exploring this topic soon with a full-blown feature in ITMJ. Television over Internet Protocol: It's inevitable, according to people within the business who know. IPTV is already being used on a daily basis in the U.S. corporate and military world, and it's only a matter of time before it comes into commercial use.


Companies such as Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung are coming out this year with early versions of handheld TVs, using IPTV. "This will make the entire satellite system we're now using obsolete, and quicker than one might think," said a manager of a large Silicon Valley corporation's IPTV studio. Stay tuned.

Trend No. 2: Wireless IM

Text messaging has been all the rage, especially among the 25-and-under cellphone crowd, for quite some time. This will always have a place in daily life, but wireless instant messaging will be the next step.

According to wireless market researcher In-Stat, the greatest growth in mobile messaging is expected to come from wireless instant messaging, which is expected to increase revenues sixfold between 2007 and 2009. Interestingly, this trend will be driven by corporate users, the research firm said. The report also found that Multimedia Message Service, which delivers pictures, sound clips and video, is expected to show nearly 50 per cent compound annual growth rate through 2009.

The biggest initial barrier to widespread consumer adoption of wireless instant messaging will be the development of industry standards, the analyst firm predicts. You read it here first: Standards will not be a problem.

Trend No. 3: Ransomeware

Ransomware is the latest thing in malware. In recent weeks, a number of personal computers were hit with PGPCoder, a Trojan that encrypted files with certain extensions and then demanded a sum of money to reverse the process, or the similar Topspyware -- found mostly in Europe. The newest cutthroat code, identified by Glendale, Calif.-based Panda Software and called SpywareNo, infects a computer, then demands money in exchange for extricating itself from the machine or unlocking suddenly-encrypted random documents.

SpywareNo exploits some of the many vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Internet Explorer (natch) to get into a machine. SpywareNo is secretly downloaded when users visit certain Web sites (mostly porn). After it installs itself, it creates a desktop icon and displays a fake warning that the system is infected with spyware. SpywareNo also alters the registry to ensure that the malware is run on every system startup. The alert then asks users to purchase the full version ($20 for a month's subscription, $60 for an annual plan).

"If users fail to register, this commercial software will 'detect' threats that don't actually exist on the computer, and which will 'disappear' as soon as users pay for the product," Panda said in a news release.

Panda, as one might expect, says it is among the first anti-malware companies to come out with an antidote.

We have a feeling this isn't the end of the ransomware story. Have you had an experience with this? And how did you handle it? Let us know.