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Below, Viddler video says happy holidays from around the country, a new iPhone comic and more.
A year ago, John Biglin, the CEO of Interphase Systems, was talking to the CFO of an emerging Center City pharmaceutical company.
The CFO, intent on keeping in order the financial house of his blue-chip invested life sciences startup, had a problem.
“Is it normal that sometimes you don’t get e-mails, or e-mails take a couple days to arrive or when you do get them, they come in triplicate?” Biglin remembers the CFO asking.
John Biglin
“Our IT has been cobbled together by an employee or by his nephew or uncle,” Biglin recalls the CFO and others in his position saying. “Someone just shows up in a truck and sets stuff up in our office. If the FDA came in here and we say we can’t produce this lab data or that, we are out of business.”
The CFO talked about multiple versions of contracts lost, emergency Best Buy trips for whatever hardware is on sale and documents that are never seen again.
That conversation last January set into motion the long-discussed plans for Interphase, which does 60 percent of its business in the life sciences, to develop a turn-key, managed IT platform targeted for small and medium-sized emerging pharmaceutical and biomedical companies that need top-level security, guaranteed disaster recovery, FDA compliance and flexibility. Biglin says that Ready-IT BioPharma, which launched late last month, just might be the only system of its kind.
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The holiday shopping season is again going to pack — our economy hopes — hordes of consumers into shops, malls and onto roads. The Liberty Bell is going to remain a practical militarized zone.
And while no one thinks the apocalypse is good for business, there is something to be said for having your business ready for disaster.
Wayne-based business continuity services company IDC Partners has built a business on that reality since 1991. They help companies prepare for the worst, and they’re using cool, local technology to do it.
Below, Ginnie Stouffer, vice president of consulting with IDC, takes her 15 years of industry experience to tell us about the cool technologies they implement to keep their clients ready for the worst and just what disaster movie is the favorite of someone who thinks plenty about disaster.
Lancaster security cameras on the streets are monitored by civilians working for a nonprofit group. They pan, zoom and call police if they see a crime. Linda Johnson / For The L.A. Times
In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun. See others here.
You’re probably being watched in Lancaster.
This city of 54,000 in the middle of a rural county of the same name just may be the most closely scrutinized place in the country, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.
As many as 165 closed-circuit TV cameras that will soon bring constant live surveillance of very nearly every street, park and other public space. That would be more outdoor cameras than cities as large as Boston and San Francisco.
Two more things are unique about the camera network, as the L.A. Times story suggests: it was built and maintained by a private nonprofit group and few seem concerned about the privacy implications.
The group, which hires civilians to move and follow the cameras and dispatch police to suspiscious activity, hasn’t found much public outcry.
“Years ago, there’s no way we could do this,” said Lancaster’s police chief Keith Sadler told the Times. “It brings to mind Big Brother, George Orwell and ’1984.’ It’s just funny how Americans have softened on these issues.”
There is some question as to the effectiveness of cameras, though. In what the Times report calls the largest U.S. study, US Berkeley researchers evaluated 71 cameras that San Francisco put in high-crime areas beginning in 2005. In December, they released a report that found “no evidence” of a reduction in violent crime, though it did note “substantial declines” in property crime near the cameras.
Hat Tip Philly Tech News.
After the jump, the continued spat over a state film tax credit, robot-loving high schoolers and eight more of the week’s tech stories you shouldn’t miss, including our best read story of the last seven days.
Philly.com is denying allegations that Philadelphia’s largest news portal is distributing malware that could potentially harm user computers.
“Philly.com takes seriously the online security of our users, and we go to great efforts to combat issues including malware,” according to a written statement issued to Technically Philly.
“We will continue to investigate all claims regarding Philly.com and stand by our pledge to provide our users with a safe and secure online experience.”
Earlier today, city blog Phillyist reported that one of its readers was issued a warning by an employer to stay off Philly.com because the site could contain malware.
Only one mention of the malware allegations appeared in a Twitter search, but it was posted before the Phillyist’s story and was not the blog’s original source. “Whatever you do, don’t go to Philly.com, it’s infected with Malware,” April Robinson wrote on her Twitter account a little after Noon.
9:50 a.m.: This article has been edited to clarify that the City Controller’s press release indicates the possibility of password breaches throughout the city government IT infrastructure, not just the city Web site.
If only a hacker could manage to navigate the city’s Web site, the administration might be in trouble.
That log-in passwords are lax and that fired city employees can still access secure portions of the city’s Web site are just two claims of the 2008 General IT Controls Review of the city’s Division of Technology, released yesterday by City Controller Alan Butkovitz. The review found that some terminated employees and contractors still had active user IDs to one or more of the city’s systems.
“There’s a lack of communication between the DOT and the Office of Human Resources,” said Butkovitz, who is embroiled in a primary race. “Once an employee or contractor is no longer with the City, all of their user ID and password information must be terminated immediately. The current practice exposes the City to substantial risks by allowing access to important financial data by unauthorized personnel.”
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