Well, how was it for you? For those of you who didn’t attend Gitex last week (or indeed any of the myriad of conferences that were organised to coincide with it), then forgive us for going on about it so much in this week’s issue, but remind us again just why you didn’t go?

Frankly, events like Gitex should be seized upon by anybody connected with the region’s ICT industry.

As we’re actually going to press the day before the official ending of the show, we don’t have the official attendance figures for this year’s Gitex (or for GulfComms, which ran alongside Gitex for the first time this year), but we are certainly confident that they will be very impressive indeed.

The size and scale of the event have both grown so much even over the past few years and visitors certainly get to see a good show, with vendors vying with each other to have the best products on display, the biggest news stories, the most impressive stands — pretty much anything that will get the visitors’ attention.

The past few days have been a whirl of press conferences, interviews and meetings for the IT Weekly editorial team — there has been so much happening at Gitex that even with a six-page section dedicated to it we couldn’t possibly cover all the news and announcements from the show.

Many of the more interesting customer stories will be covered in subsequent issues, apologies in advance to those PR managers who don’t see their clients covered — we simply don’t have the space to do justice to all the great stories we’ve heard in the past week.

There were a few stories we didn’t hear though: industry rumours had suggested we would hear just when voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services would be fully legalised here in the UAE. However, according to the UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), plans were still waiting approval last week, and details were not made available.

TRA director general Mohammed Al Ghanim said the service would be made available in the UAE, but only through the two licensed operators, and declined to be drawn on just when.

Likewise, gossip had suggested that du, the UAE’s second operator, would announce its launch date during Gitex; du CEO Osman Sultan again declined to be drawn on a date however (as we said previously, we had to go to press the day before Gitex’s official close, so there is still a chance that announcements on both these were made on the final day).

There will be more analysis of Gitex in next week’s issue, but for now we will close by saying a hearty well done to all involved in this great event.

By Peter Branton

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AVAR, the Association of anti-Virus Asia Researchers, is a non-profit organisation formed in 1998 that boasts a membership that`s a who`s who of computer virus experts in the Asia Pacific region.

The organisation provides a valuable independent forum for experts to swap information on viruses and malware, and also release information on computer virus incidents via the AVAR website.

The two-day event, organised this year by Chillisoft, will be held at the Skycity Auckland Convention Centre with the keynote delivered by Information Technology minister David Cunliffe.

There will be 22 presentations on the latest, greatest and most deadly security issues presented at the conference, which this year has the theme Digital Security - Prevention to Prosecution.

Presentations include, The Emergence of Ransomware by McAfee`s Babu Nath Giri and Nitin Jyoti. This is the re-emerging phenomenon of trojanware that holds computer or system resources - files, data, etc - in its control for a ransom.

Also on the bill is Eric Chien from Symantec, who will present a paper, entitled Threats from Gadgets. He says that popular gadgets, such as Google Desktop gadgets for Windows and Yahoo Widgets, can contain malicious content including trojans, viruses, and worms.

In A View of the Pacific Rim: Comparative Spyware Trends in Japan, the US and Australia Microsoft`s Jeff Williams looks at how spyware is a global phenomenon yet, also has characteristics associated with regional threats unique to that region.

Geoff Cossey from Chillisoft says that many of the speakers are "legends of computing world" and explains that AVAR is unique in the security industry because its members co-operate on research.

However, the AVAR conference committee is still open to submissions from presenters on topics such as the analysis of malware trends, replicative and non-replicative malware (botnets, rootkits, Trojans, spam, spyware, phishing, pharming, and so on); internet criminal investigation/tracking/research; the roles of ISPs, ASNs; wireless security; and emerging technologies.

Cossey explains that while many top security minds from overseas have committed to the conference, disappointingly few Kiwi experts have signed up.

"It`s not a not a commercial event, so you don`t get the sort of marketing similar events would normally see," he says, adding that local presenters would be welcomed.

By Ken Lewis 

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The Internet service provider, as it was once understood ? the deliverer dialup Internet access, or even high-speed service ? is an antiquated concept. ISPs are evolving with "Internet services," and ISPCON is evolving along with them

Of course, that evolution is by design. And a big part of that design has been the inclusion, over the last several years, of material related to Web hosting ? both in the exhibit hall and in the educational tracks.

Jon Price, the main architect of that design, makes an important distinction, however. The Web hosting content is not included in ISPCON to engage an audience separate from ISPs. It is included to accommodate an important part of the Internet service business, he says, and a kind of service that should not, today, be extricable from the idea of an ISP.

In conversations with theWHIR leading up to the event, Price expressed his concern that publications focused on the Web hosting business might paint ISPCON in the wrong light. ISPCON, he says, doesn`t offer separate content for single-play operators. It offers a range of content for providers that offer a range of services. And for those narrow-focus operators that attend, he says, he hopes ISPCON opens their eyes.

"I can`t think of any examples of where it`s generally smart for any business to be only one thing to one customer and never expand, evolve, diversify and consider other avenues of growth or markets outside a single offering either coming in or out of hosting from or to another area of service in related markets," says Price. "In fact, that`s the beauty of ISPCON - it creates a tremendous number of unique perspectives in one place while having a profound effect on those who came with one thing in mind. Generally, they`ll leave with a thousand new ideas that they`d never considered and wouldn`t be found elsewhere."

While Price offers appropriately forward-thinking notions about what Web hosting means to the ISP business, and what ISPCON should mean to that business, the event itself may be slightly behind his intentions in its execution.

That may not be the fault of the conference program as much as it is a result of certain preconceptions brought to the event by some attendees. While the session program veered into specific tracks for services like VoIP, hosting and wireless - services Price feels are part of the larger ISP reality - sessions just as often often bridged those technologies in the more general "business" and "marketing" tracks.

Speaking near the conference`s end, Price says he sees the role ISPCON has to play in enlightening Web hosts who still think of themselves as just that and access providers who think of themselves as ISPs.

The challenge for ISPCON in the coming months - the next event is already scheduled for May - may not be building in new sessions that recognize the universality of Internet service providers. Those, it already includes. It will more likely involve building in functions for helping latecomers understand the new ways that service providers are thinking about their businesses.

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