Cisco  acquired data center security startup Rohati Systems for an undisclosed amount.  Rohati Systems was founded by five former Cisco engineers to provide data center and cloud security. Its Transaction Networking Systems (TNS) helps enable secure collaboration and policies for controlling access to data center and cloud resources without touching applications, servers, or operating systems. Rohati has made a big push recently towards security in the cloud, so perhaps Cisco will be using the startup’s technology to offer clients increased cloud-based security options. Cisco’s security offerings also got a boost from the company’s acquisition of ScanSafe late last year.

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The IT sector is leading a growing confidence among business professionals, figures unveiled by the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAEW) reveal.

Published on Friday, the latest ICAEW UK Business Confidence Monitor (BCM) showed a record rise in its confidence among business professionals, with the IT sector the most confident. The ICAEW’s confidence index had gone into positive territory for the first time since Q3 2007, rising from -28.2 to +4.8. Thirteen out of fourteen financial performance indicators detailed by the BCM are now expected to rise.

The Institute forecast a rise in GDP of 0.5% in the current calendar quarter.  This will end five consecutive quarters of negative growth.

ICAEW chief executive Michael Izza said the figures clearly suggested the recession is ending.

“While there is no doubt that the UK economy is on its way to recovery, we shouldn’t underestimate the challenges ahead for businesses,” he said.  Michael Izza pointed out that while many businesses had taken the right steps to protect themselves, and policies such as quantitative easing, interest rate and VAT cuts had helped, the recovery was still fragile and could easily be derailed.

“Although positive growth in the autumn seems more likely, there are concerns about the strength of the recovery,” Izza said. “Salaries are expected to remain squeezed and with no planned recruitment there is still an air of nervousness among UK businesses.”

When asked, 41% of senior business professionals were more confident about economic prospects facing their business in the next year. However only 6% were much more confident, indicating that caution remains about the strength and timing of the recovery.

A version of this story originally appeared on MicroScope.co.uk

If Albert Gonzalez had maxed out every credit card number he is accused of stealing – he would have single-handedly pumped £160 billion into the US economy.

Instead, the man authorities believe is responsible for the world’s biggest credit and debit card theft is facing a 25-year jail term at federal penitentiary and a half-million dollar fine.

The 28-year old Miami resident was indicted today for conspiring to hack into computer networks supporting major American retail and financial organisations, and stealing data relating to more than 130 million credit and debit cards.

Who’s laughing now, Seinfield joker?

In a two-count indictment alleging conspiracy and conspiracy to engage in wire fraud, Gonzalez, aka ’segvec’, ’soupnazi’ and ‘j4guar17′, is charged, along with two unnamed Russian co-conspirators, with using an SQL injection attack to exploit computer networks by finding a way around the network’s firewall to steal credit and debit card information.

Among the corporate victims named in the indictment are Heartland Payment Systems, a New Jersey-based card payment processor; convenience store chain 7-Eleven; and Hannaford Brothers, a Maine-based supermarket chain.

The indictment alleges that beginning in October 2006, Gonzalez and his co-conspirators researched the credit and debit card systems used by their victims, devised an attack to penetrate their networks and steal credit and debit card data; and then sent that data to computer servers they operated in California, Illinois, Latvia, the Netherlands and Ukraine.

The indictment also alleges Gonzalez and his co-conspirators also used sophisticated techniques to cover their tracks and to avoid detection by anti-virus software used by their victims.

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