In light of the upcoming “capture-the-flag type” type contest at DEF CON, this is as good a time as any to talk about social engineering. There is no technical solution to this issue. Humans cannot be patched (I am paraphrasing from a t-shirt that I saw at a conference). So, we need to help people recognize a scam when they see one.

In a CSO Online article they talk about the favorite ‘pick-up’ lines of social engineers. These and some stories shared by the publication’s readers are pretty instructive, so I will mention a few of them here for everybody’s benefit.

This is the next in a series of guest blog posts by IntraLinks’ collaborators, partners, and vendors. Andreas Grabner is Sr. Architect and Technology Strategist at dynaTrace. dynaTrace is a technology leader in application performance management (APM). IntraLinks selected dynaTrace Continuous Application Performance Management to improve the operation of IntraLinks’ platform during the production lifecycle in September of 2009.

The Cloud has become the hot topic in the past year, with many major technology leaders (Amazon, Google, Microsoft, SalesForce.com, etc.) extensively promoting public cloud services. What is equally interesting is the growth of the so-called “private cloud”: whether large enterprises transitioning their datacenter infrastructure to cloud-based paradigms; or solution providers using their own cloud-based platforms to provide solutions more efficiently.

Analyst conferences promise to be engaging, enlightening and actionable. I’m pleased to report that Forrester’s recent IT Forum 2010 in Las Vegas met those expectations. There was a wide range of sessions for various roles including CIOs, enterprise architects, application development professionals and technology marketers. The event’s core themes appeared to be cloud-based computing, community and social computing, and using technology to become more customer-centric.

There’s no doubt that cloud-based computing, including software-as-a-service, will continue to grow in popularity. Solutions in the public cloud have relatively low start-up costs, are available on-demand and are highly scalable. The conference offered insights for developing private clouds to operate proprietary applications. This trend is inevitable but will require years for organizations to develop clouds that match the level of accessibility, security, support and performance offered by public ones. This is due to the singular focus of cloud-based vendors on these operational parameters. Although large organizations will continue to use solutions in public clouds, they will bring their own applications to private clouds.

At the end of April, IntraLinks attended Infosecurity Europe, Europe’s largest information security event. Celebrating its 15th year, Infosecurity Europe attracted over 12,000 information security professionals to Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London, where delegates gathered to discuss the most pressing information security issues and attend a variety of education sessions hosted by international speakers and industry experts.

With over 300 exhibitors, Infosecurity Europe provided the perfect opportunity to showcase new and innovative services to top security professionals across Europe. IntraLinks was there to showcase IntraLinks Courier, a secure, efficient and cost effective solution to streamline ad-hoc large file transfers. IntraLinks Courier seamlessly integrates with company email systems or can be used as a desktop application or via a web-based browser, introducing unmatched security to help business users securely exchange large files while maintaining compliance with requirements that govern their businesses.

In today’s working environment, companies are geographically dispersed in multiple locations, often separated from customers, colleagues and partners. To avoid the need to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles to meet in person, collaborative tools could be the answer. Companies are increasingly seeing the benefit of these technologies and with the introduction of methods such as VoIP, instant messaging and web conferencing, individuals can communicate in a virtual environment, creating increased productivity and improved business process workflow.

IntraLinks is well ahead of the game and has provided collaborative technology in the form of IntraLinks Exchanges for over a decade, enabling the secure exchange of critical information. We recently exhibited at Solutions Intranet et Travail Collaboratif, a conference focused on collaborative work solutions in Paris, to showcase our solutions and to meet with customers. To understand more about the impact collaboration tools have on the market, I attended a workshop called ‘Collaboration in business, real cure for the crisis’ presented by Patrick Schambel, Managing Director from Silverpeas.