IDC: World Created 161 Billion Gigs of Data in 2006

Imagine more than two billion of Apple's highest-capacity iPods. According to a study by technology research firm IDC , that's what it would take to store all of the digital data that the world created in 2006 alone.

Taken together, the planet's electronic ones and zeros last year added up to 161 exabytes -- or 161 billion gigabytes -- of data. But that's just a start. In a press release issued earlier this week, data storage giant EMC, which commissioned the IDC survey, predicted that the so-called "digital universe" will increase by a factor of six by 2010.

If correct, that means the planet's annual data output will be approaching one zettabyte, or one sextillion bytes (a one followed by 21 zeros).

Rising Data Storage Costs

While IDC predicts that as much as 70 percent of data in 2010 will be created by individuals -- e-mail, online video, Web sites, and so forth -- the firm also predicts that virtually all of the data will be handled by an organization at some point.

As a result, IDC argues, "organizations -- including businesses of all sizes, agencies, governments and associations -- will be responsible for the security, privacy, reliability and compliance of at least 85 percent of the information."

"If regulations become more stringent," EMC spokesperson Kevin Kempsie said, "and governments require companies to store more info, then the sphere of the average I.T. manager will expand tremendously."

Fortunately, not all digital data lasts very long. Some data is deleted and the bytes recycled, while other data is never stored in the first place (most cell phone conversations, for instance). Nonetheless, the predicted rise in data volume will put steady pressure on corporate data storage costs.

Emerging Data Trends

The EMC/IDC report contains several other significant trends that will be of interest to corporate I.T. departments, which are frequently charged with making sure that data stays in one place. The largest category of digital data, not surprisingly, is e-mail. Person-to-person communications alone accounted for six exabytes of data in 2006, and growth continues to be rapid.

In addition, IDC estimates that in 2006, there were one billion devices capable of capturing digital images. Approximately 150 billion images were taken with digital cameras, and another 100 billion with cell phones.

Approximately 20 percent of all digital data is governed by compliance rules and standards, while roughly 30 percent might be subject to security restrictions. The recent adoption of data preservation rules by the federal courts might increase those percentages.

But without question, the two most powerful data trends are the number of Internet users and the speed with which they are connecting. Between 1996 and 2006, the number of Web users grew from a mere 48 million to 1.1 billion worldwide. IDC predicts that over the next four years, another 500 million people will come online.

When new users get online, the odds are good that they'll have a fast connection. Right now, over 60 percent of Internet users have access to broadband, whether at home, school, or the office.

Consumer Privacy Concerns

For I.T. departments, the sheer volume of digital material and the ease and speed with which it can be distributed will be an ongoing challenge in the years to come. A particular concern, as organizations collect more information, will be threats to consumer privacy.

"I.T. departments," Kempskie said, "mainly secure infrastructure right now. But with the expanding digital universe, organizations will have to get a lot smarter about information security. In fact, security needs to get information-centric; that is, the security needs to travel with the information."

Kempskie said that the EMC/IDC report is actually the third in a series of studies that began in 2000. "We approached IDC last year," Kempskie said, "because everyone knows that the amount of digital information has exploded over the last few years and we felt that increase should be quantified."

A detailed version of the research is available on EMC's Web site.

Microsoft vs Google

Microsoft Slams Google Book Search

In yet another clash between tech titans, Microsoft is accusing Google of copyright infringement. Redmond claims Google's Book Search project robs publishers and authors of due profits by reprinting their content online for the world to view free of charge.

In prepared remarks delivered at Tuesday's Association of American Publishers annual meeting in New York, Thomas Rubin, Microsoft's associate general counsel for copyright, trademark, and trade secrets, called Google's business model "troubling" and said the search giant "systematically violates copyright."

Rubin lumped Google in with companies that create no content of their own and make money solely on the backs of other people's content by selling advertising.

"What path will we as a society choose in making the world's books and publications available online? Will we choose a path that nourishes creativity and innovation over the long term and that preserves incentives for authors to offer their best works online? Or will we choose a path that encourages companies simply to take the works of others, without any regard for copyright or the impact of their actions on authors and publishers too?" Rubin asked. Microsoft, he said, has chosen the former path.

Microsoft's Read

Like Google, Microsoft is scanning thousands of books and making the tomes searchable online in a project dubbed Live Search Books. But Redmond has chosen only to scan works that are no longer protected under copyright law, or newer titles that publishers give express permission to reprint.

Google, on the other hand, includes portions of copyrighted works under what it claims as "fair use," a portion of the United States Copyright Act that allows the use of copyrighted materials for certain purposes, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

Microsoft is not alone in its take on the matter. The Association of American Publishers and the Author's Guild are suing Google over its stance. Google's track record of protecting copyrights in other parts of its business is weak at best, according to Rubin, who pulled the YouTube card: "Anyone who visits YouTube, which Google purchased last year, will immediately recognize that it follows a similar cavalier approach to copyright."

Google Writes Back

Google responded directly to Rubin's assertions. The company assured copyright owners that it is committed to complying with laws. Google continues to tout the benefits to copyright owners of its approach to book scanning.

"The goal of search engines, and of products like Google Book Search and YouTube, is to help users find information from content producers of every size," David Drummond, Google's senior vice president for corporate development, wrote in a statement. "We do this by complying with international copyright laws, and the result has been more exposure and in many cases more revenue for authors, publishers, and producers of content."

Which Company Is Right?

Charles Baker, an intellectual property attorney at Porter & Hedges, said Google's book scanning project isn't necessarily protected by fair use, but it might not be direct copyright infringement, either.

Some legal experts have questioned whether Google's practices amount to secondary copyright infringement according to a new theory of liability that emerged following the MGM v. Grokster case. Baker defended StreamCast Networks in the landmark decision in which the Supreme Court unanimously held that peer-to-peer file sharing companies like Grokster and StreamCast could be sued for inducing copyright infringement.

"Even the Supreme Court has said that there's got to be more than just offering a product out there that may or may not allow copyright infringement," Baker noted. "Google has plenty of defenses here such that they are not directly tied to the underlying acts of infringement."

Considering Microsoft's own book scanning project and Ruben's captive, agreeable audience, Baker suggested that Microsoft might be attempting to play the good corporate citizen in the eyes of irate publishers who have lobbying power. "At the end of they day," he concluded, "Microsoft is trying to make its competitor look bad."

Aaple and Mecintosh

Apple Patches Serious QuickTime Bugs

Apple has released several updates for QuickTime, the company's media-player software, to address eight security vulnerabilities. Classified as "serious," the flaws expose Macs and Windows computers to attack, the company noted in its security alert.

The bugs garnered a high severity rating because they could be used to create malicious files that could give an attacker control over any computer running QuickTime.

Apple has issued patches for QuickTime in the past, most recently in January when it created a patch for a zero-day flaw. The new patch is for QuickTime 7.1.5, which can run on both Macs and Windows systems.

Feeling Flawed

The bugs reside in QuickTime's integer overflow and heap buffer overflow functions, and affect the software's handling of video files.

By enticing a user to open a malicious movie, an attacker can trigger an overflow, according to Apple. This action could lead to an application crash or arbitrary code being executed, which could give an attacker control of the user's system.

In addition to issuing the QuickTime patches, the company released updates for iTunes, adding additional support for the music and video store.

Now in version 7.1, iTunes has improved sorting options so users can more effectively organize artists, albums, and songs. It also adds support for the release of Apple TV, expected to launch within the next few weeks.

System Check

Security researchers have been focusing intently on QuickTime and other similar applications because they are in widespread use on blogs and social-networking sites.

As much as Apple hypes its security in comparison to Windows, it is very difficult to say whether one operating system is more secure than another, according to Sophos senior security consultant Carole Theriault.

"There are millions of lines of code behind any platform, and of course there are flaws inside that can be discovered and exploited by those that look hard enough and are determined enough," she said.

Apple tends to be less targeted than Windows because more people use the Microsoft system, she added. That means there are more hackers and malicious code writers scouring that OS for vulnerabilities.

Hacker Target

So, although it might look like Apple is safer, Theriault noted, the more likely reason is that the company is not the market leader, and presents a smaller, less attractive target for attackers.

"Should this change in the future and they become kings of the computer market, I'd be very surprised if we didn't see malware distributors and hackers shift their attention to exploiting Apple code much more regularly," she said.

In terms of warning users and taking security matters seriously, both Microsoft and Apple seem to be very adept at dealing with flaws, she added.