The use of social media in corporate environments and security top the agenda for this week.

Twitter, Facebook Face Bans at Work
The debate over whether corporations should ban access to social networking sites is ratcheting up as security concerns start to mount. Of course, as Dell has shown this week we have a long way to go before we fully master how to use these services. In the meantime, here's a list of truth and lies when it comes social networking sites like Twitter.

Hackers Show How Easy It is to Steal over 400,000 Passwords
Clearly the enemy is us when it comes to security, especially when a small group of people can steal that many passwords. The good news is that more of the hacker community is maturing but web services protocols and OpenID are now two of the biggest areas for potential breaches while Microsoft had its biggest patch day ever this week. This is all giving rise to a cottage industry around security assessments assuming upper management cares enough to proactively do anything about security versus simply waiting for the inevitable to happen.

Cyber-warfare Marks the Start of Russian Attacks in Georgia
For the first time, but probably not the last, a major military conflict appears to be coordinated with a series of attacks specifically aimed at disrupting a country's digital infrastructure.

VMware Update Causes More Problems than It Solves
Lots of sites are reporting issues with the latest version of VMware ESX. The company says it is on the case and promises to have a fix ready in short order.

Intel Readies Biggest Processor Push for 2008
As part of an effort to gearing up for the release of a new class of Nehalem processors, Intel has also moved to cut prices on existing processors.

Google Outages Raise Concerns over Cloud Computing
With two sets of outages in a week, the poster child for cloud computing has managed to raise doubts about the entire paradigm. Clearly, Google owes customers an apology, but we also seem to be approaching the top of the hype cycle for cloud computing so every little event is now being magnified. In the meantime, venture capitalists are staring to channel their money into new lines of businesses that stand to benefit from ubiquitous access to computing resources, which ultimately may lead to a new digital services economy. Meanwhile, Dell appears to be rethinking its approach towards trying trademark the term cloud computing.

E-Waste Initiatives Likely to Pick Up Momentum in 2009
With a new administration and tougher policies being implemented around the globe, figuring out a more efficient process for disposing of computer equipment is going to move to the top of the corporate agenda. In general, here's a list of five reasons to go green and some tactical advice on how to it as energy prices continue to push people to look for more efficient systems.

RFID Goes for the Gold at Olympics
The big winner in terms of gaining fans at the Olympics might be much maligned RFID technologies that are showing a lot of practical applications at the events in Beijing.