US Military ban USB’s – Wikileaks.org Backlash Friday, December 10, 2010, 10:22:37 AM Since U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning downloaded thousands of confidential embassy files and forwarded them to Wikileaks.org nearly two weeks ago, Governments around the world have gone to great lengths to protect themselves against future theft of this kind.

Following the actions by the Department of Homeland Security and nine U.S. Attorneys’ Offices whereby 82 domain names were seized because the websites they linked to were allegedly, as the EFF says, engaged in the sale and distribution of counterfeit goods and illegal copyrighted works, the ICANN CEO and President has said the organisation was not a party to the actions and nor was it a target of them.

A photo of Rackspace headquarters in San Antonio (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — The San Antonio-based headquarters of Web hosting provider Rackspace Hosting ( www.rackspace.com ) is now confirmed as being safe after evacuating its employees late Thursday evening following a bomb threat, according to a report by the San Antonio Business Journal .

A photo of the entrance of Global Switch’s data center in Ultimo (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Data center operator Global Switch ( www.globalswitch.com ) announced last week it will build a new $290 million fully-fitted data center in Sydney, Australia. The company recently received a Part 3A Major Projects approval from the NSW Department of Planning to begin building the 365,000 square foot facility, its second in Sydney. Named Sydney 2, the data center will be adjacent to Global Switch’s existing data center in Sydney which is already the largest facility of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere with 450,000 square feet of space

A photo of the entrance of Global Switch’s data center in Ultimo (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Data center operator Global Switch ( www.globalswitch.com ) announced last week it will build a new $290 million fully-fitted data center in Sydney, Australia. The company recently received a Part 3A Major Projects approval from the NSW Department of Planning to begin building the 365,000 square foot facility, its second in Sydney.

Web Host News – United Kingdom – Global Switch, the leading data center provider in Europe and Asia Pacific, is to build a world class, A$200 million base build (A$300 million fully-fitted) data center in Sydney having received Part 3A Major Projects approval from the NSW Department of Planning. The 365,000 sq ft (34,000 sq m) new data center – Sydney 2 – will be adjacent to Global Switch’s existing data center in Sydney which is already the largest facility of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere with 450,000 sq ft (42,000 sq m) of space. Sydney 2 will be a leading example of an environmentally sustainable data center incorporating innovative design initiatives aimed at achieving long-term energy efficiency

Domain names that facilitate illegal file sharing have been seized this week in what the New York Times is referring to as “the latest phase of a far-reaching federal crackdown on online piracy of music and movies” by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Department of Homeland Security. “By Friday morning, visiting the addresses of a handful of sites that either hosted unauthorized copies of films and music or allowed users to search for them elsewhere on the Internet produced a notice that said, in part: ‘This domain name has been seized by ICE — Homeland Security Investigations, pursuant to a seizure warrant issued by a United States District Court,’” the Times reported. “In taking over the sites’ domain names … the government effectively redirected any visitors to its own takedown notice.” Among the domains seized, the Times reports, were torrent-finder.com and those of three sites that specialized in music: onsmash.com, rapgodfathers.com and dajaz1.com.

A video capture of David F. McQueeney, chief technology officer of IBM’s US Federal unit.

A chart that depicts the number of data centers by federal agency (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — The Obama administration sent out a memo earlier this month that plans to establish concrete goals for its federal government data center consolidation initiative, according to a report by InformationWeek.com . Included as part of the President’s fiscal 2012 budget, the multi-year data center reduction initiative will apply to all every federal agency

A chart that depicts the number of data centers by federal agency (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — The Obama administration sent out a memo earlier this month that plans to establish concrete goals for its federal government data center consolidation initiative, according to a report by InformationWeek.com .