Motorola breaks up

Motorola, the 82-year-old consumer electronics pioneer responsible for early televisions, cellphones and even the first broadcast from the moon, split into two companies yesterday in a reflection of changing markets, reports Associated Press.

As separate companies - Mobility, targeting consumers, and Solutions, for professionals - the two will have simpler stories to tell investors and a nimbler approach to developing cutting-edge products such as tablet computers.

Sanjay Jha, CEO of the consumer-focused Motorola Mobility Holdings, said in an interview that the new company will benefit from a narrower focus, all the way up to the top management and the board of directors.

Key Web sites of the Tunisian government have been taken offline by a group that recently attacked sites and services perceived to be anti-WikiLeaks, writes the BBC.

Sites belonging to the Ministry of Industry and the Tunisian Stock Exchange were among seven targeted by the Anonymous group since Monday.

Other sites have been defaced for what the group calls "an outrageous level of censorship" in the country. The group also recently targeted the Web sites of the Zimbabwean government.

The distributed denial-of-service attacks, carried out by WikiLeaks supporters and opponents, which dominated the news over much of December, are just the tip of the iceberg, according to McAfee's 2011 Threat Predictions report, reveals V3.co.uk.

The security firm warned that similar attacks undertaken by hacktivist groups or individuals will proliferate this year as more citizens seek to make extreme political statements online.

Campaigners could be given more focus and strategic direction by using social networks to help spread their message, said McAfee. Firms need to realise that the scope of Internet-based threats today has spread beyond traditional cyber crime, McAfee's European director of security strategy, Greg Day, said.

Three out of every four IT professionals think the industry discriminates against the over-50s, according to IT recruitment consultancy Greythorn, says Computing.co.uk.

The figure was revealed by the company's survey of 450 UK IT professionals across all ages. While 70% of the IT professionals surveyed said they feel either "secure" or "very secure" in their jobs, just 30% of those over 50 feel the same way.

In addition, almost three in 20 over-50s said they felt "very insecure" in their current role, compared with the average of just one in 20. One unemployed and over-50 participant in Greythorn's survey said: "I desperately need to get working full-time again. I have tried everything I know to get back into the job market, but the ageism out there is a disgrace!"