Wipro Limited has appointed Raman Sapra as the regional sales manager for the Middle East. Wipro’s operations in the region encompass consulting, software, technology services and business process outsourcing.

Raman studied engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. He brings to his new position more than eight years of experience in the information technology industry in strategic account management, strategic planning and business development and international sales.

Harley Davidson Presented to Al-Alamiah Electronics

Logicom’s Dubai quarterly Technology Forum was held last month at the Emirates Towers Hotel, followed by a dinner party for those of its Cisco partners who had participated in its GITEX Harley Davidson promotion. This promotion offered the opportunity to those of Logicom’s customers who placed a Cisco order with a minimum purchase value of $1,000 to enter the grand draw for a brand new Harley Davidson Sportster 1200.

The promotion was part of Logicom’s efforts to expand Cisco’s market share following the agreement signed between the two companies on March 21, 2004, awarding Logicom Cisco Distribution Partner (CDP) status for Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the UAE and Yemen. As a CDP, Logicom has a direct purchasing relationship with Cisco and, since signing the original agreement with Cisco, Logicom’s CDP status has been extended to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

In the Gulf region, Logicom is responsible for managing the relationship with IT resellers, including logistics, stock availability and credit agreements. Logicom also undertakes channel development activities and offers pre-sales technical support.

With over $700,000 of Cisco products invoiced by Logicom during the promotion period, the success of the campaign was evident. More than 100 partners of Logicom attended the dinner at Emirates Towers and witnessed the draw for the Harley Davidson. Al-Alamiah Electronics emerged as the winner to cheers from the participating crowd.

Record Number of Viruses Signals Tough Times Ahead

Last year saw a total of 30 virus outbreaks in the Middle East, a record-high compared to previous years. These figures are part of a report, produced by Trend Micro. TrendLabs, Trend Micro’s network of international virus and malware laboratories, found that 28 of these outbreaks were medium-risk alerts, while two — WORM_NETSKY.C and WORM_SASSER.B — were high-risk alerts. Around the world, these outbreaks caused a staggering 37,822,805 computer infections, up eight percent on 2003 records, according to figures recorded by Trend Micro’s World Tracking Center (WTC). The report also noted that — in line with the past three years — the majority of virus outbreaks occurred in the first quarter of the year, suggesting that computer users need to be particularly aware of the challenges in the early months of 2005.

Looking back over 2004, experts suggest that a new class of software and aggressive behavior on the part of virus developers have combined to create a higher category of threat in the region.

“In 2004, we saw that virus writers were developing malicious code intended to steal personal or confidential user data,” said Justin Doo, managing director, Trend Micro Middle East. “Today’s malware, which includes Trojans, backdoors, as well as viruses and worms, is purpose-built to hijack users’ machines and is more deceptive than ever. Malicious code can be hidden in an e-mail, in fake software and can even be found on web pages.”

Six of 2004’s ten most prevalent malware programs were mass-mailing viruses that typically used “social engineering” to create an impact. Four of the 10 propagated themselves via peer-to-peer networks, exploiting the popularity of file-sharing software. One new factor stimulating this process in 2004 was the increased availability of malware source codes on the Internet, as this enabled hackers to create new variants by modifying the code. These variants were then quickly and continuously released into the wild. This general shift in the pattern of virus and malicious software or “malware” development represents a step forward from an earlier era — when programmers typically produced viruses for notoriety and online recognition — to one where financial considerations are driving the creation of malicious code.

Looking forward to 2005, the report identified a number of future threats of which users need to be aware. In particular, it suggested that blended threats, which compromise and drain network resources, will continue to impact Internet users. Most malware programs will continue to employ anti-antivirus and anti-security routines to ensure infection, requiring the use of system cleaning services to ease the impact on system security.

“Nowadays it’s not enough to examine desktop machines and repair the damage onsite with antivirus solutions,” said Doo. “The threat is much more complex than that. Proactive protection policies that ensure the identification of rogue/infected devices beyond the network wall and remotely repair infected devices during an outbreak have become essential.”