Pramatr Blog

Pramatr announces the release of Pramatr WebIssues Mylyn Connector for any Eclipse-based IDE.

WebIssues is an open source, multi-platform system for issue tracking and team collaboration. It can be used to store, share and track issues; highly customisable and easy to use. Mylyn is a task framework for the eclipse IDE maintained by Tasktop. It can connect to many popular Issue Trackers as Trac, Jira, Bugzilla. With this release from Pramatr Mylyn can now communicate with WebIssues Issue tracker and team collaboration system.

No more logging in to WebIssues or downloading the WebIssues client, Pramatr WebIssues Mylyn Connector brings WebIssues right in to the Eclipse IDE.

Pramatr WebIssues Connector Eclipse feature consists of two parts :-

1. An API library that talks the WebIssues protocol that is completely re-usable available from our website here

2. The Eclipse/Mylyn implementation classes that adapts the Mylyn task model to the API library and provides task and query editing GUI components

Integration of WebIssues Mylyn Connector

i. Prerequisites

• Working installation of WebIssues Server. Download and installation instructions can be found here.
• Working version of Eclipse 3.5.2 onwards. Download latest installation from here.
• Installation of Mylyn plugin within working version of eclipse IDE. Mylyn installation instructions can be found here.

1. Install Connector in eclipse

• Start eclipse, from Help->Install New Software.. add the latest Pramatr WebIssues Mylyn Connector update site listed here,  Pramatr WebIssues Mylyn Connector
• Pramatr WebIssue Mylyn Connector will be available for download. Select, download and restart eclipse

• Once downloaded eclipse will require restarting. Once restarted select Planning perspective
• from Task Repository tab, right click, select Add Task Repository. List of available connectors will be visible. Select the new WebIssue connector

2. Configure Connector

• Connector configuration dialog will open; fill in required details and check Save Password (configuration should be tested)
• Once successfully connected configure initial search query
• Pramatr WebIssue Mylyn Connector will execute query against defined WebIssues server and return requested data

3. Ready for Use

• Pramatr WebIssues Mylyn Connector is configured and ready to use. Tasks, features, issue artifacts from WebIssues server will be visible within the Mylyn Planning perspective. Artifacts amended, created, altered within Eclipse will be synchronised against the main server.
• Final step is to start using it. Remember, Pramatr forums are always open for your thoughts and feedback.

The new year sees the launch of Pramatr’s Identity Management solution, something we’ve spent the last year working hard on.

It will initially focus on the core problem of user provisioning; user management, resource provisioning, de-provisioning, auditing and upfront risk reporting.

All registered users will get access to exclusive early releases soon and have the opportunity to give feedback, share ideas and thoughts through the forums. For all those that haven’t joined us yet, registering is a great opportunity to get involved in the project and to help in its direction. With your input we can build a product that answers the need of users, focus on solving problems that really matter.

To register visit our website.

From the Pramatr team We wish you all a happy and fruitful 2010 !!

REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 10, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that it intends to acquire Sentillion Inc., a privately held company specializing in software for the healthcare industry.

Microsoft acquire IDM solutions vendor Sentillion, it seems more from a healthcare perspective than identity management.

Classified as visionaries within user provisioning by Gartner, Sentillion have a good array of SSO and IdM expertise which Microsoft could amalgamate with their own Forefront Identity Manager.

It wont be easy; Sentillion is specifically geared towards the healthcare sector so could be missing a few essential pieces to fit snugly and Forefront also has a provisioning solutions as does Sentillion in the form of ProVision. But to leverage only Sentilion’s healthcare presence, at a time when US healthcare is going through a revolution, and nothing else would be a travesty.

Only time will tell.

Graham Cluley reported on this phishing email today:

It’s an attempt to source account information from the recipient. Fortunately as Graham points out it’s not the most professional of executions:

1. You would have to not question why the Yahoo Webmaster Team is emailing you.. especially as it wasn’t sent to a Yahoo email address.

2. You would have to overlook that the bad guys didn’t even bother to forge the message to look as though it came from a Yahoo domain

If hackers were as good as this individual we wouldn’t have to worry about identity theft.

In July of this year an ex-employer at Goldman-Sachs was reported to have stolen code behind Goldman-Sachs propriety trading software. November of this year saw the largest breach of data in the UK when over a million customer records were alleged to have been stolen by a T-Mobile employee and sold on to rival firms.

All data has value and if someone pays the right price its not uncommon to find someone willing to breech company policy and turn a blind eye to any consequences if caught stealing.

Data Use in the Company ?
We entrust organisations with our personal data and in return we expect them to keep our data secure, private and to not share with others without our consent.  The thought of an employee abusing the information we willingly give over is something we rarely ever consider. However few organisations themselves know how this data is handled inside. The good news is, technology exists that can help, that can assist in reducing data loss, keep prying eyes away and entrust only the right personal to access personal data.

Inside Data Protection
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) technology has been around since 2006 and has is gaining speed with each passing year. DLP tech at a high-level discovers, monitors and protects sensitive data. Advances in this area have moved so far on that this statement probably doesn’t do the area any justice but suffice to say data stored, in use and even in transit can be managed, allowing identification of unexpected usage patterns; those accessing records more than they need to or at unusual times.

Outside Identity Protection
Identity and Access Management (IdM/ IAM) technology is another technology that has been around for several years and gained significant traction. Where DLP technology focuses primarily on data, its accessibility and authorisation IdM like Pramatr IdM is concerned with restricting access to data at the identity layer. Through managing access, authorisation, authentication across identity silos Pramatr IdM can help identify unusual access patterns, unexpected access times and even those trying to get access to unauthorised areas.

With data theft  on the rise, and cases like these ever more tempting its time to take a proactive approach to data protection both inside and out.