Categories
Current Affairs

Back to normal in Shepherd’s Bush

The cordon was lifted last night so we are back in the office. Some pix below of the scene in Shepherd’s Bush last Thursday afternoon.

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Categories
People

“Terrorist” disruption on our doorstep in Shepherd’s Bush

When I stepped out of the front door yesterday, I couldn’t
have foreseen how the day would unfold.

Up until 1.20pm yesterday afternoon, it was a typical
business day. I was just about to pop out to get myself a sandwich, when I was
confronted with a sight we haven’t seen before in our office – a policeman. He
told us to drop everything immediately and leave the building as there was an
unexploded bomb at Shepherd’s Bush tube station (Hammersmith & City
line). Our office is separated by a wall from the rear of the tube station.

We walked to the end of the Mews and on to Uxbridge Road
opposite Shepherd’s Bush market. Then we saw that they’d completely cleared the
road up to the Green – and we were told to move away in no uncertain terms.

We decamped to Albertine’s wine bar on Wood Lane. Of course,
as we were ushered out of the building so quickly, we had all left our wallets
and purses in the office. So we had no money. The very understanding bar staff
at Albertine’s were happy to give us some beer “on account”. We then had the
bizarre sight of sitting barely yards from our own office and watching the end
of the Mews on TV. As the minutes passed by, Albertine’s proved to be an
excellent media watching vantage point – film crews from NBC and ITN were there
very quickly. (But where was the BBC? Ironic given that Television Centre is a
couple hundred yards up the road. Some wag suggested that the Beeb crew were
stuck in Bush Bar and Grill having lunch……)

Shortly after 2pm, a policeman came into the wine bar and
ordered everybody out. I felt very sorry for the Albertine bar staff (*) as all
the people who had been sitting there eating and drinking simply legged it
without paying their bills. I do hope people go back and settle up at some
point.

My business partner’s house is in Bulwer Street, just off
Wood Lane and Shepherd’s Bush Green. We decamped to his front room. The police
cordon was extended further to right outside his front door. Again, very weird
sitting watching the whole thing unfold on TV. By 5.30pm, we ventured out round
the Green, and down Goldhawk Road to the Bushranger Pub. On the way we observed
the media scrum as around 30 odd journalists and cameramen trying to get
interviews with police spokesmen. Got a good vantage point on roof terrace of
the pub and a pint in our hands. By 7pm, it was clear that we wouldn’t be
allowed back into the office that evening.

So we used the last remaining money to get tube and bus back
home to Richmond.

An extraordinary day. And looks like it will be Monday
before we are back in the office and back to normal.

(*) The two guys behind the bar were on BBC this morning
being interviewed – as they live locally too, looks like they weren’t allowed
back to their houses last night either – just to add to their woes.

Categories
Technology PR

Your patience appreciated following the Shepherd’s Bush incident yesterday – Object Marketing

Apologies
if anyone has tried to contact the Object Marketing office since yesterday
afternoon at 1.20pm. As you are probably aware, there was a major incident at
Shepherd’s Bush tube station (Hammersmith and City line) yesterday.

As the
Object Marketing office is within 30 feet of the tube station, we were swiftly
evacuated by the police. Given the speed with which we were asked to leave, we
didn’t have time to collect laptops, etc. 

As of 10.00am
Friday morning, the police have informed us that we will not be allowed back
into the building until Monday at the earliest – we will attempt to conduct
business as usual today from various remote locations.

If you wish
to call me, please use my mobile phone number –
07884 431830.

Hopefully
we will be back to normal on Monday.

Appreciate
your patience.

Best

Andrew

Object Marketing Limited
andrews@objectmarketing.com
Telephone: 020 876 29292
Mobile: 07884 431830
www.objectmarketing.com

Categories
Technology PR

Who reads IT magazines these days?

An interesting comment was made to me last week by the section editor of a leading UK IT weekly. He was bemoaning the fact that their own readership survey showed that readers rarely looked at features. At the very least, they weren’t read when the magazine came out, but might be kept and consulted at a later date. The first few news pages, the back page, and the job sections were the ones that people looked at.

So – is getting feature coverage a waste of time? If it is, then a lot of IT PR work being carried out today would seem to be redundant. The point is how this coverage can be further exploited above and beyond its immediate publication. This comes back to how PR can be integrated into other areas of the marketing mix. Even if a feature is not read at the time, reference to it in other marketing materials or on a company’s web site can have value. Even if someone hasn’t read the original feature, they will still acknowledge the fact that a respected title has covered the vendor.

The days of PR in isolation are numbered.

Categories
Technology PR Web/Tech Weblogs

ZONE LABS CRACKS SPYWARE PREVENTION BARRIER – NEW OSFIREWALL THWARTS CYBERCRIMINALS WITH BEHAVIOR-BASED PC PROTECTION

FYI – Press review software for Zone Alarm Security Suite 6.0, Zone Alarm Pro 6.0 and Zone Alarm with Anti-Virus 6.0 will be available later this week. Any journalists who would like a free, long term evaluation copy of any or all of these products, please call or e-mail me. We will hopefully have
the press review download URL and licence key to provide to you later this
week. Any other questions in the meantime, please do let me know.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Andrew Smith
Object Marketing
andrews@objectmarketing.com
Telephone: 020 8762 9292

ZONE LABS CRACKS SPYWARE PREVENTION BARRIER – NEW OSFIREWALL THWARTS
CYBERCRIMINALS WITH BEHAVIOR-BASED PC PROTECTION

ZoneAlarm 6.0 to debut a radical new OSFirewall and Anti-Spyware solution to
block the most dangerous Internet threats including spyware, rootkits,
viruses, and more from invading PCs

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – July 18, 2005 – Zone Labs®, a Check Point® company
(NASDAQ: CHKP), today announced ZoneAlarm® 6.0, the much-anticipated update
to its award-winning Internet security product family. ZoneAlarm 6.0 will
offer consumers the most effective multi-layered protection against spyware,
viruses and other insidious Internet security threats.

ZoneAlarm 6.0 utilizes a unique new behavior-based strategy to block malware
and spyware from ever gaining a foothold on a PC. Rather than intermittently
scanning for spyware infections after the damage has been done, ZoneAlarm
6.0 offers the first new defense mechanism, called the OSFirewall, to
guard the health of a PC at the core. This kernel-level firewall monitors
suspicious activity affecting the operating system, programs and files, and
disables destructive programs. To complement the prevention technology,
ZoneAlarm 6.0 also employs a new intelligent anti-spyware removal solution
as well as DefenseNet”, a dynamic zero-hour system leveraging the community
of millions of ZoneAlarm users to proactively protect against emerging
attacks. Xanax 1mg
helps to improve my health despite the medicine I take it with.
So I give him a big A+, and advise it to everyone because it is well tolerated.
I personally have not had side effects.

“Unlike the adolescent pranksters of the past, today s cybercriminals are
motivated by financial gain and are often highly-organized. They want to
steal your identity, track what you do on the Internet, or even hijack your
bandwidth to create zombie botnets,” said Gregor Freund, chief technology
officer of Check Point Software. “And they are using the trust of an
unassuming public to dupe people into inviting malware through traditional
firewalls and antivirus programs. Current anti-spyware solutions can clean
up the mess after the fact, but people now must deploy preventative,
proactive measures to protect themselves from these criminals.”

Protection at the PC’s Core

ZoneAlarm 6.0 continues Zone Lab’s legacy of innovation by creating the
industry s first OSFirewall, adding a completely new layer of protection to
complement the company s powerful network and program firewalls.

The ground-breaking OSFirewall is specifically designed to guard against
kernel-level threats such as spyware, hackers, Trojans, keyloggers, and
rootkits by closely monitoring internal computing resources like vital
files, registry keys and start-up processes at the core of the PC. It goes
beyond the user level to inspect activity between computer applications and
prevent the reading of memory and loading of malicious drivers and services.

The OSFirewall also achieves a new level of granularity by shielding
legitimate programs and preventing program sabotage or hijacking. It not
only blocks traditional attacks, the OSFirewall guards against devious
programs that may hide within a legitimate download from performing damaging
actions that steal personal information or slow computer performance.

The new OSFirewall combined with the existing award-winning firewall
technologies create the Zone Labs “Triple Defense Firewall”, a
multi-faceted protection system with inbound, outbound and now internal
filtering for zero-hour defense and seamless integration making ZoneAlarm
6.0 the most effective Internet security solution for everyday consumers.

“The spyware threat is a recent phenomenon that the security market is still
struggling with. Much of the focus has been on the development of spyware
signature databases, but signatures only treat spyware once it has infected
a computer,” said Charles Kolodgy, research director at IDC. “The ZoneAlarm
Internet Security Suite has taken a proactive approach that addresses the
spyware threat using several layers of protection through its new OS
firewall and outbound traffic blocking capability packaged with antivirus
and antispam protection. With Zone Labs monitoring how programs are using
the operating system, the rest of the industry will need to evaluate how
they are addressing this problem.”

New Anti-Spyware Security
Building on the foundation of the Triple Defense Firewall, the new
ZoneAlarm 6.0 Anti-Spyware solution is tightly integrated into the ZoneAlarm
Internet Security Suite and ZoneAlarm Pro products to remove existing
malware on a PC. It boasts a targeted database of signatures to delete the
most pervasive spyware applications on the Internet today. ZoneAlarm s
anti-spyware technology also targets particularly invasive adware programs
that sap computer performance, interfere with legitimate programs, create
new security holes, hijack homepages, deluge users with pop-up ads, and
track personal Web usage and private information.

ZoneAlarm 6.0 Anti-Spyware and the OSFirewall together provide automatic
prevention, detection and treatment capabilities making it the most
effective integrated solution on the market  right out of the box.

SmartDefense
The SmartDefense service utilizes the expertise of Check Point and Zone Labs
 security research departments and leverages DefenseNet  a community of
front-line users to provide real-time alerts and actionable information on
the latest threats. At work for over a year, DefenseNet enables millions of
active users to share security knowledge and provide instant feedback to
help Zone Labs  security experts discover new malware programs.

Through the SmartDefense process, over 95% of policy decisions are automated
– significantly reducing the amount of noise  and sparing the end user
from having to constantly manually accept or deny application activities.

Once a threat has been identified and validated, Zone Labs in turn sends
customized policies back to the users through a SmartDefense Advisor service
for proactive protection. In addition, SmartDefense Advisor provides
ZoneAlarm users with periodic distribution of anti-virus, anti-spyware and
product updates. The SmartDefense service is included with all licenses of
ZoneAlarm.

Building on the Basics

Over 35 million Internet users have downloaded the original ZoneAlarm
firewall and its premium versions since the company s launch in 1998. Now,
the ZoneAlarm family includes the ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite (for
all-in-one protection including anti-spyware, antivirus, antispam, IM
protection and more), ZoneAlarm Pro (a firewall for users seeking advanced
functionality), ZoneAlarm Antivirus, and ZoneAlarm Wireless. ZoneAlarm
Internet security solutions have received the industry s highest accolades,
and with the added security features in ZoneAlarm 6.0, the company has
extended its commitment to delivering the most advanced Internet security
available to consumers.

Pricing and Availability

ZoneAlarm Security Suite, ZoneAlarm Pro 6.0, ZoneAlarm with Antivirus and
ZoneAlarm will be available on Monday, July 25th on the Zone Labs web site
at www.zonelabs.com. ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite costs £49.95 for a
single user, ZoneAlarm Pro 6.0 costs £34.95 for a single user and ZoneAlarm
with Antivirus costs £19.95 for a single user. Prices include VAT. Existing
customers can update to version 6.0 for free if their subscription is
current, and will receive a notification within two weeks of availability.
ZoneAlarm continues to be free for personal and non-profit use.
The ZoneAlarm family of products supports Windows® 98SE, ME, 2000 Pro and
XP.

About Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (www.checkpoint.com) is the worldwide
leader in securing the Internet. It is the market leader in the worldwide
enterprise firewall, personal firewall and VPN markets. Through its NGX
platform, the company delivers a unified security architecture for a broad
range of perimeter, internal and Web security solutions that protect
business communications and resources for corporate networks and
applications, remote employees, branch offices and partner extranets. The
company’s ZoneAlarm product line is one of the most trusted brands in
Internet security, creating award-winning endpoint security solutions that
protect millions of PCs from hackers, spyware and data theft. Extending the
power of the Check Point solution is its Open Platform for Security (OPSEC),
the industry’s framework and alliance for integration and interoperability
with “best-of-breed” solutions from over 350 leading companies. Check Point
solutions are sold, integrated and serviced by a network of more than 2,200
Check Point partners in 88 countries.
####
©2003-2005 Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.
Check Point, Application Intelligence, Check Point Express, the Check Point
logo, AlertAdvisor, ClusterXL, Cooperative Enforcement, ConnectControl,
Connectra, CoSa, Cooperative Security Alliance, DefenseNet, Eventia, Eventia
Analyzer, Eventia Reporter, FireWall-1, FireWall-1 GX, FireWall-1
SecureServer, FloodGate-1, Hacker ID, IMsecure, INSPECT, INSPECT XL,
Integrity, InterSpect, IQ Engine, Open Security Extension, OPSEC,
OSFirewall, Policy Lifecycle Management, Provider-1, Safe@Home, Safe@Office,
SecureClient, SecureKnowledge, SecurePlatform, SecuRemote, SecureXL
Turbocard, SecureServer, SecureUpdate, SecureXL, SiteManager-1, SmartCenter,
SmartCenter Pro, Smarter Security, SmartDashboard, SmartDefense,
SmartDefense Advisor, SmartLSM, SmartMap, SmartUpdate, SmartView, SmartView
Monitor, SmartView Status, SmartViewTracker, SofaWare, SSL Network Extender,
Stateful Clustering, Triple Defense Firewall, TrueVector, Turbocard, UAM,
User-to-Address Mapping, UserAuthority, VPN-1, VPN-1 Accelerator Card, VPN-1
Edge, VPN-1 Pro, VPN-1 SecureClient, VPN-1 SecuRemote, VPN-1 SecureServer,
VPN-1 VSX, VPN-1 XL, Web Intelligence, ZoneAlarm, ZoneAlarm Pro, Zone Labs,
and the Zone Labs logo, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Check
Point Software Technologies Ltd. or its affiliates. All other product names
mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
owners. The products described in this document are protected by U.S. Patent
No. 5,606,668, 5,835,726, 6,496,935, 6,873,988 and 6,850,943 and may be
protected by other U.S. Patents, foreign patents, or pending applications.

Categories
Current Affairs People Technology PR Web/Tech

Autonomous PR Collective event – a good time was had by all.

Last Wednesday night saw the first gathering of the Autonomous PR Collective at the Clachan Pub in Kingly Street, SoHo, London – myself and a some other like-minded PRs decided to throw our own press party – as we said in our invitation, with the aim of “the furtherance of a redistribution of privately held vittles and sustenance to the oppressed members of the journalist class.”

By all accounts, we certainly did help the oppressed journalist classes throw off the chains of sobriety.

Indeed, most people asked us when we were going to hold the next one. Current thinking suggests we try and hold a Xmas bash.

As Rupert Goodwins reports here – http://comment.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020505,39209422-3,00.htm
– a small revolutionary vanguard continued the guerrilla battle at a notorious late night drinking den, the Troy Club. Unfortunately, I had departed before an “altercation” developed, which is related to Rupert’s trouser reference.

I’ll leave Rupert to elucidate further on this matter if he so chooses – and so long as it supports the on-going revolutionary struggle.

An Autonomous PR Collective will host a Press Party on Weds, July 13th,
2005 – 6.30pm till late – Upstairs at The Clachan, 34 Kingly St, London,
W1B 5QH

We, the undersigned, this day declare the creation of a NEW revolutionary
social construct, the Autonomous PR Collective, for the furtherance of a
redistribution of privately held vittles and sustenance to the oppressed
members of the journalist class.

The founding members of the Autonomous PR Collective – AKA Jane Lee
(Dexterity), Maxine Ambrose (Ambrose Communications), Teresa Horscroft
(Eureka Communications), Jane Folwell (Folwell PR), and Andrew Smith
(Object Marketing) – call upon YOU to throw off the chains of wage slavery
and to attend the unveiling of our PARTY Manifesto.

Set free your desire to consume BEER and WINE and FOOD. The Autonomous PR
Collective is providing the economic infrastructure to allow you to claim
your right to untrammelled enjoyment and social discourse of a kind never
before seen.

Journalists of the world unite – you only have your sobriety to lose.

Translation: A very nice bunch of independent PRs invite you to join them
for a pleasant evening of food, drink, and chat – and most importantly,
FUN!

Upstairs at The Clachan, 34 Kingly Street, London on Weds, July 13th, 2005
6.30pm.

No clients. No hard sell. We’re paying. Go on, you might enjoy it.

Indicate your intention to join the cause. Please send a communiqué (RSVP)
to Andrew Smith, Object Marketing, Andrews@objectmarketing.com – 020 8762
9292.
Rupertgoodwins85x110

Categories
Uncategorized

What a difference a week makes

This time last week I was returning from Greece, having spent an excellent few days on the island of Hydra, 2 hours on a boat from Athens. I was there for the wedding of an old Brodeur colleague of mine, Ted Lelekas. You couldn’t really hope for a better setting. A few pix below showing Ted and his bride Maria, along with the bridal procession and the view from the cliff top restaurant where the reception was held.

Back in the UK, I was gearing up for a set of press briefings on Thursday in Central London with Gregor Freund, founder of Zone Labs and now CTO at Checkpoint. Clearly the events of last Thursday are the kind of thing that no PR can plan for. We soon learned why every journalist was ringing to cancel. And clearly on day like that, it puts into perspective the day to day job of tech PR. Seven days is indeed a long time.

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