Stories by Hamish Barwick

Symantec has invested $12 million in a new office in Kent Street, Sydney.

IBM has confirmed that its Australia and New Zealand managing director, Andrew Stevens, has retired after being in the role since January 2011.

Vocus Communications (ASX: VOC) is reported to be buying New Zealand based fibre optic cabling company FX Networks for $94 million (NZ$100 million), according to media reports.

Call resolution times for Inland Revenue Department (IRD) of New Zealand customers who have registered for its biometric service take one minute faster than those who have not registered, said IRD contact implementation service manager Jared Mortlock.

CIOs and CSOs who need to present security issues to their board need to “leave acronyms at the door”, use PowerPoint presentations and tell stories, according to GPT Group CIO Greg Baster.

Westpac Australia has confirmed that former Goldman Sachs technology infrastructure managing director David Simpson is due to join the bank as its global chief of infrastructure on 5 May 2014.

There were 1361 confirmed data breaches reported worldwide in the first calendar quarter of 2014, up 119 per cent on the 621 breaches during the same period last year, according to Verizon.

Microsoft has issued a reminder that security patches, software updates and technical support for Windows XP and Office 2003 ends next week on 8 April.

Qantas Airways (ASX: QAN) has announced that 5000 jobs will go over the next three years with 1500 of these to be executives, management and support roles.

Two NZ-based education providers, Auckland UniServices and Waikato Institute of Technology (WinTec), have automated their invoicing systems leading to productivity gains for finance staff.

Not-for-profit Police-Citizens Youth Club (PCYC) Queensland is replacing 60 MYOB databases with one cloud-based system to reduce costs and improve branch efficiency.

The CIO’s business influence has increased in some Australian companies, according to the results of a new survey.

Two Australian CIOs are taking a cautious approach to cloud computing, citing fears about the security of cloud service providers.

By 2014, 80 per cent of IT security executives will be required to report risk issues to their board of directors but many presentations need improvement, according to a Gartner security analyst.

Western Australia Police have reduced crime through the use of predictive analytics and GPS maps which show crime hotspots in the state.