At the Dell Enterprise Forum customer and partner event, Dell showcased new security services and solutions that further expand its security portfolio. With the new offerings, businesses can defend all technology touch points to better safeguard the corporate network, critical data and devices while enabling employee productivity and confidently protecting the mobile workforce.

MTN has begun a series of test runs of its network built for the Bloodhound Supersonic Car (BSC), which took place in the Hakskeenpan desert in the Northern Cape. MTN’s network will be used to transmit data, in realtime and at high speeds, to the BSC as it prepares to break the land speed record and reach speeds in excess of 1 609km per hour.

Telkom is to make a cash offer to buy out all of Business Connexion’s (BCX’s) shares. The value of the deal will be about R2,7-billion. As one of the largest ICT and cloud service providers on the JSE, BCX has offices in the UK and Dubai as well as in South Africa.

Telkom has announced plans to roll out fibre to the home (FTTH) connectivity to more than 20 South African suburbs before the end of 2014. It will also deliver high speed home LTE connectivity to other suburbs across the country. The home LTE rollout will enable peak connectivity speeds of up to 100Mbps.

The South African IT industry is this week abuzz with reports about senior management changes at HP SA. It has been confirmed that Frank van Rees, country manager and Enterprise Group lead, will be leaving the local operation and returning to Europe.

Pinnacle Holdings stock continued to slide on the back of the news that an executive director stands accused of bribery. Takalani Tshivhase is alleged to have offered a lieutenant-general of the South African Police Service R5-million in January last year to secure a technology contract.

IT salaries have increased by about 20% over the last year. This is one of the findings revealed by CareerJunction’s recent Salary Review, compiled its online labour market indicator, the CareerJunction Index (CJI).

As fraud and corruption in the ICT industry reach endemic proportions, there are calls for an independent body to bring stakeholders together in a bid to chart how widespread the problem is, and to thrash out a solution. That corruption is a problem is, sadly, beyond doubt – and industry leaders believe it may be so much a part of the ICT industry’s culture that we are close to the point of no return.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has pictured a rock on the Mars surface – on a piece of ground where a previous photograph showed nothing. Before-and-after pair of images of the same patch of ground in front of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity 13 days apart documents the arrival of a bright rock on to the scene.

Motorists across South Africa have been receiving e-mails and SMSes demanding payment for outstanding accounts for using Sanral’s controversial e-toll highway system – but they should beware of phishing scams dressed up to look like Sanral demands.