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Several of the big names in the technology industry is now facing an antitrust case that alleges a conspiracy was made among Pixar, Intuit, Lucasfilm, Apple, Adobe, Intel and Google in their attempt to halt staff poaching.   According to Norton Scientific Journal, the said companies made a deal to stop offering positions to each other’s employees without the permission of the current employer first. The antitrust charge, where the late Steve Jobs of Apple has played a major role in, argues that the collusion had cost workers in the technology industry millions of dollars in lost chances.   California Judge Lucy Koh gave the green light to proceed with the lawsuit after it was found that there is a reason to infer such important policies would have to be approved by the companies’ highest authorities. The court rejected the defendants’ bid to have the claims dismissed brought under the Cartwright Act and the federal Sherman antitrust law.   The involved companies have previously requested the case to be dismissed for lack of evidence but Judge Koh believes there is a possibility that they really conspired to not poach each other’s staff.   In her decision released this week, Koh said that the existence of such “Do Not Cold Call” deal among the defendants “supports the possible inference that the deals were discussed, reached, enforced at the highest levels” of the firms. Koh added, “The fact that all six identical bilateral agreements were reached in secrecy among seven defendants in a span of two years suggests that these agreements resulted from collusion, and not from coincidence.

racquathinkIt's Scam Awareness Week, and David Hall has some tips to keep you safe online.Phishing is essentially an online scam, and phishers are nothing more than tech-savvy con artists.Online scams constantly evolve to reflect popular events in the news. They're successful is because a scam is not about physically attacking a computer, rather fooling the user into clicking on a poisoned link. They use spam, malicious websites, email messages and instant messages to trick people into divulging sensitive information, such as bank and credit card accounts.According to the latest Norton Cybercrime Report, more than 868,206 New Zealanders fell victim to cybercrime in 2010, suffering $288.2 million in direct financial losses.Phishers may use email to request personal information and direct recipients to respond through malicious websites.Look out for phishers using emotional language, scare tactics or urgent requests to entice recipients to respond.Phishing sites can look remarkably legitimate, because they tend to use the copyrighted images from legitimate sites.Be on the lookout for requests for confidential information via email or instant message.Remember that fraudulent messages are often not personalised and poorly written.Lastly, think about any offer, any advertisement, any email, and website before you act on any request. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.Norton has several free and premium products that can help protect against online scams.