John Lamb's Week: Cyber terrorism and a ship full of IT directors

Is the security of nation-states threatened by the information revolution? The Global Forum for Law Enforcement and National Security (LENS) certainly thinks it might be. This group of political, military and business interests will be sitting down in Edinburgh on Tuesday and Wednesday to work out ways of defeating so-called cyber warriors out to attack national information infrastructures.

Speakers from among the good and the great include Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, Secretary General of NATO, William Webster, former Director of the FBI and CIA, and Jurgen Storbeck, Director of Europol. Former Lib Dem leader and special forces operative Paddy Ashdown will be chairing the discussion. The Forum's president is none other than Mikhail Gorbachev.

Apart from looking at the need to counter espionage and the theft of intellectual property - while of course upholding personal privacy - delegates will also consider to what extent the internet is destabilising nation states by allowing people to by-pass existing structures.

If all this sounds suspiciously like a skit from Monty Python or the Cambridge Footlights Review then you won't be surprised to learn that the next big event in Edinburgh is the Festival Fringe famed for its satirical comedy shows.

If international computer crime policy is a little heavy going for you, also on Tuesday PeopleSoft will be flaunting its latest customer relationship management software in London. The launch of PeopleSoft 8 CRM will be trumpeted by presentations from experts in the business of building customer loyalty including Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company and Dr Wolfgang Martin of the META Group.

Despite some recent questions about the extent to which businesses have benefited from the current craze for CRM concepts and products, these luminaries will explain how to build customer loyalty using more collaborative CRM software. Oil company Shell will be talking about its experience.

The application of Bayesian probability theory to a range of pattern recognition problems continues apace. On Wednesday, Mike Alford of software company Alaric will be talking about how his company's new Fractals product is being used by financial companies to combat credit card fraud by allowing them to spot unusual patterns of behaviour quickly.

Credit and debit card fraud costs big money. UK fraud figures for 2000 from the Association of Payment Clearing Services (APACS) revealed total losses at £292m, compared to £135m in 1998, meaning the problem has more than doubled in just two years.

Also on Wednesday, terrorists have the opportunity of wiping out the cream of UK IT management at a stroke by disposing of the MV Aurora as it sets sail from Southampton with over 550 executives on board. The IT Directors' Forum - which is being covered by silicon.com's camera-wielding news marines - is the UK's largest get together of IT users.

Delegates will be listening to speakers who include Andy Kyte of Gartner, Graham Whitehead of BT and Martha Bennett of eBusiness Connect. They will also be taking part in problem solving exercises.

For those left on dry land, Craig Barrett, Intel CEO, makes a rare trip to London. The tough talking chip boss will be squaring up to gravel voiced Radio 4 newsman John Humphrys in a studio at London's South Bank.

It is unlikely that Barrett, who earlier this year was one of the first people to decry the prospects of third generation wireless technology, will be put through the mangle over 64-bit Itanium processing or how he is going to beat the current downturn in the semiconductor business. But then that's not what PR is about.